Take a seat whilst you read the lastest blog ….
Oh boy. What a time we have had since November and the last blog entry.
Christmas came and went – a bit of damp squid in some ways – no atmosphere and in our case apart from the decs and the prezzies was much as what has become a normal day for us. Then lockdown II commenced and I was forced to work from home which after lockdown I I was not looking forward to at all. However this time I had better technology to work with and its been fine.
However …………….
Just as I was getting back into the swing of the website I lost my partner of 12 years suddenly to a heart attack in February of this year. Many of you sent your condolences through Facebook and for that I am so thankful it was a great comfort and helped me keep focus. Things are beginning to settle after the shock and am beginning to pick up on the website and adding new items to the parish pages.
The other major thing of course besides all of the political shenanagans (which we will ignore completely) is the easing of lockdown again. I am still working from home two days a week but am now going back to the office for the third day I work. Nervy using public transport but the office is set up well with lots of social distancing measures in place. I have been lucky and have had my first dose of the Phizer vaccine and am patiently waiting for the second. Still we all need to do our bit to keep our families, friends and people we come into contact with stay safe. So mask up, get the vaccine if offered and stick to social gatherings that you are comfortable with and can social distance if necessary. The message remains the same. STAY SAFE.
At this point on behalf of the website members, should anyone reading this blog have lost family friends, collagues or aquaintances to the pandemic then please accept our deepest heartfelt sympathy.
Going forward into May and the summer months its good to know that we can start getting out and about again. Remember if you are planning family history research trips we have a list of information that you may find useful to use as a planner. This may be found on the home page of the website under information and select genealogy tips.
Later in the year probably September time we hope that the postponed annual OPC meet up can go ahead in Swindon. Originally planned for May 2020 this was cancelled and optimistically penciled in for May 2021. For obvious reasons that has been put back again. If anyone is interested in coming along everyone is welcome to join us and more details can be found on the facebook page. Ruth Wood will now start putting together the details so let her know of your interest. It is hoped that a few planned activities will take place including the opening of the local research centre on the Saturday morning and a tour of Radnor Street Cemetery on the Sunday. The actually meal and get together will be arranged for around lunch time to early evening and hopefully continue into the later evening. There will also be a guest speaker this year and the subject will be based around DNA.
The website funding is in a healthy state and our resource library of books and postcards is growing on a monthly basis. If anyone has any books or postcards they would like to donate then just let me know. Or if anyone wishes to make a fund donation there is a link to our just giving page on the home page of the website.
Our next blog will be around July/August so watch this space.
It would be good if we could get a guest blogger so if any memeber would like to submit a blog to add please do so. You can get in touch via the website or the facebook page.
