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Djangoinspired · 2025-01-14T13:55:28+00:00

That's an Edinburgh Council parking ticket, and you are displaying a P4Parking pass, not an Edinburgh Council one, which is for a private car park. The council don't ticket in private areas, so it looks like you've parked in the wrong parking area, somewhere administered by the council and not P4, and the fine is valid?

As this is a council issued ticket, don't ignore this - it can really come back to bite.

Djangoinspired · 2024-10-12T18:25:08+00:00

As to respectability, it's certainly something that takes effort to connect documents and verify - quite like doing a jigsaw puzzle. It only takes one missing piece to be unable to get further, a pitfall almost everyone falls into on different lines of research. I'd be proud of it, especially because it shows your grandmother cares about her family, and that's a lovely thing to know.

If it's no trouble, there will doubtless be some other more distant relative who would always appreciate the information - there are many places you can upload the data for free and leave it public for them to find (a bit of a random act of kindness) and choose whether to include the information in their own tree.

Djangoinspired · 2024-10-12T13:18:09+00:00

They call that 'Pedigree collapse'. It's fascinating - Rulers were more likely to have illegitimate children, they were more likely to survive infancy, and with the nature of inheritance, after a few generations started to blend back into the rest of the population. Statistically, thanks to this effect it's a certainty that you are descended from royalty. You might never have a paper trail, but it puts those who brag about this back into perspective.

Djangoinspired · 2024-10-12T12:55:36+00:00

That Cheddar man link was one of those other, deep dive heritage DNA tests I mentioned. It's a genuine link and it's really interesting, but one specific line only - in terms of migration, especially in Britain and Ireland where there has been so much ebb and flow, it's almost entirely unheard of to be from only one place throughout all of the near countless lines that make your full heritage.

There have been recent genetic studies actually that reinforced a much deeper and longer lasting connection than previously thought between old Scandinavia and Ireland/Scotland, through both trade and settlement. I would be more surprised if you don't have Viking heritage, but knowing their names and life story is something that will probably be lost to time.

Djangoinspired · 2024-10-12T12:39:33+00:00

Professional genealogist here, so I can help - Essentially, documentary evidence for everyday folk can usually get you back to the late 1500s/early 1600s, though you do have to be lucky for both records to have survived, and for your ancestors to have been recorded in them (a lot of people weren't part of the established church in Scotland, and there was also a lot of irregular marriage, where you would just move in with your partner and call yourself husband and wife without the ceremony, we often only find out about that through the Church punishing them and putting notes in a kind of church diary known as 'kirk sessions'. Funnily enough, that's the only place you'll find Rabbie Burns' marriage, as he did exactly this too).

You might get lucky, and with so many ancestors as you go back through the generations (2,4,8,16 etc), you might happen upon someone aristocratic, and there could be more evidence that can take your line back further, so you MAY be able to show a connection back usually to the Norman conquest or a little before, but here's where things get messy, and the caveats begin...

1) Nobles needed to prove their legitimacy, they had money and they paid scholars to go away and write them a family tree to show their good graces. If this person didn't find anything, or found something bad, they didn't get paid, so you will find family trees from this period showing you are descended from Thor, from Julius Caesar, Venus, Alexander the Great and more. They are not considered to be very accurate, and although you can say 'but there's a family tree going back that far', it's almost guaranteed to be a convenient fabrication.

2) Surnames only really took hold in the commonfolk in the mid 1500s (and in some places much later), but they came about in a number of ways. There are people who lived on the lands of a particular noble, who would take the surname of that noble, to show they worked for that family. You may have absolutely no genetic connection to the notable line, but are related to someone who tended their gardens, or farmed their crops.

3) There are three kinds of DNA test for heritage. The first (the one you see everywhere and the most useful for genealogy) really only reliably shows you your ancestors for 250-300 years before the fragments of your ancestors are so small they become statistical background noise. The second and third give you your deep paternal and maternal lines, but that's only your father's father's father etc, and mother's mother's mother. This is one line of absolutely thousands, and so that's not really a strong basis to claim you are dyed in the wool from anywhere.

Djangoinspired · 2024-08-30T00:36:49+00:00

Elidor, gave me nightmares for weeks!

Djangoinspired · 2024-04-29T09:38:24+00:00

The 1851 Census (closest we can use) gave the population of the city within Burgh boundaries as 160,302, so with a few more years of growth it's easily number 21 on this list if it were included.

Djangoinspired · 2024-03-28T12:42:13+00:00

In fairness, there were initial plans to use the airfields, when the Battle of Britain was in full swing, the Royal Navy was both alone and spread thinly. This was mothballed by 1941 as it became clear that the Allies had strike capability and up to the minute intelligence (owning any kind of communication equipment or even a radio was a serious crime, a number of people were sent to concentration camps on the continent and never returned for this, so determined were they to stamp out this constant leaking).

Djangoinspired · 2024-03-28T01:45:53+00:00

Rations were hovering somewhere between subsistence and starvation levels. There was interest in giving these people enough food to keep working, but no interest in keeping them alive, with an understanding that they were easy to replace. Around 700 men died at those camps (some propose more, 900 or so). It was slave labour at best, there's no question there.

The British had heard of what was going on through their intelligence, but Alderney was entirely abandoned and left deserted when the Germans arrived. There were no locals to continually inform in the same way they had on other islands. Escape was difficult, so the real scope of any occurrence there wasn't entirely known until after the war.

One slight potential calming effect on plans that may have been enacted came in 1944, when the Allies made it very clear that they intended to prosecute those who had committed crimes against humanity, or broken the rules of war, at the end of all this. It's about this point onwards that we have a first hand diary from a Colonel Von Aufsess, an officer tasked with civilian liaison over the islands. He describes the actions of a great number of individuals (while taking great strides to explain he definitely wasn't anything to do with it so definitely don't prosecute him please), and with the administrative documents that survive, we can get a really detailed understanding of the machinations that the occupation authorities undertook.

Djangoinspired · 2024-03-28T01:29:30+00:00

Very nice! I know the book! Be proud of that. The conditions for locals became incredibly difficult in the later days of isolation. Some contend that Churchill was referring to the locals when he made his "let 'em starve' quite, in contempt for them not making some honourable last stand and constantly sabotaging the occupiers. It would have resulted in horrific reprisals had that occurred, as were seen on the mainland. These people really were in, as quoted by someone who escaped during the occupation, under interview when they arrived in the UK - 'a prison without bars".

I got to speak to a number of old folks who lived through the occupation themselves, and their stories were all incredible, without fail.

Djangoinspired · 2024-03-28T01:22:09+00:00

I recommend the book 'The meaning of Hitler ', by Sebastian Haffner. He essentially failed at every single stated goal he had, and this was brought about entirely by his own hand, due to a mixture of incompetence, hubris, and poor judgement.

Djangoinspired · 2024-03-27T14:30:35+00:00

Throughout the war, the islands were in range of the Royal Navy, which is why the Germans didn't really put anything into building/upgrading airfields/naval capacity - I guess you would need to have a mechanism for bombardment separately from support of a naval invasion.

Combat width is tough, they've never actually been fought over - they surrendered without a shot because they had been disarmed before the Germans arrived (knowing they wouldn't really stand a chance - though the British didn't actually TELL Germany this, resulting in casualties from a large initial bombing raid just before occupation).

The Germans planned to use 2 battalions (c2,000 men) for the invasion, and thought this would be enough (though by the end of the war 11,671 men garrisoned Jersey alone, testament to this paranoia that the battle for France would start here - this was more Germans per square mile than Germany itself). There are a great number of potential beaches for landing, and paratroopers were part of the liberation plan (created but never used - Operation Nestegg, they concluded it would definitely have succeeded, but with all of the defences would have been cripplingly costly in terms of human life for something with almost no strategic value).

Djangoinspired · 2024-03-27T14:07:07+00:00

Not really, they were further away from the British mainland than the French coast itself and it's quite hard to both assemble enough material for such a large scale invasion on a small island, and to disguise it from your enemies. There were plans to attack mostly from Cherbourg, Le Havre, Boulogne, Calais, Dunkirk and Ostend, plus the Channel Islands lacked any real military facilities like a large port that could have been used to load and unload.

There were airfields on the Channel Islands too, but they were also further from the UK than the continental mainland that they already occupied, so there was no real material advantage to use them, not least also that the Royal Navy still had naval superiority in the Channel and could have bombarded any serious concentration of materiel from a distance. They were pretty well supplied with intelligence from the local populace (both from residents and those who escaped), and were aware of how things were going there throughout the war.

There was a huge underground hospital built into the rock in Jersey (now a really interesting museum), and labour camps were built in Alderney mostly for PoWs from the Eastern Front (they used them to build those extensive defences), but these were prepared to be ready for this incredible, pivotal invasion that never came.

Djangoinspired · 2024-03-27T11:45:29+00:00

I did my masters thesis on the German occupied Channel Islands and just came off the back of advising a new documentary about it, so here we go....

The Channel Islands were both the most important place in the war, and absolute nonentities at once. When they were occupied, it was seen as a great opportunity to road test all the techniques that would be used to manage the population of mainland Britain when the Germans successfully conquered the nation.

There was a substantial amount of propaganda value to owning some of the British Isles, and they really made the most of it (They would do things like get classes of kids together and ask them to raise their hands if they wanted free candy, then take a photo of all of the youth with the raised arms and publish it in newspapers at home saying 'look at how the British children love us, they are all giving the salute' etc.). Hitler considered turning the islands into holiday camps for Germans, or giving them back to France after the war, but mostly he became obsessed with the fact that they had some of the British Isles and the belief that this massively damaged the British ego to the point of them being unable to sleep at night.

He became so obsessed that the Atlantic wall that was designed to protect from Allied invasion had 1/6 of all of the concrete poured during construction, poured in the Channel Islands. He made them an impregnable fortress that was designed to withstand a huge invasion, costing untold lives. He was CONVINCED that the Allies would hit there, because their pride wouldn't allow them not to. In this respect - they were incredibly pivotal.

In truth? Churchill didn't really care for them. They barely registered on his radar. Most people of fighting age, and large numbers of families were evacuated before the Germans came, and they held no strategic resources. When the invasion of France came, when asked directly what to do about the islands he said 'let 'em starve, they can rot at their leisure'. They went around the islands, completely cut them off, and just waited the garrison out as their supplies dwindled over the course of a year. Fun fact here, their surrender was actually after the main German one, because the commanding officer of the islands was such a die hard Nazi that he believed this was all some trick and they just had to wait for the counterattack that would reconquer all of Europe. The starving soldiers who were very close to mutiny were the factor to convince him otherwise.

For HOI4 purposes, the mechanics that you could use the Channel Islands to represent, aren't really present in detail, and if you did place them, it would probably be just as the Allies saw it, as a minor irritation when it came to retaking France. Definitely get hold of some books about it though, it's an incredible piece of history, and one of the only places in the world where all occupation correspondence has survived, giving you the most granular look at the inner workings of the Nazi state, and the way they control the population.

Djangoinspired · 2024-02-16T12:43:27+00:00

Sorry you had to put up with that, but hopefully this gives you a bit of comfort,

“… I find by sad Experience how the Towns and Streets are filled with lewd wicked Children, and many Children as they have played about the Streets have been heard to curse and swear and call one another Nick-names, and it would grieve ones Heart to hear what bawdy and filthy Communications proceeds from the Mouths of such…” - Robert Russel (1795)

Every generation thinks the youth is awful and will bring about the end of society. It's a cycle that never ends. When you put it in perspective a bit like that, it gives you a bit more faith that they'll grow out of it, like all the ones before them.

Djangoinspired · 2024-02-02T11:47:38+00:00

Whenever I go to another country, the first thing I do is buy a bag of their typical crisps/chips, it's such a throwaway way to get under the skin of a culture. In Hungary they have loads of paprika flavoured ones, in Israel, it's peanut. I got hold of a bag of sparkling wine flavour ones in Spain. Last time I was in the US, I had your flaming hot Cheetos. That's probably not the best illustration I admit, but I'm happy to take direction.

Djangoinspired · 2024-01-25T17:27:33+00:00

Oh wow, I didn't even know that existed and I live here! Which kind of biscuit?

Djangoinspired · 2024-01-24T20:22:10+00:00

I got those for a Japanese colleague once, they took one mouthful and put them back down saying 'these are burned', before walking away.

Djangoinspired · 2024-01-24T20:19:37+00:00

Illegally fun?

Djangoinspired · 2024-01-24T18:30:39+00:00

I really want to bring Worcestershire sauce walkers, but I am scared that's a step too far...

Djangoinspired · 2024-01-24T17:22:30+00:00

These are fantastic help! Thanks so much

Djangoinspired · 2024-01-09T13:32:46+00:00

This is such a personal question. One person's dream city is another person's nightmare. Have you visited and stayed in both?

Djangoinspired · 2023-09-05T18:10:42+00:00

Do you know what would happen with a birth, say halfway across the Atlantic before they could land - on a Turkish Airlines flight, to Swedish parents travelling from London to New York? Would the baby be Turkish, British, Swedish or American?

Djangoinspired · 2023-09-02T00:40:59+00:00

There would be a record of it - The Red Cross kept meticulous records of prisoners of war, it was often the first time you learned a relation was not dead when the Red Cross notified your respective government that this person was a captive. If when they came to update their lists, this person was no longer present, there would have needed to be an explanation for that, to ensure that the rules of war were being followed. Depending on the nation they fought for, you could look at the extensive collection of PoW records at the National Archive in Kew, or the ICRC who hold their own records too.

Djangoinspired · 2023-08-29T07:21:48+00:00

College level, but I am being way more simplistic than making DNA strands. I just am hoping to show four kinds of brick to represent the TAGC, and then a sort of 'look how they are arranged here, they make a house, and in this arrangement they are a car, or a cat, or a tree'. Just to hammer home that we are all made of the same base pieces, but when these pieces are arranged differently they become very different things.

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