Families

Interesting that I was talking about Julie's Dad yesterday and today Julie calls to say that he is not at all well and in hospital. At 88 he is of the same generation as Beryl of the Vegas 85th birthday celebrations and I shall be thinking of him in the coming days as I will of Colin, also in hospital and also of that particular line on the family tree.
The day began with me listening to Lisa Jardine on Radio 4 talking about her family history, followed by the Archer saga of the, perhaps, long lost - or better - never known, grandson then came the telephone call about the sick uncle and, not one to believe that there are coincidences, this directed me to spend some time looking at my own family tree.
Names are quite fascinating. Apart from the infamous Enos most family names seem to be of the fairly common variety. Generation after generation on my father's side called their sons William and this tradition only died out when the last William had only a daughter - me. Taking the family trees of both myself and my husband there is a high incidence of the name Elizabeth. We both have a number of common names: Charles, Henry, Thomas and the names of our own children can be found in our forebears although we didn't know it at the time of naming them. Will the time come to revive the more obscure? Enos, I doubt but what of Jervis or Emmanuel, Ephraim or Leah? Frederick seems quite popular nowadays and Lillian but rather as Freddie and Lily - family names as well as Archer children, or rather Pargeter. I remember being quite intrigued by the name Shula many years ago, about the time she was going out with Nigel Pargeter as it happens and I wondered if I would have liked to have had a name that was rather unique. Perhaps I can draft a Change of name deed and become - what? Does a particular name have an affect on character? Is it affect or effect? Nigel Pargeter was definitely a Nigel; he could not have been a Charles. Shula is a Shula. I would have liked to have been a Caroline.