April 2010 - House that?!

[mardler]

As one of my Italian colleagues once said to one of my Dutch colleagues, "You know it's the end of the month because of the name change!" You'll have to trust me that it sounds even better when said with a heavy Italian accent!

There is indeed a name change. So it's time to review what's happened over the past month. Quite a lot!

• We've added another almost 800 or so people into the database, heavily weighted by the HOWSE name this month. I had three separate correspondents write to me this month with information about their branches of the Howse clan, whose numbers now exceed 500. Thank you folks. You know who you are.
  
  One such drew my attention to one of the earliest employees of the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada, a man who explored the West and set up the Company's first trading post West of the Rockies. Joseph Howse left Cirencester in Gloucestershire, England in 1795 at the age of 21 and ultimately returned in his later years and in the meantime also started quite a clan, much of which remains in Canada. A quite remarkable man, his achievements will be celebrated this summer at his bicentennial in Montana. By all means read more here http://www.howesfamilies.com/getperson. ... nID=I23221 where I have shamelessly copied an article I found on the internet and/or by googling his name. I will make a special page for Joseph in our notable people section and have asked some Canadians if they will help me with better text and pictures.
  
  We've added well over 100 certificates and images of marriage register entries. Do you have any certificates you'd like put online? They don't have to be British. We do have quite a few Aussie certificates thanks to a recent correspondent and have one or two from the US. No Kiwi, Canadian or South African certs yet as far as I can recall.
  
  One additional thing we've done this month is to start adding references to people called Howes who run businesses and/or have interesting websites. I think it's a wonderful way to see the diversity of life on our increasingly small planet. Here's the list as of tonight:
  • - Alex Howes - Illustrator and Animator
    - Annie Howes - Personalized charms and keepsakes
    - Christian Howes - Jazz violinist, Producer, Educator
    - Dave Howes - Arts, crafts and innovative web design
    - Hannah Howes - Singer, Songwriter, Bandleader
    - Kim House - Photographic Restoration
    - Lewis Howes - Ex Pro-Football Player, entrepreneur and LinkedIn expert
    - Mike Howes - Fine Wines
    - Stephen Howes - Fine Art Agent
    - Toby Howes - Furniture designer and maker
  Not a bad list to start with: very diverse. Ladies and gentlemen, these people come from at least 5 different countries, but they're all on the web available right there in your living room. Go take a look at what they have to offer! And if you know of other sites we should have on the list, let me know.

For myself, in the past month in addition to the above I've managed to relaunch a 102-year old yacht that I has been totally restored over the winter. She looks beautiful and appears to sail quite quickly too! In case you're interested, she's #3 of this class: http://www.ybod.org.uk. The sap is rising and it's time to spend more time on the river! Thanks for your continuing interest. Happy new month, everybody.

Paul Howes
http://www.howesfamilies.com
Horning, Norfolk; London; Bernardsville, NJ