Putting our Hows in order - July 2020

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mardler
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Putting our Hows in order - July 2020

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Hello everyone. Two weekends ago I was at a farm in upstate Massachusetts to celebrate the marriage of my younger son. Given today's strange circumstances, we had a socially distanced "minimony" with only eight of us present: bride and groom, both sets of parents, the officiant and his spouse, friends of both families. It was remarkably romantic, given how few of us were there. Very personal. So I became a proud father-in-law for the second time! Let's wish the happy couple all good fortune. Next year, all being well, we will have a proper party.

I spent about a week in the USA. Now I'm back in the UK I am having to 'self-isolate' for two weeks. I'd really like to get back to helping to care for my mother but I am not allowed to. Before I was allowed onto the flight back home, I had to fill in an online form for the UK authorities which gave almost my entire life story, not to mention my contact details, although they forgot to ask for my inside leg measurement! Now, why did they do that? Turns out that on Tuesday this week an earnest young policeman appeared at my doorstep with his notebook open. He wanted to know that I was indeed on my own Assured that all was well, he departed but, just in case there's anyone out there who doubts whether the UK government is serious, be aware that they are. Penalty for non-compliance is up to £1,000.

So, what happened to the study this month?
We added almost 1,300 people, finishing the month at just over 172,000. I pinch myself every time I see that number! Have we really done that? Well, yes, though we do not have all the details we could on everyone in our file. (If you can add or correct anything, please do get in touch). Thanks to correspondents writing in, we added lots of photographs too.

Howes family of Massachusetts
I managed to work though another 30 pages of the Howes Genealogy book. A new correspondent wrote in too with a long piece written by Aaron Howes at the beginning of the 20th century, describing how his family moved 150+ miles upstate in Maine to live close to the Canadian border. The piece is really amazing to read today. What is just a couple of hours drive up I-95 took many days by wagon, especially in winter snows. When the water was frozen, they used the rivers as highways. It's amazing to think how people lived right on the edge of civillization. Almost anything beyond what they could grow had to be imported from the nearest town, and there were no roads, of course. Look at the prices they had to pay for goods and read how the neighbor had to get a corn grinding wheel back home. I do think the piece is worth reading. You can find it here, just above the map:
https://howesfamilies.com/getperson.php ... ee=Onename
As an exercise, I went through Aaron Howes's family in our normal style, adding census, vital records and other information readily available, going up and down a couple of generations, for daughters as well as sons. It revealed some interesting material which extends the original work of Colonel Bob Howes quite a bit.

Chapeau!
Many congratulations to Tim Howes from Brisbane, Australia who correctly solved our puzzle from last month. Turns out Wilfred's father had a productive dalliance with his wife's younger sister. You can see more here:
https://howesfamilies.com/getperson.php ... ee=Onename
Top man, Tim!

Fiona Howes, the potter
Also from Australia wrote in with a couple of pictures of a bowl he had bought which was signed by a Fiona Howes. Here's one:
FH Bowl 1.jpg
FH Bowl 1.jpg (234.81 KiB) Viewed 1704 times
We'd both like to know more about this Fiona. All we know is that “Fiona Howes is a potter based in Melbourne whose colourful domestic wares sold in stores around Australia in the 1990s. Her works are signed with an incised 'Fiona Howes'. Any ideas, anyone?

Telegrams from the Queen
Non-commonwealth readers may not know this, but Her Majesty the Queen sends out a 'telegram' (in reality a modern card, these days) to anyone reaching the age of 100. When you get to 105, you get another. She also sends 'telegrams' to couples on their 60th wedding anniversary and each year thereafter.
Who remembers this newsletter from over 5 years ago?
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=134&p=216&hilit=te ... queen#p216
I was recently in touch with Ann Perkins, their daughter, who tells me that her parents are now both centenarians. And because they married in 1948, between them they have now racked up new fewer than 14 telegrams, doubling their total from five years ago. If not a record, they must be close! Fantastic. May they both get a few more!

Life Advice
I first spotted reference to psychologist Molly Howes in the Boston Globe, but then a more detailed aricle appeared on the website, Psychology Today discussing her new book, called "A Good Apology - Four steps to make things right". Interesting article, and from the summary, I can see enough to agree with her. Here's the article: https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog ... -necessary. Interesting.
Normally at this point I would ask whether anyone knows her. However, Molly has a website, mollyhowes.com. So I will be writing direct and adding her to my list of Howes websites!

More life advice
I've mentioned the very successful Lewis Howes two or three times before. This month he appeared for an hour on a podcast with Dave Rubin. He is a fascinating guy and well worth a listen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooe02My19NA.

Reymerston
And finally, is there anyone out there related to the Howes family of Isaac Howes, 1841-1883 of Reymerston in Norfolk? A correspondent wrote to me last week, saying that he has a number of family photographs but has no means of identifying them. I have his permission to pass on his email to anyone who might be able to help.

That's all folks. All the best
Paul
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