Tuesday Travel - "My Genjourney Begins"

 

28 May has finally arrived!

Small back pack loaded with ipad, laptop, camera, voice recorder, external hard drive and note book, and a middling size suitcase  stowed in the car ready for my husband to drop me to the airport tomorrow morning!!.  Oh I do hope I have organised everything.  

Genjourney here I come. Over the last week, I have been scanning and filing all documents that I think I might need to refer to as I do my research.  I had planned to put together a power point with all the old photos I have, but alas that hasn't happened.  

However, I have made up a time line in excel, on the events in Elizabeth Taylor (nee Rushworth)'s life with a corresponding time of  historical events in UK and Lancashire.  I think this will be a valuable tool, enabling me to get a better feel of the times and the events that she would have experienced in her life time.

As I put together all the bits and pieces, scanned all the photos and documents that I want to take to me I came across a couple of lovely old post cards from Lancashire that were sent to Australian when  Tilly Holeman (nee Taylor) was visiting the Taylor/Rushworth Family in Lancashire in the mid 1900’s.

 The note on the back reads  "A very pleasant road heading out of Colne, past Foulridge Reservoir on the way to Skipton.” 

 I will have to see if I can recognise where this picture is taken while I am there and post a present day version. Stay posted for more!!  Next Post will be from the United Kingdom.

The Road Not Taken

The Road Not Taken - Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 

What better way to start off a travel/discovery blog than with one of my favourite poems.  In fact “The Road Not Taken” sums up my philosophy on life in a very succinct way.  To embrace opportunities and new adventures even if it means treading on the “road less travelled by”.

Where is this leading to you might ask!!  For the first time in my many years,  I have accrued 

Elizabeth Taylor (1841-1927)

Long Service Leave and I plan to use some of this time to pursue one of my dreams.  That is to delve deeper into the  story of Elizabeth Taylor (nee Rushworth) and her family. Anyone who follows my blog.The Other Half of my tree - stories of my female ancestors, will know that I am fascinated with her story and would really like to know more about her life, family and the times she lived in.

 

My husband is heading to England at the end of June as the coach of the Australian Wheelchair Rugby League Team, which will be playing in the World Cup in Medway.  What better opportunity!  So I plan travel over to England at the end of May and spend a month digging around for more information and catching up with a number of fellow researchers who are researching connected branches of the Taylor and Rushworth Family Trees, in Lancashire and Yorkshire.  Stay tuned for my journey of discovery.  Perhaps, if time allows it I will be able to visit a couple of other places with links to other branches of my family. 

I will then join my husband for the World Cup (with a few side trips in southern England to keep me amused).  Following the world cup we plan to visit exchange family in France and Finland.  (Exchange as in, the families of two international students that lived with us when they were on exchange in Australia). They are both now married with young families. 

What better way to enjoy my extended leave, family tree research, family links, travel and of course one of my other indulgences photography.