Greetings from Kent! Welcome to the latest newsletter, which, I feel, is slightly overdue since the last one came out just prior to Christmas. As always, there’s plenty to tell you… Current Projects I’m pleased to report that work on the next Morton adventure (a full-length novel) is progressing very well. I’m pretty well done with the research-side of things now, although with past books, I have occasionally needed a quick trip to an archive to check a point of genealogy mid-way through writing. The current word-count is 17,000, which is somewhere around the 17% mark. I’m really enjoying being back with Morton and hope you will enjoy his latest story when it comes out later this year. A few clues as to the locations and archives used in the story are outlined below! The Asylum Audiobook The recording of the audiobook for The Asylum is well underway and will hopefully be available within a couple of months. It will be followed by The America Ground, which will mean that the series will run from The Asylum right through to The Spyglass File in this format, with the rest of the stories to follow. All of the audiobooks are available from iTunes, Amazon, Audible US, Audible UK Trips & Visits At the end of February, once again I attended the fantastic RootsTech conference in Salt Lake City. This year I included several extra days in Salt Lake City to enjoy some of the local tourist sites but also in order to take part in the wider RootsTech experience. Two days prior to the conference beginning I attended the Commonwealth Dinner, an informal gathering of exhibitors, ambassadors and attendees from the Commonwealth countries. The evening before the conference opened, I was fortunate to be invited to the Media Dinner, which was primarily for the RootsTech ambassadors. The evening offered a sneak preview of the coming conference highlights. The following day, the floodgates opened to the 20,000 attendees and it was a great pleasure to meet the hundreds of people who stopped by to say hello and purchase signed copies of my books. Despite being very busy on my booth, I did manage to find the time to attend (very interesting and insightful) DNA talks by Blaine Bettinger, Jonny Perl and Angie Bush. If you have not heard any of these three speaking before, it is well worth trying to catch them at some of the various events that they attend throughout the year. Some of the RootsTech talks were recorded and are available to watch on the RootsTech website. The conference ended with another informal get-together at DearMyrtle’s house, which was another opportunity to mingle with genealogists from around the globe! More photographs of my time in and around Salt Lake City are available on my website by clicking here. |
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As mentioned above, I have been busy concluding the research for the latest book, which included a three-day whistle-stop tour of West Sussex and Buckinghamshire. I spent a day looking around the National Trust property of Cliveden, including their outdoor swimming pool, and another day at West Sussex Record Office, which, I have to say, is staffed by some of the friendliest and most helpful archivists I have ever encountered—there are no Miss Latimer’s working here! One of the record sets, which I had been hoping to see there, was the twenty-first century burial and baptism records for the parish of Ardingly, West Sussex, but which, I discovered upon arrival, were still in the care of the church. After sending an email to the incumbent vicar there on the off-chance that I might be able to view the records, I was delighted to hear back from him almost immediately and was able to view the original parish registers the following day at the church. I was able to time this with a planned visit to this charming little village as part of my location-hunting for the book. As usual, I will add photos from the trips to Pinterest once the book is available. Keep an eye out in the next book for Morton going through the same procedure! |
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Upcoming Events I will be attending the following events as an exhibitor, where you can purchase signed / dedicated copies of all of my books. I will also be speaking at both THE Genealogy Show (tickets available now online) and The Devon FHS Conference. It would be great to see some of you at these events! 26th April – 27th April 2019 – Family Tree Live, London 7th June – 8th June 2019 – THE Genealogy Show 5th October 2019 – The Devon FHS Conference, Exeter Promotions & Special Offers For all of you who have newly subscribed to this newsletter, Peter Calver at LostCousins has kindly offered my subscribers free membership to his fantastic website. Simply visit LostCousins and enter the code MORTON into the registration page to receive a year’s free subscription to the website, which matches you with others who are researching the same ancestors. Peter also provides a regular newsletter, filled with all the latest news from the genealogy world. For Kindle readers in the UK, Canada and Australia, book #5 in the series, The Spyglass File will be reduced to 99p / 99c for one day only on the 8th April. Also, for Kindle readers in the UK, Hiding the Past (book #1) is currently free for Amazon Prime customers until 31st May. If you know anyone who has membership to Amazon Prime and who hasn’t yet started the series, please let them know! Finally, would you like to be a named character in my latest book? Amber Henderson won this competition last year, appearing in The Wicked Trade as an archivist in Dover Library (being transported from her native Arkansas, USA!). All you need do to enter is to post on my Facebook page / Twitter page / Instagram page a photo of you with one of my books. It could be an interesting location, quirky background or something else, which might amuse the judge: my six-year-old son, whose decision is final! (If you win but would rather nominate the name of a friend / family member, then that is fine, too.) |
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Questionnaire I would like to understand my readership better and what kinds of things you enjoy reading in my stories. In this regard, I have created a short questionnaire, which asks such things as where you first heard of me, where you live in the world and your favourite of my books. I’m not a great fan of filling in surveys and the like myself, so, as an incentive, I will be offering prizes to some lucky contributors (drawn at random from the final entrants): - One winner will get an Ancestry DNA kit
- Three winners will get a signed copy of one of my books (of your choosing)
- Three winners will get free audiobook codes to redeem for either Hiding the Past, The Lost Ancestor, The Orange Lilies, The Spyglass File or Ghost Swifts, Blue Poppies and the Red Star.
To complete the survey, please click here. Thank you! Winners will be drawn on 29th April 2019. Social Media You are probably already aware of the various social media channels where you can find me, but just as a reminder, here they are: Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest YouTube LinkedIn I try to post different things on each of the channels, so as not to bore those of you who follow me on all of them! April Fools! As many of you will have realised, my post on Facebook and Twitter on the 1st April regarding a sequel to Hiding the Past was, in fact, an April Fools’ joke. Alas, there will not be an instalment in the series entitled Hiding the Pasty with a gun-wielding Deirdre Latimer! So sorry to disappoint! |
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Family History I was sad to learn in February of the death of my third-cousin twice-removed, Daisy Leach at the grand age of 106. I first wrote to Daisy in 2005 after discovering her name in the will of a distant relative of mine who had died in 1967. Amazingly, Daisy was still living at the same address in Tooting, London in 2005 as she had been in 1967 and, at the time of writing to her, I had no idea that she was actually also related to me. I quickly received a reply from her nephew, who said that Daisy was related to me (my 4x great grandparents were Daisy’s 2x great grandparents) and he offered immediately to bring her down south to meet me. They stayed for a few days in Folkestone and I was able to take them all around the Kentish countryside, showing them places where their ancestors had lived. Fantastically, Daisy had brought with her a vast collection of family photographs, which numbered several dozen and the majority of which I had never seen before. So I spent several hours happily copying the pictures and quizzing her on the family. Her memory was still sharp, and she was able to recall many names, dates and stories of our shared family. Among those, whom she could recall, was her grandmother, Mary Dengate, who had been born in 1853. Daisy’s recollections of her own father, George Edward Mattingly were few as he had died in November 1918 from the Spanish Flu epidemic (a remarkable 100 years before her own death). One thing, which Daisy mentioned to me and which had saddened her, was that she had lost contact with her first-cousin once-removed, Kathleen after going their separate ways following the Second World War. Having already researched this branch, I was able to inform Daisy that Kathleen was still alive and still living in the same house in Folkestone as she had been living in when Daisy had last seen her in 1945! In fact, I had visited Kathleen several times prior to this and so I was able to reunite the pair sixty years after they had last seen one another. After this visit, I kept in touch with Daisy and she and her nephew visited the south twice more and I also made a reciprocal trip to the flat in London in which she had lived for so many years. Daisy was a kind and sweet lady who was so very generous in sharing her family history knowledge and photographs and I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to know her. |
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Another family death last summer resulted in my inheriting my great-great grandmother, Jane Elizabeth Swaby’s family bible. It was presented to her in July 1887, when she was fourteen years of age and it lists the names and birth dates for all of her children after marrying my great-great grandfather, Arthur Frederick Edwards. Another family heirloom to treasure! |
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That’s about all of the news from me at the moment – time to return to Morton! With best wishes, Nathan |
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