A meeting linking the past and the present in Newcastle Tuesday 17th June.

Today was another of those cloudy days, where it was supposed to be sunny, then rain.  We stayed in for a bit, before we set of for Durham, and I spent some time trying to unravel and research my John Rogers.  Such a common name, that previously I had just put it aside as not ever being able to find anything about him.

But living here, and walking in our ancestor's footsteps, has made all the people seem more real to me.  Having an understanding of their lives way back then, and then being able to put some missing pieces into my jigsaw, has made some aspects easier.  I had discovered there was a little "clique" based around Merchants.  Most of them were appointed Lord Mayors or Sheriffs over the years, and family members intermarried to others within the group.  Bit like the merchants of Galway.

So back to John Rogers.  Based on that theory, I made the link.  He was a Sheriff in about 1669, and as he had a son John, who had a son, named John, they owned and lived in East Denton Hall, which I photographed yesterday.

Then the last John had no children and went senile, and left the family fortunes to his nephews, which is how the Montague, Isaacson and Durnford lines first came together.

The area we are living held lots coal mines, and our John Rogers owned more than a dozen of them.  One had a very bad mining tragedy with lots of people killed.  I looked up that and found reference to a Coal Museum near Durham.

The road south took us past the Angel of the North, the largest sculpture in UK, all I was able to get was a glimpse of it.  The museum was held in the Council Offices of a small town south of Durham.

The lady on reception was fascinated that I had links to the coal mines, as they don't have much reference to mines before the mid 1800's.  Promised I would prepare an update of all the mines that had a relationship to our family.

Blackett - a descendant 

This shows the number of mines all around the area

Nodays many of the towns have no industry, which must make progress a bit difficult.

We drove further south to Raby Castle, home of a great grandmother, and I saw deer!  This place was renovated and is now a commercial venture.  And my photo of the castle did not turn out! So I have googled one instead!                                    

Next stop was Bernard Castle, as the signs all said, only it was an old town, and we never did find the castle.

Continuing we went to Stockton on Tees, to find where John's g.g.grandfather lived.  Tried to anyway, and couldn't get around all the roundabouts and then the roads that changed lanes and numbers, so frustrated, we just left for Sunderland, south of Newcastle.

There we were having dinner with my facebook friend Jane and her husband.  Never met Jane before, but she is the second cousin of another of my friends, and would you believe it our grandfathers worked at the same sugar mill in Queensland, in the same year.

Wonder if they would ever think that their granddaughters would be spending a lovely night together, with some wines to round it off!

Thanks Jane and Trevor, and the glass stones!

Coming home took us a while, they had closed the A1 close to our turnoff, and Heidi had no idea how to get us home another way, thankfully my google maps worked it out!

On that note, my daughter and family have gone to Sydney to watch our State of Origin football match.  A competition between two states, Queensland and New South Wales, about the only time there is any friendly rivalry between Australians!  Enjoy.

Craig and Amy