I am in the mood to reread some old favorites. My current choice is a novel by Elizabeth Bowen – The House In Paris. Elizabeth Bowen is one of my favorite authors.

I have had news from Ireland, and more specifically from my friends at Kilternan Market. Kilternan Market is a small co-operative market established in 1964 by producers of produce or craft items. The market is held every Saturday morning 50 weeks of the year.

When I joined it had been going for quite a few years. We came to Dublin in 1968 and I don’t think I even heard of the Market. We lived just beyond the immediate radius of the Market and also we lived overseas for a few of those years in the 1970’s.

It was a bit later in the late 1970’s or early 1980’s that I joined and became member number 268. As the years have gone by members have either moved away or have resigned for personal reasons or have died.

When the Corona Virus spread around the world last February, the Market closed, to the dismay of producers and customers alike. The Market has recently reopened with various restrictions in place.

I have now had news of the members who haven’t dared to come back to the Market yet. Fear of the Virus. And just this past week one of my friends there has died –not from the Virus, just old age I think.

When I was. growing up there was a very special brown book of letters written by my grandfather when he served in the Civil War. This book was kept in my parents’ closet. I used to think that some day I would like to do something special with these letters. The years went by and when it came time to sell the house in Belmont, I was far away and in no position to put forward a claim to those letters. But they fell to my sister Ruth who possibly had a stronger claim and was in a good position to take them under her wing, so to speak. The years went by and it was Ruth and her daughters who took action re our grandfather’s Civil War letters. Now Ruth has passed and today I discovered that her eldest daughter has the letters, safe and sound. I am too old and not in a position to put in a claim to them. I’m just glad that they are secure and in safe hands.

Dorothy was a popular name in my parents generation. My mother was named Dorothy, in Northern Ireland the mother of Ian (my husband) was named Dorothy, Mrs Fahey our neighbor in Belmont Mass was named Dorothy, my mother had a similar aged friend named Dorothy. and so on. Girls born 1890-1920 approximately.

21,517 ancestors in my family tree. Those branches are getting very weighed down. It is exciting though to keep finding new (to me) ancestors. Of course this is more information than I can handle. There are so many different avenues to explore!! And at the moment I am exploring a different avenue altogether – i.e. the genealogy of my neighbors in Belmont Massachusetts in the 1940’s.

Norway was an occupied country for 5 long years during the 2nd World War. This occupation included the far northern area of Spitsbrgen, a very important area for tracking weather in the North Atlantic.

This is a sad one. My childhood friend born about the same year as my husband Ian is no longer alive. In fact he passed away almost 40 years ago. His widow is his high school girlfriend. They were quite an item in high school.