Academic Area of Specialization

NAS88864 said:

reading their job title is the most exciting part of it but I couldn’t do that on all of them

The problem can be made worse because some jobs then don't exist any more, like a Marine Dealer, for example - and also because the enumerator used a lot of abbreviations - imagine if you had, say, 200 households to collect data from, and a third of them had the same job! The ubiquitous Gen. Lab. for example - in any urban setting, there were a great many of those...

NAS88864 said:

everyone had coat of arms back then. Is that right

Yeah, it can look like that... everyone didn't, but societal changes had created the middle class, simply put - and they wanted to have the stuff that the aristocracy had, build the houses, get the arms, etc. 

Fashionable acquisition, like people do now. 

Which era in history interests you most? 

I was listening about the Aztecs last night at my driving job and apparently they had a zoo in their city. In the 14th century I think it was, before anywhere in Europe did. They had a big cat room that was quite creepy because it was decorated in idols and the cats were fed parts of the sacrifices. One of the Spanish invaders wrote that it was like seeing hell. 

It’s so interesting that you say that Biology and History have been your passions that have remained with you through life. I love the way our personalities work this way. That we are so unique in our combination of interests. I think that my passions all link through my ceramics. So because clay is out of the ground I love Geology and Archaeology and ancient civilizations. I think at the heart of my personality is an earthiness. As I’m getting older it’s getting more powerful. Like wanting to be outside. I love how the personality is like an engineered machine and all the parts work like clockwork. The brain sitting inside a car that it drives through life. Our interests the shell to protect us from the chaos of the world. 

I think reading the censuses must be one of the most exciting things you can do in life. Especially when it’s about your ancestors. It’s like opening presents at Christmas. Ok now I know why they are so hard to decipher. Thank you for that. It’s frustrating sometimes because reading their job title is the most exciting part of it but I couldn’t do that on all of them. But then sometimes I’d look at a later or earlier census, in a different hand writing and be able to read it. 

When I tried to do my moms family tree it went all the way back to the 15th century. I was absolutely stunned. Everyone started having a coat of arms next to their names. First I thought it just be because they were really rich but then I decided everyone had coat of arms back then. Is that right? 

Natural history and history. My first obsessions were big cats and (after reading Treasure Island) pirates. The two interests of animals/biology and history have proceeded in tandem through my life. As I could see more opportunities in biology than history (I never wanted to teach) as a potential career, that is the way I went.

OMG newspapers! Don't get me started!

One of the best research gifts of recent times for me has been access the millions of pages of digitized newspapers! I'm such a fan!

It makes family history easier to research for people...although mostly I'm researching other stuff for fun.

Then updating Wikipedia..

I have a pretty interesting last name, that lent itself well to WW2 propaganda, so my family history searches uncovered that my family members children and citizens and wartime stories, were often in newspapers in wartime.. so I’m quite fortunate in the history department..

 That's amazing - sincerely...

What currently or ever..?

NAS88864 said:

I love the census. I could read them for days,

I literally have!  

NAS88864 said:

, although I find the hand writing hard to read sometimes

Well, it gets worse after the 1911 census because the census was filled in by each household everyone has different handwriting, right? An official did it before then, so it's more consistent.

NAS88864 said:

. I love the programme ‘A house through time

I haven't seen it, but yeah - it's a fun thing to do! 

These days I mostly look at older stuff - 15th-18th centuries... if I'm very lucky I might get something medieval. 

Yeah I broke down in a most-dispassionate way, why it was unethical for him to have taken the role, then I broke down how their are no accountability-safeguards to spare the policing-system from his agenda and ineptitude..

After 5 minutes of cutting-fact half of the room was glad someone said it, and the other half was staring at me like,  I’d just said the worlds most-prolonged four-letter word..

I’ve never played D&D but love Psychology, so that sounds interesting. The brain is the greatest machine I’ve ever witnessed. 

Who are the main theorists of autism?

I love the census. I could read them for days, although I find the hand writing hard to read sometimes. I love the programme ‘A house through time’. If it wasn’t for historical documents the lives that inhabited the houses would be lost. It would be a dead house. The documents bring the bricks to life. 

If you played it, well then you'd have experience to set against your mental vision... it would be different ... it's a great area of study though, almost a mythology in itself...

Wow... Now I'm in awe...

I’ve literally made a Police Crime Commissioner sweat and squirm, in a public auditorium, with my command of Policing Ethics, back in the earlier-days of PCC networking, when the second-wind politicians were still mounting their sieges on the space..

Yeah expertise is a weird one, because I’m proficient at several things, but it’s difficult to claim expertise in something..

I’m nearly there with autism theory, i’ve memorised a massive amount, enough to do a dissertation on it, but I’m still in the process of absorbing it. I don’t understand it in my bones yet..

An area I enjoy is DnD, I’m something of a lore-master where that is concerned, I know an awful lot..

I’ve never played it though, you tend to need friends for that, lol..

Also I am reluctant to play something I love so much, because I don’t want to sully my imagination with reality, I would only play it in absolute ideal circumstances, which I know is idealistic..

I love talking about psychology through the lens of DnD speak, to people who know nothing about DnD, especially professionals, it’s one of my favourite things to do.. they tilt their heads like confused pups..

I'm a documentary historian ... I work with old written stuff. Sometimes I change history, in small ways.. 

Although that sounds fascinating..