This article was originally published on Hubpages in July 2011. Bottom right: Sarah Ashbrook. Top middle: Agnes Ashbrook. (The others are unknown.) Photo courtesy of Carol Sanderson. This page represents an on-going attempt to compile a logical sequence of descent for the Ashbrook family, my late grandmother being Annie Ashbrook who married John Joseph 'Jack' McGowan. Annie was born and spent almost all of her life in Knutsford, Cheshire, England. Jack was born in County Mayo in Ireland, and came to Knutsford with his parental family. Some of the information on this page may be added to or corrected as more data comes to light over time. Anyone is welcome to leave relevant messages in the comments section below. No mention of any living relative will be made to protect privacy. This Hubpage continues from another,  Four Branches , (see clickable link at the bottom of this page), which depicts the genealogy of my immediate family and how it flows from my parents to their paren...

 This article was originally published in Hubpges in November 2009. Ready to eat in under 30 minutes! When you want food which is hot, tasty and quick to make, give Irish Potato Soup a try. It is easy to make, very tasty and filling, and also economical. It can be made in under half an hour - which is why this traditional Irish meal has proved so popular for so long. Potato soup can be served either as a filling starter or as the main meal. Serve with crusty bread, garlic bread or French toast. Add a knob of salted butter, if you wish. How to Make Irish Potato Soup Ingredients Potatoes (3 or 4 large potatoes per person) Big onion (or use leeks if you prefer) Garlic (optional) Pinch of salt Herbs and pepper to taste (cayenne pepper, tumeric, mixed herbs and spices are all good additions) Cheese Bring a pan of water to the boil (or use hot water from the kettle to save time) and meanwhile peel and dice the potatoes and onion. Add everything apart from the cheese to the pan and bring ...

 This article was originally published on Hubpages in July 2009. Traditional Games Dolls are one of the oldest toys known to humankind. Dolls made from wood or clay can trace their lineage back to the Stone Age Paper dolls first gained popularity with the Victorians, and this went on to become a traditional activity. The reason for this is simple. Making paper dolls is easy and fun. Expensive art materials are not required. Young children can be safely left to pursue this hobby without direct adult supervision, so long as they are given safety scissors. However, it's not only children who enjoy this hobby. Many adults love collecting dolls, and while antique porcelain dolls or those delicately detailed Asian ball-jointed dolls can command high prices, paper dolls remain economical - though these too are increasingly being collected by adults. But the fun of playing with paper dolls is in making your own. You don't need to be any kind of artist, and the cost is negligble. Read o...

  This article was originally published on Hubpages in 2009. I am in the process of transferring my articles there to this blog. The Adshead, Ashbrook, Bray and McGowan Families This is the story of four branches of my family, leading back in time from my parents to my grandparents and great-grandparents. The information is not complete. Some dates are missing, and recent data has been withheld in order to protect the privacy of the living. Much of this research was my mother's work. She handed her genealogy files to me, and this webpage is my attempt to put some of her lengthy notes in order. I hope this information is correct, and while much of it has been validated via legal documents such as birth or marriage certificates, some of the history may be subject to unintentional inaccuracies. If more information comes to light, I will be happy to amend it. This webpage is also a little gift to any relatives who might be interested in our shared ancestry. The anecdotes might jog a fe...

Do you keep a diary? Why did you start it, and, if you started one then stopped, why was that? What sort of things do (or did) you write about? I ask as, as a long-time diarist myself, there is an interesting piece in The Guardian today which talks about one woman's diary habit, which she began at the age of fourteen. I started a diary around that age too, but destroyed it after my mother accused me of using cocaine.  A stern scene followed, with both parents perched ram-rod straight in their armchairs, while I was subjected to a heated inquisition. Where had I bought it, and who from? Didn't I know such things led to death and doom? I struggled to decipher their bewildering accusations, until Mum blurted out, "I read it in your diary!" To find my diary, Mum would first have had to rummage through my dressing table, obviously when I wasn't around to protest. Her intrusion on my privacy was assumed by both parents to be acceptable, and now, with this handwritten c...

Richard in the street entrance to his tattoo studio in Liverpool. The vertical sign next to Richard is now in the Liverpool Tattoo Museum. Yesterday, my sister Evelyn, Richard and myself stood outside Richard's old tattoo studio and looked up at the few remaining signs, whose paint has now mostly flacked away to reveal bare wood. On the studio's window are stick-on letters which read, "Art", where once it boldly announced his presence as the city's only "Tattoo Artist".  I can remember him buying that simple plastic lettering from an old-fashioned printer's shop. This was in 1993, not long after he'd opened the studio and before he could afford better signs. After he'd patiently stuck them onto the glass we realised that from the outside the sign read "Artist Tattoo", so we had to carefully peel the letters off the window and have another go, laughing over having made such an obvious error yet worried in case we spoiled the letteri...

  The snowdrops photographed in The Arno have almost finished flowering already. They spiral away from the tree trunk, blurring into a more naturalistic planting style nearer to the hedge. This small urban garden in Oxton is maintained by volunteers. Nobody seems sure why it's named The Arno. Possibly it's a corruption of some old Viking word or phrase meaning "high point" or "eagles nest here" - the jury is out. Most of the garden is given over to a series of tidy beds which, when viewed overall, make a geometric version of a rose. Each bed is filled with roses. At this time of the year, the roses look like a snarl of dormant sticks. Of much greater interest to me is the cottage garden border which runs along one side of the park. This holds a variety of traditional plants such as honesty, hellebores and elephant's ears, and a host of wildflowers which have either been deliberately planted or which have have helped themselves to a patch of unmanicured e...