Dr. Sophie Kay
Pro Genealogist & Scientist at www.khronicle.co.uk, #Genealogy Expert for Time Team, #DNA Specialist Tutor at IHGS. Oxford D.Phil.(SysBio), Fiend for #maps & #research methods. Big hair, big heels, weakness for cake.She/her.
Blog: www.parchmentrustler.com
- Enjoyed this long read. Physical objects really can tether us to parts of our past, people no longer with us, & all sorts of layered memories. One for the material culture and #FamilyHistory researchers methinks... www.theguardian.com/food/2025/ap...
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- ...and still make tasty puddings in it, I hope? (Mmmh, Sussex pond pudding comes to mind for starters...)
- It's back! Tonight it's Week 1 of my Research Skills Studio for Family Tree Plus: 4 sessions of #FamilyHistory training in #research methods. I'm aiming for fun & informative: each 60 minute webinar is followed by a 'Zoom afterparty' for chat & questions... www.family-tree.co.uk/store/geneal...
- And so you can continue learning and honing skills beyond the weekly live sessions, all Studio attendees also receive a digital copy of my #ResearchSkills Workbook, offering an array of articles & printable worksheets...
- Tonight we're delving into search strategies: wildcarding, how Soundex really works, and how to deal with negative searches... There'll be plenty of (optional) hands-on exercises to get you progressing your own #FamilyHistory #research as we go!
- Love this, especially the dog violets spreading year by year...the reminder which grows with time!
- The article particularly resonated with me for an item I own from a person I never met: a 1970s vintage Bernina sewing machine from my DH's late gran. The sewing box yields such a sense of her: bias binding neatly folded, precise & clean, as if she's just stepped out of the room for a moment.
- About time for a little heads-up from me. I've been navigating some medical bumps in the road here, so social media has taken a back seat...and the #OccupationOfTheDay is taking a break too. Looking forward to some awesome #science & #history conversations with you once I'm back in action!
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- Ah, thank you :) It's the nice interactions with people that I'm missing the most!
- Genetic genealogy: science & the arts combined! I'm back on Zoom for more live #DNA teaching next week - and looking forward to returning to the Society of Genealogists @sogorg.bsky.social to share this session with you. Bookings link in the post below: I'll see you there! #FamilyHistory #Genealogy
- Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…COKE INSPECTOR: At a gas works, a worker who "investigates complaints from customers as to quantity and quality of coke supplied." Dict Occup'l Terms (1927) 📷 Selling Coke at the Gas Works (Tidmarsh, 1893-4) c/o M'cr Art Gallery
- Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…SERVANT: "A person engaged to attend or wait upon, or to obey the directions & meet the needs of, a particular person, or to perform specified tasks in a particular household or establishment..." OED (2025), buff.ly/4RC18mz 📷 Hogarth's Servants (c.1750-5) c/o Tate
- Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…CALICO PLAITER: A textile worker who "folds calico backwards and forwards, in folds of a given length, for convenience in passing it through calico printing machines." Dict Occup'l Terms (1927) 📷 Calico printing process (1835) c/o Wellcome Coll'n
- Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…FLAP KEEPER: "greases and clears obstructions daily from iron flaps, fitted to sewer outlets to prevent entry of tidal wave." Dict Occup'l Terms (1927) 📷 Sewer worker (1958) c/o Seattle Municpal Archives, CC-BY 4.0
- Big news in the #DNA testing world this morning: genetic testing company 23andMe has filed for bankruptcy protection 'to facilitate a sale process' and CEO Ann Wojcicki has resigned... #GeneticGenealogy #FamilyHistory #Genealogy www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
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- Even for those who stay with 23andMe through the sale, the database itself may be massively devalued from a #FamilyHistory angle if many users delete their kits & the power of matching is vastly diminished. In a research sphere with #DNA comparison at its heart, we thrive or perish as a community
- Deletion? Info and kit downloading? No action? Ultimately only the user themselves can make this decision, following their own assessment of the available info. (I'm NOT a lawyer so none of my posts constitute legal advise!)
- *advice Darn autocorrect!
- One of the main factors likely to be now-former-CEO Ann Wojcicki's plans to purchase 23andMe as an independent bidder. @theguardian.com quotes her as saying: “If I am fortunate enough to secure the company’s assets...I remain committed to our long-term vision of being a global leader in #genetics.”
- Here's 23andMe's own statement on the implications for, and legal protections governing, the onward use of their #genetic and personal data: #GeneticGenealogy #FamilyHistory #DNA
- At this stage much uncertainty comes from the road ahead being largely a blank page. Difficult to know what shape the company might take post-sale & if this would leave 23andMe largely intact or (more likely I think) the more valuable parts of it being acquired - see thier statement below:
- Quite how the sale process will unfold from here is something many of us in the #genetics research community, and those working in data privacy, will be watching closely over the coming days and weeks. #FamilyHistory #GeneticGenealogy
- 23andMe's database currently holds around 15 million autosomal #DNA kits - many of these users this morning will understandably be asking what course of action, if any, they should be taking...
- This latest news in the saga of 23andMe may not come as a surprise to anyone who's followed their turbulent transit over the past 18 months in particular, particularly since the credential-stuffing breach they suffered in October 2023 #DNA #GeneticGenealogy
- Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…CHAPE FILER: A skilled metalworker who made mountings for scabbards and/or small fixings such as buckles. 📷 Sabre with highly ornamented scabbard, c/o Met Museum
- Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…THREE BRANCH HAND: Term given to a workman who offers multiple skills, typically combining the work of a plumber, glazier and house painter. 📷 Jobs of a three branch hand, c.early 19thC
- Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…HAIR BLEACHER: "bleaches hair for wig making by immersion in solution of hydrogen peroxide, etc., to produce artificial white hair, or to reduce intensity of existing colour." Dict Occup'l Terms (1927) 📷 Trade card (c.1765) c/o British Museum, CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0
- Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is...ODD WORKER or ODD FILER (cycles): A worker who "finishes parts of cycles, with file, etc., at a bench." Dict Occup'l Terms (1927) 📷 Inventor in bicycle workshop, Netherlands (1945) c/o Wiki Commons
- Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…FLOWER MODELLER & PLANT MOUNTER: Skilled worker (usu. temp) employed by the British Museum's Natural History dept. to mount & arrange displays of flora for models of animals shown in natural habitats. Dict of Employments Open to Women (1898) 📷 'Edward's Dodo'(c.1620)
- Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…PUNCHCLOD: "A low peasant, a ploughman, one engaged in agriculture." Dialect term, chiefly Yorks. English Dialect Dictionary (1898-1905) 📷 The Ploughing Lesson (c.1890) c/o North Lincs Museums, CC-BY-NC 4.0
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- Thanks Lorna - was a fantastic audience tonight and it was great to enjoy such an extensive discussion afterwards! Here's to further #research adventures for one and all...
- Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…GAITNER: A skilled agricultural worker whose job it was to reshape bound sheaves into a configuration which allowed for ease of carrying and good drainage and drying. 📷 'Summer' (c.1644), Teniers the Younger, c/o National Gallery
- Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is...ROTARY KILN BURNER: "in charge of rotary kiln [for cement manufacture]; regulates supply of slurry (mixture of limestone/chalk & clay with water) to kiln...regulates heat from furnace." Dict Occup'l Terms (1927) 📷 Rotary kiln burners (1926) c/o Wiki Commons
- Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is...LORRY MAN or LURRY MAN (or woman!): "drives a heavy four-wheeled vehicle known as a lorry, or, in the North of England, a lurry." Dict of Occup'l Terms (1927) 📷 17 yr old lorry driver (1958) c/o Nat'l Library of Wales, CC-BY-SA 4.0
- Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is...SYRINGE COTTONER: "binds cotton, by hand, round plungers of syringes; usually also boxes and wraps up syringes" Dict of Occup'l Terms (1927) 📷 Enema syringes c/o Wellcome Coll'n, CC-BY 4.0
- Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is...SCHOLASTIC AGENT: "advises parents as to choice of school, arranges placing of children at school chosen; also acts as employment agent for schools and teachers" Dict of Occup'l Terms (1927) 📷 'Hygiene of the Schoolroom' (1911) c/o Wiki Commons
- Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is...INSIDE HAND: "engaged in workshop where organ builders specialise in different branches; makes & fits up action controls, sound board and similar [on] inside of pipe organ" Dict of Occup'l Terms (1927) 📷 Church organ, Coggeshall, Essex (c.1895) c/o Met Museum
- Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is...FAULT FINDER: "in [electrical] test room makes various tests (for insulation, resistance, etc.) on cable to ensure it reaches standard specification, using galvanometer." Dict Occup'l Terms (1927) 📷 Galvanometer room, Edison lab (1915) c/o Wiki Commons
- Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is...DAILY GIRL or MORNING GIRL: A female general servant who did not live in the household of the family for whom she worked. Dict of Occup'l Terms (1927) 📷 The Servant Girl, Gertler (1923) c/o Tate, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is...BIBLE DEPOT KEEPER: "a retail shopkeeper who sells bibles, texts, tracts, and religious publications; sometimes sells from private house instead of from shop." Dict of Occup'l Terms (1927) 📷 Bible (1683) c/o Wellcome Collection
- Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…FLORAL DECORATOR: "decorates ball rooms, tables, churches, etc., with flowers, ferns, palms, etc., in various designs or colour schemes for special functions." Dict Occup'l Terms (1927) 📷 The Bouquet, Bland c/o M'cr Art Gallery, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…GRAFTER: "a white mender [mender of bleached lace] who works a patch of net into a damaged place, to cover defect." Dict Occup'l Terms (1927) 📷 Women Making Lace c/o Wellcome Collection
- "Don't be fooled by this frock that I got, I'm still, I'm still Dolly of the Chop..."
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- You know, I think there may be an untapped niche there... I'd love to see the various packages and options you could offer 😁
- Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…PUBLIC LETTER WRITER: A literate worker who wrote letters on behalf of illiterate clients. Tasks might vary from penning love letters for sweethearts, to composing requests for employment or demands for money. 📷 The Public Letter Writer (1880) c/o York Museums Trust
- Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…PRIVATE POLICEMAN: "a watchman usu. wearing uniform; is frequently an ex-police constable on pension; sometimes specifically designated, e.g. private constable, river policeman (water supply)." Dict Occup'l Terms (1927) 📷 Night watchman (1943) c/o Library of Congress
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- Oh, I don't doubt there's a multitude of possibilities, but from the current desert of reading time, the prospect of a veritable oasis of book time sounds like heaven 😍
