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the monogram for the eldest son (either DSD or SDD). My GG-Grandfather had them made. They are Kutani porcelain, and, I believe, just over 100 years old. The set originally consisted of dishes for 12 courses and for, I think 80 place-settings. Each couse has a different patterm. Fish course had sea-creatures, poultry dishes had various fowl, and the rice and meat services had landscapes and people, respecitvely. The meat service having people on them was always cause for mirth in the family.

My father received 1/4 of the set, and the were passed along to my brother.

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looking at the ground.

However, looking down has a real advantage (other, of course, that avoiding people staring at you) and that is that you find "stuff". Quite apart from having fund a lot of money this way, I find bits of jewelery, broken pieces of pottery, marbles, beads, driftwood... the flotsam and jetsam of other peoples' lives.

Of the things I find, some regularly found objects are: marbles, religious medallions, animal teeth, porcelain drawer pulls, and (on one particular beach) shards from old clay pipes and arrow heads. I have a whole box of the latter.

When I lived in New York City, the beach on the end of our street provided great finds on a daily basis. There, amongst the medical waste, I found porcelain doll heads; shards of recognizable 18th and 19th century pottery; beach glass, including decanter tops; and porcelain drawer pulls. There were also many unidentifiable but intriguing stone and wood objects.

My advice is "Always look down!"

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distributed at a death or to a new baby...

All these things "meant something" to someone but the meaning to one person is lost to the next but a new meaning is added by that person.

The whole has a different meaning and value than each item and to one person the meaning and value is different....

Objects represent the original owner less than they represent the person who gave them to the present owner, and they represent the current owner differently than they do the giver.

Some of these objects are very old, some newer but they represent in whole and in part a life.... 50 plus years of personal history exist in this pile of objects but there is also 100 plus years of family history; the history of a number of families, as well; and well over 100 years of cultural history tied to the objects, too.

In a way, as well, these objects represent other objects lost, stolen, and passed along; as well as the collections of things they came from individually...

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forms sent out by Rev. Dr. Henry Duncan to collect data on cases of adultery and fornication in the parishes during a 1-year period (April 1, 1842 to April 1, 1843).

Dr. Duncan was, aside form the founder of the first savings bank and responsible for collecting and restoring the Ruthwell Rood (or cross), was Convener of the "Committee of Synod on the Desertion of Illegitimate Children". He was also, apparently discoverer of dinosaur footprints....

For more information about Rev. Dr. Henry Duncan:

Kirklands. Rev. Henry Duncan's home in Dumfrieshire. Now a B&B: http://www.kirklandscountryhousehotel.co.uk/

http://www.newble.co.uk/hall/DuncanH/biography.html

http://www.savingsbanksmuseum.co.uk/index.html

http://www.scotshistoryonline.co.uk/hduncan.html

http://www.rampantscotland.com/famous/blfamduncan.htm

For information about the Kirk Sessions of Dumfries: http://home.iprimus.com.au/bobdalrymple/mundell/KirkRecords.htm

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had rooms held aside for people with jobs deemed "necessary to the war effort" (which icluded the clergy), my father was permitted to stay at a hotel which would normally house military personnel.

During his stay at the hotel, he met a young Polish airman named Alojzy B. Dreja and they struck up a friendship. Mom tells me that, because of the obvious language barrier they had difficulty conversing until they discovered that, because European schools taught one language which enabled them all to converse quite happily... As a result, evenings were spent conversing, for the most part, in Latin!

The cards and letter are dated December 27, 1940. The Christmas wafer mentioned in the letter is still in the folded paper he enclosed it in in the envelope. It is now crumbled with age but I can remember being shown it as a small child.

We don't know what happened to him, but I have started looking for information.

I do know that he was awarded the Virtuti Militari, one of Poland's highest military honours.

It appears that, in all probability, Alojzy died in 1984. I believe that this is him, from information I found on an ancestry website:

Name: Alojzy Baltazar Dreja
Birth: 1 Jan 1918
Death: Dec 1985 - Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey

HOWEVER, from what I have been able to piece together, Alojzy may well be the father of Chris Dreja of the Yardbirds. I haven't yet been able to confirm this but I have sent a query to Chris' manager and hope that someone will answer my question.

UPDATE! I just received an email from Chris Dreja who tells me that Alojzy was, indeed, his father. I am over the moon to have received this news as well as a photo of Alojzy and his wife on their wedding day in 1943! OVER THE MOON!!!!!

Alojzy left the Polish Air Royal Force ( as a Major) at the end of the war and had a successful career in aviation. He was well liked and very much loved by his 3 sons. As I mentioned, he died in 1985.

I still intend to locate more information about his Air Force career and will post it on my blog.


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