2^nd of January 2010
Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you've all had a thoroughly brilliant Christmas and that 2010 will see you returning to watch progress with the updates and spiffing new features currently on the drawing board here at Muppet Labs.

There will actually be a number of significant changes during the coming year, because the company I work for was taken over and the new one doesn't need two Head Offices.  Thus, from mid-March I shall be out of a job.  Apart from the small matter of abject poverty, it's not an entirely bad thing, as the aforementioned health problems were making life difficult enough for me to consider taking early retirement anyway.

On the 'plus' side, once I've done the housework and satisfied the constant and unreasonable demands of the dog, I'll then get to play on the computer all I want.  Top of the list is mending duff links and stuff that no longer works -- you may not have noticed yet, but on Jan 1st our mapping tool went the way of the pear, so I'll soon be seeking an alternative to that as well.  Then there's the vast backlog of submissions and unanswered messages I wake up screaming about...

In the interim, I've just rebuilt the guestbooks for the next six months and will continue to potter around the place with my oil-can on a daily basis until I'm finally freed from the inconvenience of work.  Stay chooned.

5^th of July 2009
Apologies for the apparent lack of activity.  I'm very much alive, if still somewhat poorly.  The serious illness which we thought had been cured last year, turns out to have not been cured quite as well as we'd have liked and has recently been added to by a minor heart condition.  Although I'm continuing to work, exhaustion is a now major problem.  The upshot of this is that both communication and updates to this site are currently few and far between.  Believe me, I'm hoping that situation will soon improve!

The traditional half-yearly rebuilding of the Guestbooks has now been completed.

1^st of January 2009
Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you had a merry Christmas too, or should I say "Nadolig Llawen", since ours was spent in the village of Hook in Pembrokeshire, where Nita lived until a few months ago.

I've now set up the guestbook for 2009, so we're just waiting for our newest visitor to be the first to sign in this year and tell us which tree they've dropped out of.  Work on other stuff here will re-commence once several flat-pack wardrobe doors have finally been assembled and hung - thus affording me a temporarily quieter life.  I suppose it is about time, as it had been pointed out that they may soon have antique value otherwise.

6^th of December 2008
If you've been following the discussion about Dorothy Timmons' family on The Noticeboard, you'll be interested to hear that Bryan Hoggarth has sent us an 1838 marriage cert today, which relates to her branch.  Seems I've just acquired another cousin.  Thanks, Bryan!

There's tons more stuff to add.  However, spare time has in short supply recently, due to health problems and a series of other life-changing events which seem to come thick and fast over the past year.  Not the least of these events was my partner, Nita, moving from Pembrokeshire to live with me, in September.  This what a Nita looks like [ picture ].

1^st of July 2008
Just some more guestbook maintenance today.  Please be assured that your email/article is coming next (just like everyone else's).

19^th June 2008
I thought business was kinda slow!  Having not had any notifications of Guestbook signings recently, it came as quite a shock when I learned that, not only had there been visitors, but an entire Family Tree had been left there for us.  Enormously grateful though I am, the Guestbook isn't best place for such articles.  So you'll find Gillian Hogarth's contribution has now taken root in the Family Trees module of our Reference Section.  Thank you Gillian.

27^th May 2008
I'm still here, if a bit quiet.  The good news is that my illness is responding to treatment far better than I could have expected.  The bad news is that I must persevere with chemotherapy for at least a couple of months longer.  So, what this effectively means is that it's only the toxic medication killing me now!  However, the picture is a whole lot better than it was at the end of last year, when I was informed that there was less than a 50/50 chance of success.  In the meantime, I check my pulse every morning, and if I've still got one I go to work.

By way of a peace-offering, I've just added the 1860 Death Cert of William Hoggarth of Littlebeck fame, that was kindly sent to us by Angela Hoggarth.  As you might imagine, there's also a ton of other stuff waiting (including more obfuscating), but I will tackle it eventually - honest!