iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Came across this old Belfast photo and wondered what the lovely building on the right was*. Took a while to track it down, and pinpoint the exact location. Unfortunately I did... * Whitla Medical Institute, built c.1902 and dem. 1990s

Black and white photo of the Maritime Hotel, College Street North, Belfast. Popular music venue, where Van Morrison and his band started out. To the right of the building is an Edwardian Gothic building, the Whitla Medical Institute.

Street View image of a plain brick wall and a low roof behind it. There is a small blue plaque on the wall, marking the site of the Maritime Hotel.

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

I am having the kind of day that requires a quokka, and it would be selfish to keep it all to myself.

Head and shoulders shot of a quokka grinning in a quokka-ish way and generally looking adorable.

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

That's one upright and a loom weight taken care of.

Photo of a small dog with a really big stick.

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Face blindness - Came across this pic of identical twins who were mixed up at birth. Took me a while to work out who went with who, because the faces all looked similar but different. I compared individual facial features, and now it's really obvious. Can other people see it instantly?

Screenshot of four photographs of men's faces, with each of them looking directly towards the camera.

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Treated myself to some fancy yarn, just because. I've never worked from a yarn cake before.

A round 'cake' of yarn viewed from the top, starting with dark plummy red on the outside, and changing through shades of purple, pink and orange as it moves towards the centre. Some of the yarn is a solid colour and other parts have different shades twisted together.

The outside of the yarn cake, labelled 'YarnArt Flowers'

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

The farm before and after the railway (Maps reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland) #OnePlaceWednesday

1909 OS map showing the same field as the previous image, but with a railway line running vertically through the centre of it.

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

I'm not used to thinking about counties in some of those areas, so may have mislocated a few towns, but I had a go! A combination of travel for work, academic conferences and visiting uni friends let me see a lot more of England than I would have otherwise.

Map of the UK, colour coded with counties where I have lived, stayed, visited, stopped and passed through.

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Came across this photo from the early 1900s of St Mark's, Dundela (the Belfast church often associated with C S Lewis). Using maps, I'm trying to imagine what I would have seen around me if I had been the photographer - it's frustrating not been able to swipe round StreetView-style!

Tinted photograph of a dusty-looking road, with a striped church tower on the right-hand side. The road (the Holywood Road) is lined with low walls, hedges and trees. There is a pavement on the left-hand side, and a very narrow strip of pavement on the right. Two people are walking in the distance.

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

The generated links to the actual #1926Census records all appear to be broken (for me anyway), but can be fixed by adding %20 to join the two parts. #IrishGenealogy

Examples of broken, auto-generated link and an amended, functioning link.

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Playing with links to the #1926Census. The generated links are quite long and messy, so if you want a neat link to an individual's transcription page, the key bit of info that needs to be at the end is: /#a_id=XXXXX (replacing the Xs with the ID number). #IrishGenealogy

Examples of an auto-generated link to a census transcription page, and a modified short link.

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

I ❤️ doing old newspaper research #GenHour

Image from a scanned newspaper, where the text is unreadable dots and smudges, and the OCR has no chance.

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

Not the greatest pic of a family of moorhens, but the magnificent feet are on full display! I love the Ulster-Scots name for a moorhen - sheugh duck. #CootsAndMoorhens #BirdOfTheDay

An adult moorhen (facing away) standing next to two black chicks. They are on a smooth tarmac surface, so the large feet are clearly visible.

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

This is a swan, honest. Taken at Barnes WWT Centre. #swans #BirdOfTheDay

Black swan, sitting curled up on grass, in front of a log and water. Its neck is twisted round, with its beak buried in the feathers on its back.

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Have seen a few #DucksOutOfWater photos today, and I'm never one to duck out of a trend. Taken at Barnes WWT Centre in 2007 1/2.

Duck (female tufted duck?) walking across the grass with six very fluffy ducklings following in a line behind.

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

I hadn't realised that the illustrations for 'Ireland's Memorial Records' (the list of Irish war dead from the First World War) were done by stained glass artist Harry Clarke.

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

(This is an old pic that I happened to have lying around)

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

An 18-month old Angela Lansbury endorses Pond's Cold Cream.

Newspaper cutting from The London Daily Chronicle, 5 May 1927 - A consultation with Angela Brigid - When I saw Miss Moyna Macgill, little Angela Brigid Lansbury was in attendance. Miss Macgill is, in private life, the very charming wife of Mr Edgar Lansbury, and Brigid, aged 1 1/2, is their daughter. In reply to my inquiry as to whether she used Pond's for that lovely complexion of hers, little Brigid made sympathetic sounds which her mother interpreted as meaning "not yet, but I jolly well intend to later on." And her mother completely approved of that very sensible decision. "One of the best things that I can hope for her," said Miss Macgill, "is that she should keep a fair and clear complexion, free from all blemishes; and when she begins to grow up she will be taught that Pond's Two Creams are the best means to that end."

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Some weird ghost images in this newspaper scan.

Head and shoulders photograph of a man superimposed over text (from the Irish Times, 1936)

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

The other bit of the Secret Service that put it there must be really annoyed...

Headline from The Guardian: Secret Service says it dismantled 'imminent telecommunications threat' near UN general assembly ahead of Trump speech.

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

I ❤️ the Internet Archive, but I wish uploaders would get the metadata right - been looking for this report for longer than I should have, and it wasn't until I realised there were multiple "First Annual General Reports" that the penny dropped. Usually it's the publication date that's unreliable.

Title page for an "Eighth Annual General Report"

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

Use it anyway. There's even a footnote you can borrow.

Footnote reading: 1 This was once revealed to me in a dream.
The footnote is apparently found in Nikolai Berdyaev's book The Divine and the Human.

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

My day has improved significantly - just received a shiny new library card via the uni's civic borrower scheme (pictured here with my swanky new-ish diary 😊)

Back of an Ulster University library card (obviously not showing any of my personal details) sitting on an aquamarine Moleskine academic diary (this season's limited edition colour, don't you know, and very tasteful).

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

Are there any nice Irish speakers out there who can tell me what this says?

List with the names Tlaith-Bheatha, Adhbhar Neambeo, Ar an gCanail and Miosoruin.

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

Get up to shenanigans with your otter, get your otter confiscated.

Newspaper cutting from the Newry Reporter, 29 October 1908: "Fishery Case. Mr Hugh Craig, Inspector of Fisheries, summoned Mr James Sinton of Belfast for having on the 5th of September used an otter for the purpose of taking fish in Camlough fresh water lake.
Mr Edwin Harris, solicitor, who represented the defendant, pleaded guilty to the offence, which he said was due to ignorance of the law on the part of the defendant.
The Bench imposed the minimum penalty - £4 and costs - and forfeited the otter.
A similar charge against a lad who was with Mr Sinton on the occasion was dismissed on the merits."

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

Dublin Evening Mail limerick competition, 1942.

Newspaper cutting, for a competition encouraging readers to fill in the poem's blanks and send it in:
There once was a tomboy blank Tilly
Who married blank dry as dust Billy
She blank "Bill seems quite gay
When he blank me his pay
To blank him I wasn't so silly."

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Just came across a painting by Irish artist William Orpen of his parents. Now, I'm 99.9% sure I'm not related to him, but these photographs are of my great-great-grandparents... #DoubleTake

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

He was James Cohorn? Holmes and he ran off to Australia. His wife sued for divorce in Scotland in 1895 and there are a few newspaper articles.

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

Don't think I've seen this before - two unrelated entries from an 1864 Co Armagh birth register (i.e. the year civil registration came into force) where the registrar has recorded that these are 'intended names'. #IrishGenealogy

Part of an 1864 birth register - the children's names are recorded as 'Margaret intended name' and 'John intended name'

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

The finger and box is constantly moving round the thumbnail. Today is the first time I've see it, and there is no obvious way to make it stop.

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

Trying to work out what exactly the second entry here says (baptismal register, Scotland 1783). The date above is 'July 3d', the second entry is *something* day - the crosses over the top have obscured the writing. Paging @davelifelines.bsky.social...

Part of a 1783 baptismal register, Douglas parish, Lanarkshire

Page from a 1783 baptismal register, Douglas parish, Lanarkshire

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Family gravestone (not my photo). It looks complete, but the 'Erected by' bit is missing - was there something more to the monument at one time, or did the sculptor make a grave error...? #Genealogy

Gravestone reading "In memory of his son George Williamson, mill wright, who departed this life on the 25th of November 1831 aged 22 years. Also Margaret Wilson wife of the above Fullerton Williamson who died on the 18th day of January 1846 aged 56 years."

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

My new public service: Every time I come across one of those stupid 'Select Counties' fake death/burial records on Ancestry, I try to locate the entry in the Scotland's People index and leave a note on the Ancestry page. I've seen *multiple* people now confused by these entries. #ScottishGenealogy

Screenshot from Ancestry of comment reading "Information extracted from the death register entry for Margaret GARDNER, aged 69 (Mother's Maiden Name COCHRAN)."

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

Why I Should Never Look At Communal Online Trees. xkcd.com/386/

xkcd cartoon 'Duty Calls' - a stick figure is sitting at a desk, busily typing on a computer keyboard. Dialogue: "Are you coming to bed?" "I can't. This is important." "What?" "Someone is wrong on the internet."

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

It's a Friday afternoon and I'm stuck on the baptismal dates in this Scottish register (1832). It says 26th [something], and I think it might be an abbreviation of 'current'. Can anyone confirm? #Genealogy #ScottishGenealogy

Two entries from a handwritten baptismal register.

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

When I first scrolled past these pics of the Duke of Windsor, I thought it was Nigel Farage, if anyone fancies starting a conspiracy theory.

Post from DieWorkWear's latest BlueSky thread about tie knots, with four photos of the late Duke of Windsor.

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

Ours took phonecards. We had one or two phones per block (95 people.

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Allie Nickell @alliethinks.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

Using food to show where I grew up. (Recipe in alt text)

A platter of fifteens, the quintessential Northern Irish traybake. Made from 15 crushed digestive biscuits, 15 chopped marshmallows, 15 chopped glace cherries and a tin of condensed milk mixed together, formed into a sausage-shape, rolled in dessicated coconut (or dedicated coconut, as it it sometimes known round these parts), chilled until it has set, and sliced (ideally into 15 slices, but don't be stingy). Some people with notions may tell you other ingredients can be included for a modern twist - they are wrong.

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