iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

I wrote "...in Kansas City" 🍖💙 in an email. Gmail flagged it as a potential error and suggested "inconsistency." 😱

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

The Cumbria FHS is hosting a family history conference in late July celebrating 50 years of service to the community.

cumbriafhs.com

CFHSv3.50 - Jubilee

Events Jubilee Conference

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

I think I have my two John Rider/Ryder men living in a tiny Yorkshire village separated. Some of their same-named children, not yet.

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Reposted by Ruth Phair Mason

Steven Beschloss @stevenbeschloss.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

It is clearly deeply annoying for a sociopath when a human collapses nearby and distracts attention from him.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

#GenHour #Ancestry Cumbria FHS, celebrating its Jubilee year, will host a three-day #FamilyHistory conference and fair from 29 July through 1 August 2026 at Carlisle. The website isn't updated yet but the information is on its Facebook page. More details coming soon.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Watch out Cumbria and Yorkshire, and London, I’m coming back! #familyhistory #genealogy #ancestry #cumbriafhs

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

#AncestryHour, I’ve been researching speakers for my local genealogy society. For our regular 2026 meetings, I’ve engaged a speaker on researching Revolutionary War soldiers (my folk were still in their old countries) and have contacted a couple more. Our quarterly webinar series is nearly set.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Nine years ago today, a volunteer in the Cumbria FHS fulfilled a request for a photograph of my 3xGGmother's tombstone, which almost certainly was carved by her grandson-in-law, a talented stonemason and sculptor. #genhour #genealogy 1/3

Gravestone with ornate knobs extending from a triangular top.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

I received @janetfew.bsky.social’s book, A History of Women’s Work, last week on its debut in the US. I was traveling so I first saw it last night. I plan to read it on a cross-country flight this weekend. It looks very promising. #genealogy #familyhistory

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

#BIRLS I submitted a FOIA request in December and received an acknowledgment in June. I’ll be waiting a lot longer now. As soon as the basic information is provided, I’ll be submitting an appeal. #genealogy #familyhistory www.birls.org/updates

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

On August 4, 2025, the Library of Congress will complete the transition of the Chronicling America Historic Newspapers website to a new interface and back-end search infrastructure. #genealogy 1/

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

My mother started a diary in 1945 when she turned 15. She continued for 75 years. I have read about visits with friends, jealousy when another girl flirted with “Merley,” driving a car into a ditch. Her sister home from a TB sanitarium. Then college and meeting our dad. #genchat 1/

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

My sister and I took the Settle-Carlisle line (starting from York) last summer. Such beautiful scenery from every angle.

Photograph of vintage train parked at Carlisle train station on the Settle-Carlisle line.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

Hmm. 2.5 hours away. I might try to get a carpool set up.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

A favorite feature of FamilySearch was the map of 1851 English jurisdictions. Sadly, it had outdated tech and frequently broke. I opened the page and it has a whole new user interface. www.familysearch.org/en/mapp/ Early Historical Maps #genchat post for this weekend. #Ancestrychat #Genealogy

Screenshot of FamilySearch Labs version of England Jurisdictions 1851. Updated with new technology and user interface

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

I am separating couples named John & Ann Horner. A defining record is a spinster’s probate where “two surviving sisters natural and lawful” were administrixes of her 1836 estate. So their two older “natural” sisters, Ann & 3xGGmother Mary, were dead. The field narrows. #ancestrychat #familyhistory

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

Hello #GenHour. I'm writing up minutes for my first commitee meeting as the Program Chair in my local genealogy society. I have a team of enthusiastic people to help set up a plan for 2026 and to finish our 2025 program year. I'm excited for another way to make a difference in my community.

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Reposted by Ruth Phair Mason

Dai Davies of GenealCymru @genealcymru.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

Rev. John Williams of St. Ishmael's, Pembs., was a bit confused with the new 1837 marriage forms. He even had the next clerk confused until the next year! For those who don't know, the conditions normally listed are Bachelor, Spinster, or Widow(er) Lol #Genealogy

The condition column on an 1837 parish marriage record which reads "Tolerably good"

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

#GenHour friends, help me out. The minister of Dufton Parish in Westmorland seems to have signed off on the Bishop's Transcript that includes his burial. What was commonly done when BTs were created around that time?

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

Roundabout claim to fame. My 2x great-grandmother Mary Mackintosh was listed as the household servant of Wilfred Wright, noted wrestler (Cumberland and Westmorland Rules), at Acorn Bank Mill in Westmorland in the 1841 census. #FamilyHistory #Genealogy 1/2

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

This is my first #GenHour. Today, I submitted an article to my local society about my grandmother who saw a murdered man in the street when she was 8 years old in 1896. Her parents and future father-in-law testified at the trial as they were minor players in the drama earlier in the day.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

Scammer? Heir Hunter? The first ad below 6 June 1863 in the Missing Friends page of The Boston Pilot sounds so scammy. The two ads above the date are my husband's 3x ggparents' ads for their siblings. I found it years ago when it was on the Missing Friends website. #familyhistory #genealogy

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

I just sorted out a family on FamilySearch tree that was a mashup of two Yorkshire men of the same name with wives who shared the same first name. I added explanations and a linked a lot of sources tonight. Great Performances on PBS has a 2024 performance of Kiss Me Kate from the West End on now.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

A clump of mistakes. No other records exist for Matthew, yet his sister Ann—born around the same time—has no baptism record. Could it be that, just before the Bishops Transcripts were handed over, a church warden hastily added a fitting biblical name to both books? #familyhistory #genealogy

A group of baptism records in both the PR and BT books that contain a few mistakes in just two entries.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

I found a Bishops Transcript for a 1761 baptism in Hauxwell parish, Yorkshire, at FamilySearch a couple years ago. Now I find the Parish Register but his baptism entry was in 1760!?! In the corner of the BT, the churchwardens say it is a true copy of the entries for 1760. #FamilyHistory #Genealogy

Baptism and burial headings in this Bishops Transcript show 1761 but the churchwardens swear it is a true copy of the 1760 parish register.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

Ten years ago, I found this article about my 2xggfather taking his children to the church for a mass baptism. Jane Hough @allthosebefore.bsky.social on S8E9 of The Family Histories Podcast @familyhistpod.bsky.social described a similar family baptism. #familyhistory #Genealogy #ancestry 1/3

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

My great-grandfather Alfred likely trained as a stonemason with his father in England, with his apprenticeship years falling neatly between census records. In 1888, he emigrated to Toronto with his wife and eight children, where he worked for two summers on the Parliament building. #genealogy

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Copy and paste to introduce yourself to #Genealogy Bluesky. Years researching: 14 Hobbyist or pro: Hobbyist Fun fact/Wildest discovery: My 4th great-grandparents in Yorkshire had five natural children, married, then had five lawful children. My niche: Currently working on the north of England

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