My WW1 all encompassing dio

[scottie3158]

Peter,
A question from a figure numpty why has his right hand been glued to the sandbag, is it so you can form the hand to the base?
Stay safe

[Jim R]

Hi Peter
This is a very impressive model. Very well set out. Love all the little personal details. The adaptation of the trench climber is spot on.
Jim

[Peter Gillson]

Peter,
A question from a figure numpty why has his right hand been glued to the sandbag, is it so you can form the hand to the base?
Stay safe

Hi Paul. You arr spot on with the reason - it is so the sandbag can be formed around the hand. The wrist/cuff makes an easier and more distinct separation point,

Peter

[Neil Merryweather]

ooh NICE!

[Peter Gillson]

Hi Guys

i've been a bit distracted by my 'lock-down' project of researching my family tree - only online research, but fun all the same. However
i have found time to do a little work on this - the first two figures are painted and in place. They will need dirtying up a bit which
i will do using ground up artists' pastels when all the figures are in place.

sorry for the poor photos - I blame the Ipad!

Peter

[Neil Merryweather]

very nice Peter

[stillp]

Very good Peter.
How did you get on with the family history? I've been doing mine for about 15 years, and found some interesting stories. Found a very distant relative from Jersey, surname Desalliond, in some records De Salliond or Desallioud.
Pete

[scottie3158]

Peter,
Looking very nice mate.

[Peter Gillson]

Niel & Paul - thanks for the support.

Pete - the family tree is quite interesting. My brother did the French side of out family a few years ago and managed to get it back to the year 2. yes the year 2! After the French revolution they changed the French calender so the year 2 equates to something like 1798, so it is not that impressive!

I've been meaning to work on the Guernsey/UK sides of the family for some years and have got some info, what prompted me to really have a go was the lock-down and an offer for 2 weeks free membership of Ancestry UK. On-line i have been able to work through the many census record and so trace the family back to the mid 1840s from official government documents. it seems the Gillson come from Islington via Great Yeamouth.

one interesting facility on Ancenstry Uk is the ability to search other people's family trees, and i found a few which take the Guernsey part of the family back to the 1300s. Because it is other people's work I am not 100% sure if it is correct, so will needs to check the information but at least it will point me in the right direction for when I finally do get around to looking at parish records.

Peter

[stillp]

One thing I've learned Peter is that other people's family trees are occasionally useful as a hint, but can't be trusted. As an example, my father-in-law, who'd never been further from Wales than Gloucestershire, appears in several online trees as having died in Newfoundland. He lived for some years in a village called Fleur-de-Lys in South Wales, and there's a registration district of that name in Newfoundland... What's really disappointing is that many of the tree owners are family members, who would have known him, but clearly haven't bothered to check what they've put online. I made a few mistakes when I started, which were copied into several other trees!
I too started with a free offer on Ancestry - it was more than two weeks then though. I've subscribed ever since. I've dabbled with some other genealogy websites such as The Genealogist and Find My Past, but haven't found them as good as Ancestry.
I'm back to around 1760 on some branches of the tree, but a bit stuck now with the county record offices being inaccessible.
Pete

[Peter Gillson]

I agree about other using other peoples trees as a hint.

we are quite fortunate that our parish records are pretty well intact and go back centuaries. i am fortunate that one branch seems to have stayed within 2 parishes so it should not be too hard to check the information.

one unusual source of info is the. German ID card records. In 1940 the Germans realised that they did not know who was on the Island so issued ID cards. To do this everybody had to complete registration papers and have their photos taken. In true German efficiency everything was in duplicate and our archive service has a full set of the records. I, luckily copied the Gillson records a few years ago.

Peter

[Jim R]

Hi Peter
That is an impressive model. You're doing a great job.
Jim

[Peter Gillson]

Thanks Jim

it's back to working busts for a while, so it will be a little while before I do more on this project.

Peter

[JR]

Hi Peter, I lost track of this just before Christmas so had a re read.
Love it, some really superb modelling. I you like you use an old plastic bottle with glue bottle top . Far better than trying to decant and waste PVA from a larger bottle.

Talking of family trees on my Dads side a complete history of his family is in a book , he met the author its a history of a small lead mining settlement in north Yorkshire/ Durham. Talk about luck!

[minitnkr]

This work is so impressive. I hope you finish it. PaulE