The Bluestocking Women’s Pub - The Return of Salad and the Lion

[MyrtleLion]

It’s been a while since I last saw everyone!

Welcome to everyone, regulars, lurkers, newly ventured in.

A place for women to discuss whatever takes their fancy, where the bar staff are attentive gerbils, Rosy the Red Panda is available for cuddles and all sweet things have no calories and all alcohol leaves the drinker slightly merry and hangover-free.

Previous thread is here:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5326705-the-bluestocking-womens-pub-where-brains-can-exist-in-a-single-state

Yup, totally. I remember the consternation in college in Cork where two guys in the same tutorial group were called Jeremiah O Sullivan, and when asked for a middle name were both John, and when asked for a confirmation name were both Gerard. Luckily one was from the county and one from the city and a BIG label to that effect was added to their files.

They've probably spent the rest of their adult lives getting each other's bank statements and hospital appointments. I haven't bothered to change the names because I'm sure there are loads more of them out there.

Or maybe I have changed the names, maybe they were McCarthys, or Josephs. Doesn't matter, Cork teems with them.

Same in other areas. I keep finding a connection and then going, "hang on, everyone in this village is a McDowell or a McLean or a Phillips."

And then you get three generations in a row of Margarets who all married Williams, and you start to wonder if there was something a bit odd about your ancestors.

I have my family tree back to 1190- the joys of an unusual surname.

English, English, English, all the way through.

I have to join in this derail about Irish family names!
It always amazes me that in a country with such a long history of internal migration, ethnic cleansing, emigration etc etc, you can hear the name Justin McCarthy and just know he's a Corkman. And a Bolger or Devereaux will be from Wexford. And Ryan from Tipperary. And Gallagher from Donegal.

It makes tracing family history really difficult, as Deano and Sionnach have said - coincidentally I had a conversation about this recently with some friends, we had all traced our ancestry back as far as we could to people marrying people with the same surname, all of them living in poverty on a scrabby patch of land with a cow or two if they were lucky, or emigrated.
We joked that we'd better not become famous, because our 'Who do you think you are?' programmes would be [a] the same as each other's and [b] boring!

Family folklore of what Grandad and his brothers did or what Great-grandmother used to say or who Auntie used to work for is a better source of 'colour'. I'm so glad that I was a keen listener to my elders' stories when I was a child

I've done my family tree:

The Boiled-McBoiled Lineage

• *Brenda McBoiled* (1768) – A pioneering beetle known for her skill in crafting intricate leaf tapestries.
• *Beatrice McBoiled* (1795) – The first beetle to establish a thriving underground spice trade (mostly dried flower petals).
• *Bernadette McBoiled* (1822) – A fiercely independent beetle, rumored to have once stolen a crumb from Queen Victoria's tea plate.
• *Basilia McBoiled* (1850) – A daring explorer who charted unknown territories within the grand halls of the British Museum.
• *Briony McBoiled* (1878) – Transitioned the family name to “Boiled” after an unfortunate scandal involving oversteamed broccoli.
• *Belinda Boiled* (1905) – Led the Boiled beetles into the era of modern beetle journalism, publishing a widely read weekly newsletter: The Winged Gazette.
• *Bethany Boiled* (1932) – Revolutionized beetle interior design, introducing moss-lined burrows with stunning acorn furniture.
• *Bianca Boiled* (1960) – Fierce advocate for beetle rights, famously protesting against harsh broom sweeps.
• *Brigitte Boiled* (1990) – Discovered the perfect method for safely transporting sugar granules over long distances.
• *Ms. Boiled* (present day) – An heir to a grand tradition, carrying the name and legacy forward with aplomb.

I get a lot of colour from tracing the stories of the emigrants, where in the world they went, what jobs they did, what ethnic communities they assimilated to. Like the family members who settled in New Jersey all seemed to marry into the Sicilian community. Detailed American records often make up for gaps in the Irish records.

And for even more colour, I've discovered that local newspapers in Australia used to have bizarrely detailed reports from the divorce court. I suppose that's what they did for entertainment before TV.

Wow@Boiledbeetle you come from a distinguished line of strong female coleopterids 😁😁

Do those people on that other thread KNOW that the cheerful, obliging and intermittently efficient staff of the Bluestocking were, until their liberation, Foucault-Addled Grievance Gerbils?

Someone here has the T shirt.

This is so brilliant and creative, and funny! Thank you!

I come from a long line of cakes.

Correction. I've stood in long lines for cake.

When we went to Scotland to visit my Nana, everyone was called John or Mary, including Nana. So everyone was referred to by their full name, like John MacAllister and Mary O’ Connor. Except the son of John who was also John MacAllister so he was known as Wee John MacAllister, even unto his 50s and his father had died.

oh come on, Mumsnet

Was it Ryan nicknames in general, or the specific Ryan nickname that I mentioned?

The Shedmistress' GGGG....grandmother was beheaded in the French Revolution. There are arty debauched films about her starting arty actors with not a lot of kit on. i wonder if she'd have got suspended on social media had it been around then? I'm thinking yes.

I've only just finished moving wood and had to have a lie down. My OH bought back some Tunnocks Caramels yesterday, and crisps, and lemon meringue tarts so I must have looked like I needed some sort of bribery to keep going on the wood pile. Our estimation is that they delivered more than we ordered. I'm shattered.

I can't claim a connection to the French Revolution, but one of my relatives is recorded in the Black Book of the United Irishmen. He was a Presbyterian minister who was hanged for treason in 1798.

And the mug and the bag

Deano are you the first deletion from the Bluestocking?

I pleased to see Swashy's ship in so many of the pictures.

I agree Fuzzy, that's a nice gesture

Woley, I think it's tomorrow you and DH are going to visit FIL?
I hope it goes as well as possible - take care of yourselves.

So far I'm only hidden, not deleted. I really didn't say anything awful. I got hidden yesterday for quoting something from The Archers but did understand why. This time???

I think someone is WATCHING me. God love them, they must have time on their hands.

I’ve been busy with the hot glue gun, assembling more hydrangea heads - I’ve made three today, and not one burnt finger! I think I’ve got four or five more to assemble and then I’m done.

It’s not hard to see how Terry Pratchetts Nac Mac Feegles could come to have names such as No'-As-Big-As-Medium-Sized-Jock-But-Bigger-than-Wee-Jock Jock

DH has an unusual surname so was able to trace that side of his family a fair way back. But one of his grandmothers was a Mary Jones, no middle name, from a largish welsh town so that seemed intractable. And my parents both had very common names too.