Family

Family (human)
Family (non-human)
Ancestry

last updated October 2nd 2007

Family (human)

The most important members of my family are Alice (my partner), and my mother, Kay.

I'm not permitted to say too much about Alice (she's a very private person). Suffice to say that we've been together since 1997 and seem to form some kind of vaguely beneficial symbiotic relationship.

Kay was raised in Croydon, England. It was only recently that we have discovered her birth name, Kathleen Shewring, and that she is descended on her mother's side from a quarrying family in Wiltshire. My father, Robert Dignan, was born in Romahapa, New Zealand. His family was of Irish descent on both his mother's and father's side (although his father's family had been in Scotland since the 1840s). More details on my ancestry can be found here.

After my dad's death in 1974, my mum and I moved to Milton in New Zealand, where (at that time) my father's parents, Eleanor and Jim, still lived. Mum is now retired, but spends much of her time writing. She has a handful of published short stories, and two or three novels (sadly as yet unpublished).

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Family (non-human)

At the beginning of 2005 I was acquired by two male kittens. When they first arrived at the house, one would run around like a mad thing, whereas the other ran away whenever there was a loud noise. For this reason, they were named Nut and Bolt respectively. Nut is black and white, black along the back with white face and lower legs, and salt-and-pepper hindquarters. Bolt is almost entirely black, with a slight reddish tinge, making for very dark tabby markings. Nut is the mad boffin - he loves anything to do with technology and still lives up to his name. I swear it is not normal cat behaviour for a cat to climb into a shower while it's in use. Bolt, on the other hand, is the more "cat-like" - elegant, sleek, silent. They seem to vaguely tolerate each other most of the time, but there are definite signs of affection between them. Think Wallace and Gromit, and you're close to both their personalities and their behaviour towards each other.

Sadly, since July 2008, there has been no sign of Bolt. He went out one day near the beginning of the month and hasn't been seen since. Though I still hold faint hopes that he's out there somewhere and will one day return, I realise those hopes are very thin indeed.

I also act as auxiliary bipedal slave to Alice's cats: the sleek, brainless Grizzel (a.k.a. Grug the Thug), the big-eyed and ever-hungry Missy Hoover, and the practical joker, Monsieur le Fang (a.k.a. Stumpy).

Of the several pets I have had previously in my life, two in particular hold a special place in my memory.

One was, of all things, a tortoise called Tim, my pet from the age of four to eleven. Sadly this was when I left for New Zealand, and due to animal quarantine regulations, tortoises were not allowed into the country (they carry a disease which affects sheep, a staple of this country's economy). For all I know, he could still be alive with his new family somewhere in England.

For a very large portion of my life - eighteen years - I was blessed to share my home with Jenny, a ginger cat. During that time she went from being an inquisitive, nervous kitten to an arthritic, wise, loving, opinion on legs. Jenny was a confidante, a nurse, a reassuring presence, and a source of love and entertainment. A friend once told me that losing a cat leaves a uniquely shaped hole in your heart - no new cat will entirely fill that hole, no matter how wonderful that new cat may be. Wherever her spirit may roam, I hope it is happy, dancing free and nimble as a kitten on a cloud.

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Ancestry

I have been doing quite a lot of genealogical research, and maybe some day I'll put it on this site. Suffice to say that my grandparents were Jim Dignan, Eleanor Mahon, Kathleen Shewring, and someone unknown.

On the Dignan line, I have traced my ancestry to Bernardi Dignan and Mairea (nee Daly) from Co. Roscommon in Ireland. Their son Thomas left Ireland at the time of the great famine and moved to Scotland, where he married Bridget Clark. Their son James married Helen Lyall - my great-grandparents. It seems that the name Dignan (once O'Duigenan) has been connected with northern Roscommon for many centuries, and is intimately connected to the Clan MacDermot.

On the Mahon line, John Mahon married Frances Darby, their son John married Frances Sharpe, and their daughter was my grandmother, Eleanor. Frances Sharpe's parents were Joshua (or Josiah) Sharpe (son of James) and Ellen Purcell (daughter of Philip). This line traces back to co. Cork in Ireland.

I have no knowledge of my mum's paternal line. Her birth mother was Kathleen Shewring, daughter of Daniel and Emma (née Waite). Daniel was the son of Paul and Sarah-Jane (née Franklyn), and the grandson of Paul and Susanna (née Baker). Emma was the daughter of George Wait. The Shewrings lived in Corsham, Wiltshire, and the name seems to be only found historically in the area around Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and south Wales.

I'm still searching... for my own and Alice's genealogical lines. If you have any information on any of the following names, please email me!
 

BAKER, BROWN, CLARK, COLE, COWANS, DALY, DARBY, DIGNAN, FENWICK, FRANKLYN, GRIFFIN, HAY, HEDLEY, HILL, LIVINGSTONE, LYALL, MacLEAY, MAHON, METHVEN, PARE, PEAR, PEATTIE, PURCELL, RICHINGS, ROSENBROCK, SHARPE, SHEWRING, SPRAGG, WAITE, WHITHORN, WHITTORN.
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