Day Five - All work; No play

Dear Family:

Well there's not any family news today; Stacy and I did our presentation today - it went well but we had one heckler that made it a little exciting - absolutely nothing that between the two of us we couldn't handle. So I was at the conference most of the day - met some interesting folks - back to hotel. I was TIRED - we had dinner and now I'm doing this and getting ready to go to bed.

I'll get up early and take the train down to London - spend the day there tomorrow and come home Saturday. So I should have some interesting photos tomorrow - I plan to just be a tourist although if I knew something about the Archers - One of Richard's bothers went to London from Leonminster as did one of Mary's children (The Ricketts) - Remember Mary was Richard's sister and they all lived together around Corn Square. I have so much information to share with you guys when I get home.
Anyhow, here are a few photos from today: There is a photo of an old church and tower down by the river (they would have been there when Richard and Sarah & family left out, a photo of the river they went down, a photo of Stacy (Dr. Nickson from Auburn) and of the two of us just before the presentation.

Today as I was telling the girl at the hotel about going to the villages, I began to tear up - this really has been emotional - I think It will take a little time to process it all - although writing the blog (even though it has been time-consuming) has been helpful and it also really helps me to know that you are all there reading and participating in this with me. It really really does - this is something so deep that it really needs to be shared with people who understand - as we all do. OK Sorry - I can't upload images for some reason tonight. Also here are some more notes from the archives yesterday:

Inman Line had a home pier in New York; it was pier No. 45 - that would be where Sarah and the children came in.
All the Inman ships had sails and steam engines - their funnel was marked with a black band, white band and a black band at the top. Childre 5-12 only paid half fare (which may account for the discrepancy in Papa's age - he always said he was 12 or 13 but on the ship's passage he was listed as 11 and in the census in England he was listed as 11 (Could our great grandparents fudged about his age to get a half fare?)
On the ship, each person could take 100# of luggage - that's not much to start a new life. July and August were the fashionable months to visit the states so the immigrants went in cheaper months e.g. June. - the ships left from Liverpool for New York on Tuesday and Thursday.

Ok dear family, I'm off to bed. Sleep with the angels - we go to London tomorrow!