Out of the Hallowe'en Trees

Two days ago was Hallowe'en. As mentioned, it was an old festival centred on the New Year. Spirits of the dead were said to roam the earth and skies. Christianity latched onto the idea and came up with All Saints (or Hallows) Day (1st November), when Christians remembered the saints and martyrs of the early Church. November 2nd is All Souls Day when all Christian dead were remembered.

Over the centuries Christians began to think of spirits of the dead as evil and began to "demonise" the whole festival. Even today there are people who say Hallowe'en is evil. The Church has also been accused of hypocrisy by worshipping ancestors, usually by critics who don't (or won't) understand the idea of remembrance.

Genealogy is all about ancestors. Does that mean genealogists are also ancestor worshippers? The fashion for family history is about discovering where your roots come. It also reveals the forgotten lives of millions who made the world the way it is today.

There's lots of amazing stories to be found in our ancestries. I've mentioned some of my own in previous entries, but there's stories everywhere you look. Take the ancestors of Ray Wilson, of Nottingham's Breakout group - his great-grandparents were bigamists, another ancestor owned a pub which had a secret passage to the local church, and another who ended up in Nottingham workhouse because he was put out of work by the textile machinery invented by his own grandfather!

Or my friend Mark, whose ancestors include Derbyshire lead mine owners, a highwayman, a Methodist lay preacher, and an American cousin who was a Music Hall dancer and married a Native American.After the fun and frolics of Hallowe'en lets try to regain the original idea of the festival and celebrate the lives of our ancestors. With talk in recent years of putting a new Bank Holiday in October why not have a "People's Bank Holiday" on the last weekend in October to celebrate all who have lived before us, whether we're related to them or not.

To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage, click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk

BYRON GRABS ME BY THE GHOULIES!

Hallowe'en seems to grow in popularity each year. Of course it all goes back to pagan times, though they didn't have the modern convenience of a calendar and precise dates and used the Sun and Moon to mark events - a bit like Christian Easter, which moves around.

The most popular costumes people wear on this night are demons, witches, ghosts and vampires. Whilst the first three have been around for centuries, vampires are relatively new in the west.
Surprisingly, it was the 19th century Romantic poets who established the vampire we recognise today. Based on eastern European legends, poets like Coleridge, Shelley, and Nottingham's own Byron gave the blood-sucking demon its more human and sexual overtones which still appeal today. The word vampire first appeared in 1734, taken from a French word which was adapted from the Slavonic for "witch".

Dracula, the most famous vampire, was created by Bram Stoker, a close friend of Oscar Wilde's family, and a man who struggled with his own sexuality. Dracula was influenced by "The Vampyre" by John Polidori, which in turn was influenced by one of the greatest literary "brain-storming" sessions in history.

One stormy night in 1816, in a villa near Geneva, a group of literary friends gathered and challenged each other to tell the scariest tale. Present were Percy Shelley and his wife Mary, John Polidori, and Byron. Mary won the contest with her story of Frankenstein. Byron wrote down a vampire tale, which inspired Polidori to write "The Vampyre".

The vampire possessed corpses and could change into animals, usually a wolf. Then, in South America a relative of my father, Charles Darwin, saw blood-sucking bats. Vampires were popular in literature and Darwin immediately gave the bats the name Vampire Bat. From then on vampires turned into bats rather than wolves. Perhaps that's why people are so scared of bats - thank you, Uncle Darwin! Just think - if Darwin had seen blood-sucking gerbils, we'd see gerbils instead of bats everywhere at Hallowe'en!

In a couple of days I'll write about the other side of Hallowe'en - the "good" side. Until then, let's remember Byron's place in the birth of gothic horror literature.

To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage, click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk

Secret of the Templars revealed!

Today is the anniversary of the persecution of the Knights Templar in 1307. The Templars have entered folklore as an enigmatic group of knights in the supposed possession of many mystical secrets - and thanks to the books "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" and "The Da Vinci Code" that now includes being the guardians of a secret bloodline from Christ.

As Dan Brown has shown, anyone can claim a there's conspiracy or cover-up - you don't need proof to show it, quite the opposite in fact. Even in their lives-time the Templars were accused of all sorts of things based purely on gossip. King Philippe II of France was particularly jealous of the Templar's wealth, so he used this gossip to declare the Templars heretics. On Friday 13th October 1307 he ordered the seizure of all Templar property and wealth, and the destuction of the organisation. Under torture the knights were forced to admit to many accusations, including devil worship and homosexuality. But there was no proof of either. Lots of unanswered questions remain about their activities, but for now let's turn to local connections.

The Templars owned many churches across Europe, and generally any place-name in the UK which contains "Temple" was once their property. In Nottinghamshire they also owned the village churches of Marnham and Sibthorpe, and for a short time Brewhouse Yard at the foot of Nottingham Castle.

King Philippe was the father-in-law of King Edward II of England - that well-known Queen of Nottingham Castle. Edward was at first reluctant to follow Philippe's example and seems to have joined the persecution after realising how much money they had.

As for being guardians of a secret bloodline from Christ through the Merovingian kings, I can now REVEAL that great secret and tell you the identity of the present owner of that bloodline - ME! ... and YOU! ... and 99% of everyone with European ancestry. Genealogists have known for over a century that the Merovingians left thousands of descendants and now have billions of living descendants - including the 18 million in the UK and USA who, like myself, inherit Merovingian blood from the Merovingian-descended King Edward II.

To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage, click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk

"Sorry, Alan" says Gordon

There haven't been many times when I've been pleased about anything Gordon Brown has done, but today he made me quite emotional. The government has given an apology to code-breaker Alan Turing for the treatment he received (both legal and physical) after his conviction for homosexual acts in 1952.

Although not exactly a son of Nottinghamshire, Turing can claim to be a grandson: his father Julius was born in Edwinstowe, the son of the village's vicar. The Turing family itself originates in Scotland, but through the royal Scottish line they are descended from "Queen" Edward II.

Alan Turing was a genius. His grasp of mathematics helped the war-time code-breakers at Bletchley Park to beat the Nazi war machine. It was by no means a one-man effort as all those at Bletchley might possibly be referred to as geniuses, but Turing was the first to find the answers to the problems.

The Nazi persecution of homosexuals is well-known, but after their evil was defeated Turing had to fight another battle against home-grown homophobia. It beggars belief to hear of the medical treatment Turing and hundreds of others were forced by law to undergo - chemical castration for example. In the end it was too much for Turing. A court case and medical treatment drove him to suicide. By eating an apple laced with poison he ended his life at an age (42 years) and a time (the 1950s) when his mathematical skills could have launched him to world icon status equal to Einstein. Instead, his sexuality and the society in which he lived ensured that his name was ignored until relatively recently.

The whole computer age could have begun decades earlier if Turing was able to continue working. There's no reason why he couldn't still be alive today, at the age of 97, working away at a computer his mathematical theories helped to create.

And if you're not sure about the significance of his work think about this: spend one day without anything that requires a computer, microchip or digital signal. In effect, live exactly as Alan Turing did in the 1950s. Even the unravelling of the DNA genome could not have been done without a computer, nor could any of the interminable effects seen on TV and film.

To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage click on http://www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk/

PRIDE

What a great day we had at Nottingham Pride. Many thanks to everyone who turned up. And special thanks to the Pride committee for their naked midsummer ritual that ensured good weather. Having to work most weekends I don't get much chance to visit Prides, but there's another one I definitely don't want to miss.


Sunday 16th August is Doncaster Pride. There was some controversy after the local government elections in May when the town's new Mayor declared that he'd withdraw the money the council had already promised Doncaster Pride because he said the LGBT community wasn't worth it. It did some good though because there's been more interest in Doncaster Pride than ever before. I've a personal interest in going because I was born there, so I'd like to give my support.


I'd like to step outside our heritage border briefly to look at Doncaster's links. Doncaster is on the edge of Barnsdale, where the original Robin Hood ballad was set. It was also where the Earl of Lancaster declared his opposition to Nottingham Castle's queenly couple Edward II and Piers Gaveston. This led to the defeat of the Lancaster Rebellion and the outlawing of many people - including one Robert Hood of Wakefield.


The town is also the home of Robin Hood's co-murderer Sir Roger of Doncaster, and where legend says Robin founded St. Mary Magdelene's chapel.

Not far from Doncaster is the old RAF Finningley, also on the edge of Barnsdale. Actually, until 1972 Finningley was in Nottinghamshire so should feature in our project, and in the 1960s my uncle Group Captain Jimmy Cromarty, OBE, (who sadly died a couple of weeks ago) was station commander. RAF Finningley is now called, appropriately, Robin Hood Airport.Unfortunately my plans to get to Doncaster Pride may be scuppered by the absence of decent transport links - I can get there in time to catch the last bus back! Wish me luck!


To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk

Pride march comes home

Nottingham Pride is less than a week away, and there's a tingle of excitement this year because we're having our first march - Walk With Pride. In a way you could say that the Pride march is coming "home".

Let's start at the beginning. The Stonewall Riots of June 1969 led to the formation of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) in New York shortly afterwards. They held a march on the first anniversary of the riots. Two British men were there at the time and together they were inspired to form a GLF group in the UK. One man was Aubrey Walter, the other was a 19-year-old sociology student from Nottingham called Bob Mellors.

The first UK GLF meeting attracted 9 people and from them grew an organisation that has earned a place in history as one of the pioneers of protest, even though, as a national group, it existed for less than 3 years.

After a small-scale attempt at a protest march and various "zaps", the GLF decided to hold a march with the deliberate aim of showing the "straight" world that gay men are willing to fight prejudice and discrimination. Following the example of the US GLF, the UK group arranged the first London Pride march on the Stonewall anniversary in June 1972. The idea took a couple of years to catch on, until today there's an LGBT parade every week somewhere in the world.

The Nottingham march could be a kind of memorial or celebration of thanks to the late Bob Mellors who died in 1996. It is sad that it has taken so long to have a Pride march in his home county. I hope everyone will turn out in their thousands to join in or cheer the marchers.

And just in case you think the city council have allowed the march to take place because they support diversity, write to them and ask why we can't march through the Market Square like the Caribbean and St. Patrick' Day marches.


To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage, click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk

Out of their Trees - a legal mash

There are times when it doesn't surprise me when a well-known actor comes out. Last month David Ogden Stiers admitted being gay. His face and distinctive name became a regular part of my childhood from his appearances as Major Winchester in the series "MASH". But it was his regular appearances in the 1980s revival of "Perry Mason", where he played the Prosecuting Counsel, that lit up my gaydar.

Playing Perry Mason, as he did in the original 1960s series, butch gay Raymond Burr frequently reduced Stiers' witness to tears of confession with the booming "Isn't that right?" after detailing his deductions in court, to which you would always see Stiers' camp purse of the lips as if he was thinking "Ooh, you bitch!"

I was asked earlier this year why it is often easier to trace American ancestry. The answer's simple - they keep better records than we do. So in no time at all I traced David Ogden Stiers' ancestry back to medieval Nottinghamshire.


Three prominent families in his ancestry are the Willoughbys of Wollaton, the Nevilles of Rolleston and the Babingtons of Chilwell. Stiers has some Mayflower ancestry as well, but none originating in Nottinghamshire.Like myself Stiers inherits royal blood through Edward III, son of Nottingham Castle's favourite queen - Edward II. Similarly we both descend from the brother of the castle's only (so far) gay constable Sir William Neville.Among his notable LGBT relatives (apart from myself!) are Will Young, Claire Balding, Anthony Perkins, Francis Bacon (the artist) and Ellen Degeneres.


To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage, click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk