Gillian (Platts) Causier

Ancestors

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Gillian Causier [send private message] and Jonathon Davenport [send private message]

About me: I was born in Leicestershire, England and I have a background in science and technology education. I am an amateur potter (tile maker) and self-taught mosaicist. I have a wide interest in craft and own two kilns and several knitting machines. I also have Ankylosing Spondylitis, which is an inheritable, immune mediated, systemic form of arthritis which came from my dad.

Genealogy My interest in genealogy was sparked by my mother who mentioned that her ancestors came from Banbury but she didn't know why they migrated to Leicestershire. It then simmered for several years untouched, because I also have the name Smith in my tree which I felt would be difficult to research. I eventually had a potter around on the internet during a period of ill health, got bitten by it and the rest is (family) history.

I have a specific interest in recording English working class people and their occupations, particularly in north Leicestershire and it's connecting counties. I also have interest in the Canterbury and Banbury areas due to migration of people in my own tree from those places to Leicestershire. I love to source, and all of the information I record is source-led.

I currently have a specific interest in the following names:

• Platts, particularly from Worthington, Leicestershire and surrounding hamlets/villages and particularly those people who worked with stone, clay or brick, or who were miners, but also wheelwrights, hatters, glovers, lacemakers, potters or gardeners.

• Davenport, particularly from Bagworth and Donington Le Heath, Leicestershire, Walsgrave, Warwickshire and Bilston, Staffordshire who mostly worked in coal mining.

• Wilkins, stonemasons from Banbury district.

• and of course I'm still interested in all of the other names in my tag list.

• I do a spot of 'connecting' now and then of various other names, always using primary sources.

I have very little interest in nobility or celebrity, who I think get enough attention as it is from others. I have recorded a few "Notable" people who I consider to be high achievers or who were philanthropists or beneficial to their community in some way. I do not have any interest in recording people who have achieved fame for fame's sake.

Noticeboard

Important note To the Canadian man with Cullens in his family tree who sent me a couple of nice e-mails a while back, please can you resend them? They accidentally got deleted when I was trying to move them to a saved folder, I coughed and my hand wobbled. I wanted to reply but I've been unable to.

Just a polite note to say that if you mail me about anything, please be aware that I deal with thousands of pieces of information in a week and I have memory issues due to chronic illness so please, if you do need to mail me about something, please be as specific as you can because often I get messages from other people where I have no idea of what is being referred to. Once I've moved onto something else, I don't remember the details of the previous thing I worked on.

Polite note about the tone of e-mail messages: After having received rude and nasty toned messages to my e-mail address a few weeks ago, please be aware that if you communicate with me to my private e-mail address, I expect it to be done in a polite manner and neutral tone (or even a happy one!). Anybody not doing that will be referred via Problems With Members to Wikitree management or reported to their ISP in extreme cases. If your contact with me contains putdowns or worse still, veiled threats, don't be surprised if I object strongly. Happily the sort of people who are this rude are in a tiny minority.

I like receiving positive, happy messages and any information that may be relevant or new but I don't appreciate cryptic messages being placed on my profile or reprimands to my inbox from other members of the genealogy community. If something was done that is not to your liking, please feel free to change it back, it takes a couple of seconds to roll back a bio or change the contents of a box, far less time than it takes to e-mail me with your critque of my abilities.

This is a collaborative site and I am very diligent, I only ever add information that is backed up by evidence - i.e. sources - in the way that Wikitree asks but sometimes people can be testy about changes. Please remember the Wikitree rule which is to stop, drop and roll if you feel frustrated! By all means say "I've changed that back because of <insert fact here> and I wanted you to know" but let's keep it to an exchange of information, not trying to make me feel like rubbish, please.

A couple of times now I have had messages which include things like "I know you are only a volunteer" as though volunteer is some kind of low station. I am a private genealogist who has chosen to work on a public collaborative tree, the same as ALL active Wikitree members and ALL of them have the volunteer badge, it's a requirement of participating. This does not mean I have signed up to be spoken down to, so please be polite and respectful. I have even had someone comment on the (perceived) gender of my e-mail signature. Really, is that sort of rudeness going to get you anywhere? I use an anonymised webmail with a fictional signature to protect myself online and sometimes I forget to change the signature to my Wikitree persona when replying to messages from here, so if you don't think you got who you expected to get, that's why.

With all of that said, I am now going to get on with the genealogy. Whether or not you are a Wikitree member, if you want to send me some information or ask a (polite, relevant) question, please do, I welcome it. I don't bite, unless I'm growled at!

Sources

• First-hand information. Entered by Gillian at registration.