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Thank you all !

Ha ha..what a delightful piece of humour. Sums it all up nicely.
Kind regards

5 times great descendant from the village of Cockup

Frances Jenkins

CONGRATULATIONS It is wonderful to know that the energy you had hoped to expend on the 1901 census has been put to such good use. I  look forward to further updates.

Is there any truth in the rumour that Great Cockup has been selected by the government to trial their plans to introduce voting online?

I trust a copy of this report has been sent to the PRO and other guilty parties.

Margaret Pollard

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

******************************
Paul & the Usual Gang of GSD's
On Sunny St. Margaret's Bay
Queensland, Nova Scotia
Bluenose Search & Rescue Dogs
******************************

Dear Miss Tintwhistle,

Thank you so much for your update about Great Cockup's 1901 Census. It is good to know what's going on. It must be a great source of pride and satisfaction to the PRO to know that such organisations as yours model your efficiency, and communication skills, on theirs.

Keep it up!
Best wishes,
Zephaniah Lightbulb

P.S. Oh, and good luck with getting your Victorian Erotica books back from
the vicar. If he's anything like ours he'll have eaten them.

Hi

Just to say I loved the web page - rolled on the floor laughing.  Cheered me up no end. Well done!

Regards

Karen
North Yorkshire

Thank you for your humour it made me laugh and what a great twist on real life.  If you dont you should write tv scripts. look forward to the updates.

Best wishes
Sharon D.

Hilarious!  Thanks for a wonderful laugh.  Marcia in Canada (patiently
waiting without pushing the refresh button since Jan 1st).
 

Brilliant!  Thoroughly enjoyed by everyone at 1901 Census Talk Forum Genealogy.Com - rebels with  a cause.

Come and visit us!

Sandra

Miss Tintwhistle--

Yours is just the sort of stiff upper lip I so admired in 'Mrs Miniver' and which is so necessary for maintaining library etiquette and discipline.

Christopher Wright

Hello Edith

I thought your 1901 letter was brilliant , and would like to send it to friends.

Regards
Allan P.      N.Z.

Your site was recommended by Lou Mills, Listowner of the Lincolnshire RootsWeb Genealogy Mailing List.

It gave me a really good laugh.

I remarked to my husband that, in typical British manner, we were angry with this failure at first, but now seem to have accepted it as the "norm" and are waiting patiently for it to be put right.
 
 
 

Regards

Wendy Parkinson
Lincoln, England
 

Perhaps the Government should consider placing the tax / dvla / passports / police /defence / budget etc computer systems on your computer - with immediate effect - also quote the USA for running the star wars system  maybe they have made these changes already
 

Thanks for the smile
e j brown

Bournemouth England

Dear Miss Tintwhistle

I hope things are going a little better for you now on the 1901 census front.  How frustrating it must be for you!  I think I have been to Great Cockup before - certainly I've heard of the place in conversation many, many times!  It must be near to London is it, because it's usually referred to as being near the PRO.  It must be very exciting to live near to England's great capital!

I hope your problems are solved soon.

Sharon Bleakley in Scotland
 
 

John and Sandra,

this is the funniest thing I have read in a long time!  God bless you and your senses of humour!

Sharon
 

I am new to the list and was a bit "put-out" at first because of the lack of  genealogy, but now I can hardly wait to see WAT'S NEW!! I have not tried to  access the 1901 Census because all my folks were already over here, but I've  been keeping up with the banter regarding it and I have a friend who is  patiently(?) waiting for it to be running again(?).
The report from Miss Tinwhistle is priceless and I am today sending it to my  above mentioned friend who will roll out of her chair with laughter. I can  hardly wait till she receives it. Keep the reports coming.

Peggy Nooney
Jacksonville,Florida
 

Brilliant! Still wiping the tears from my eyes.!

 Best wishes

Susan Giddings

Cambridge, England
 

Many many thanks for making me and the other 1901 Census Club members giggle.
 

Simone Sanderson

Dear Edith:
Greetings from the US.  I  have read, with extreme interest, about Great Cockup and the problem with the 1901 census.  Perhaps if we sent some US help we could manage together to make the situation much, much worse.  Since our pompous assumption (many years ago) of presuming we could survive, and indeed actually thrive, without the help of our Motherland, we have continued to make countless further mistakes of a similar nature. In my humble opinion the greatest of these arrogant assumptions is the belief that we could ever begin to compete with the British sense of humor.  Long live the Queen and may Great Cockup eventually solve the 1901 census problem.  Personally I think they should have put the entire project in your capable hands - perhaps then we would indeed be able to access the bloody thing by now.

Sincerely,
A Yank whose patience has almost run out, but who has still not stopped
laughing!

Hi Edith,

Just have to say I love your piece on the 1901 census dilemma.  I am going to copy and paste it so all my genealogy friends both here in the US and the UK can read and enjoy.  We take so many things for granted now with the computer age.

Sue Jones in Florida, USA
 

Loved your correspondence and look forward to seeing the 1901 Census whenever!

Julie
Dunedin NZ

Thank you for making my day. I wish we had such an obliging library here in our little country town 400kms north of Sydney NSW Australia.

Regards
Ken Meredith

Hi Edith

Just read your letter dated 2 February 2002 about the census update, from the Great Cockup County
Library.

I thought it was fantastic, exuberant and refreshingly funny.   I have a good sense of humour and
look forward to receiving  updates. I would like to one day visit your library but as I am in Australia, it would be difficult for me to get there and back in the one day !!

Anyway keep up the great work.

Glenys Pollard

Victoria. Australia.

I've heard the chaps at Qinuseless are having a go at the balloon altitude record.  They're going to sling a wicker waste paper basket under a hundred party balloons & putting a couple of retired astronauts in second-hand spacesuits in.....well that's the design (Allegedly - Edith).   Well that's two things that won't get off the ground!

Honest....on their website, Qinetiq (or whatever their name is...they used to be DERA before they were privatised!) have announced they are sponsoring an attempt on the balloon altitude record.

Cheers

Doug KIGHTLEY

Hello Edith,
Your web page is absolutely brilliant. Sums up our government to a tee.
Keep it up, we need a bit of humour in these days of non technical wizardry.
Steve Pritchard
Barnsley, S. Yorks. (Ex Oldham, Lancs)

Dear Edith,
Enjoyed your website - sad to see that it is so close to reality.
Being in the antipodes I cannot access the PRO "access sites" and have to wait "patiently" for them to find out how to make it work.

Best Wishes
Glynis
Australia
 

G'day! Youse has put up a real bonza dig at the old rhubarb (PRO) and well deserved too! Wonders if they take any notice, being IT nerds and all? Avagoodweekend!

Warmest regards,

Terry Waters-Marsh
Rockhampton Queensland Australia

Dear Edith:

Thanks so much for your wonderfully informative website <grin>... and to Phil on the BERKS mailing list for posting your URL to the list.   Please also thank your talented library assistants, John and Sandra, for all their hard work.

Gwen (in Canada)

Southern California is having laughing fits.  Keep it up!  Sandy

Thank you - after a month of absolute frustration with the PRO's website I can now laugh hartily - heartily!

Kathy Hartley
(no known relation to the Hartley on your site)
 

Dear 'Edith',

You are brilliant!   Thanks for the healthy dose of laughter! Keep up the good work.

Yours truly,

Sally

Dear Miss Tintwhistle

Congratulations on an excellent site. I have alerted all my friends in and outside of genealogy, who I believe will soon be pouring in to view it. I  hope this won't overload the Library's system capacity.

The grey men at the PRO must be deeply embarrassed. On this occasion I think  they deserve to be.
 

Philip Holmes
 

Your story is a riot......  as an ex-Brit living in Canada I love to read and hear the old Brit humour.   Are you going to keep up the story?   Put me on your mailing list, you are too good to miss.

Mavis in Ontario

Dear 'Edith',

This can, nay must, run & run. May a suggest that you request that a link be ?forged at
the www.pro.gov.uk site?

I haven't laughed so much since ....
 

Cheers,
Trevor (York,UK)

Hi Edith, I was just pointed at your Web site and have been chuckling  mightily. Thank you :-)

I managed to access the 1901 census site for just long enough to get half the information I wanted which is almost more frustrating than not getting on at all!

Pat

Dear Edith

I will now log on daily to the Not the 1901 Census page instead of the Qinuseless 1901 page.  This I believe will be far more productive and also will be better for my health.  Laughs are very good for one while I fear that the day the Qinuseless page responds to me I may fall into a state of shock which could lead to a heart attack.
 

I am a family historian and an 'IT' person and therefore enjoyed your page immensely.
 

Anna

P.S. Maybe we are related 'cos I have a brother called John.

Best laugh I've had in ages. Well done! - Di McBride Christchurch New Zealand.
 

Dearest Edith,

Where can I send my 10p to go towards the legal expenses that will doubtless be incurred when the PRO and QinetiQ sue you for being so near to the truth?

Clearly, they have no sense of humour!

Great site.

Cheers,
David

Dear Edith, and your friends John and Sandra

Greatly enjoyed visiting your little world.
I have linked to your pages from my own 1901 site http://www.geocities.com/pathetiq2002/

Feel free ...
 

Peace,
Graham

Congratulations on a very funny web site.  Your census cock-up page was second only to the spoof therapy pages.  I haven't laughed so much in a long time.

Keep up the good work

John

One of the signs of a truly enlightened society is the ability to poke fun at themselves.  NOBODY does it like the English.  Thanks for a million laughs.

Shirley in California (2nd generation American - parents from England & Scotland).
 

Hi Edith
Told about your website by a cousin of my wife's she just said read it.  I have read it, and it put a smile on my face. Why cant the PRO do something similar, then again it would take years to sort the mess.

Once again brilliant 11/10

Alan R Atkinson

CLASSIC!  More adventures from the Cockup Library please...........

Sandie and Bill
Wild and windy Oamaru NZ

Dear Edith,
    Let me congratulate you on the splendid job you are doing with this project. I really would like to volunteer some time, but I am afraid I am snow-bound here on the Bruce Peninsula in very wintery Ontario, Canada.
    I shall watch expectantly to see if any long-lost relatives should turn up.

Keep up the good work.
Sandra

Loads of Fun
Bobbie,
Here in New Zealand

Hi John and Sandra,
Wonderful! Keep up the very good work - perhaps the PRO ought to read this as it just might buck their ideas up!
Regards,
Linda Groves
London UK
 

Let me congratulate you on the splendid job you are doing with this
project. I really would like to volunteer some time, but I am afraid I
am snow-bound here on the Bruce Peninsula in very wintery Ontario,
Canada.
    I shall watch expectantly to see if any long-lost relatives should
turn up.
    Keep up the good work.
Sandra

Dear Miss Tintwhistle,

Would you please send me the email addy of the other Antipodean....considering a class action... broke my arm when I fell off the chair laughing.  That wasn't funny either..

Yours very respectfully,

Aggie the Ozzie

Thank you ever so much for sharing the photo of the Vicar with your readership abroad. He appears (not to mention, sounds) so positively esoteric.  My goodness, I do believe I find myself  blushing!

Debra

I love your site, with such fun..it's marvellous to have a good laugh !!  Keep on with the good work!

cheers Patricia.

Love your site
Shirley Elrick in
Melbourne, Australia.

Thanks I needed that!

phil

I just had to tell you--I was nearly falling off my chair laughing when I read your updates. Honestly, you'd think the gov't would have anticipated (after having heard about the Ellis Island and Family Search sites being slammed when they opened) huge numbers of hits, but maybe they thought most everyone would be out shopping, or in a doctor's waiting room somewhere, or stuck on the San Diego Freeway in the middle of Los Angeles, filing their nails and reading The National Enquirer.

Thank you again--so good to know that another family historian has a sense of humor besides me.

Elizabeth in Oregon USA (but was originally from LA and has decided that she never
wants to be personally acquainted with the San Diego Freeway ever again)

Waaaaay too funny.  Keep up the good work.
 

J. Jeffrey O'Brien
City of Saskatoon Archivist

My Dear Edith,

Much enjoyed- look forward to more!  Might you start a 'chat room ' perhaps??

Fonds thought,

MPO

Hi and Greetings from Adelaide South Australia

I am greatly relieved by your inclusion of Cockups in your family tree.

Until this revalation I was unaware that the word was used for anything except to describe any attempt made by members of my family to improve their lot by indulging in such activities as 'moggy ranching' and 'jam butty mining' (Thanks Ken Dodd).

Avagooday,William

That is the funniest thing I have read in ages !! Well done... and to think if the Poms had got it right we would probably never had the pleasure ....
Shades of Dame Edna &  Spike Milligan.... who has gone to meet God......like the Butterfly ...." Hello little butterfly! do you want to meet God??"

SPLAT!

Cheers  Lesley Queensland Australia

Have you sent this web site to the gov.org?
I have never laughed so much for ages:))

Jemima Puddleduck
Yorkshire

Dear Edith:

Don't stop!! We love it!

Brenda Dougall Merriman, CGRS, CGL

Why are you not writing for the BBC?

Cheers, Ed
Cambridge

Thanks for the best laugh in weeks - long live Great Cockup!

Barbara Miller

Well done.  Great sense of humour.

As with everything else British it is now becoming a laughing stock.   I  look forward to the day when we we actually be able to do something correct without making idiots of ourselves but I don't think that day will come before I go to glory.
 

Beryl Clampton

Thank you for this! It was SO funny! I enjoyed it immensely and have flung it further!

Marilyn F. Inglis

Library
Letters to Edith
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Toadblower Saga
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