olden times

i've been rooting around in records from west yorkshire, uk, from whence some of "my people" emigrated in the seventeenth century --- research is centered around barwick-in-elmet, a village a few miles northeast of leeds and one of a handful of places that remembers the last of the britonnic kingdoms, elmet, to fall to the anglo-saxons in the seventh century --- it's the only place in the british isles that i have connected with an ancestor, and it's a place that connects to prehistoric times --- the village developed around a 2,000-year-old hill fort and remains proud of its maypole --- the church was built in the 8th century or so --- "my people," twelve and more generations ago, lived there, although they called themselves Settle back then. 

they were originally from a little burg called settle in northwestern yorkshire, established by the angles in the 7th century --- a mile or so from that village is a cave where they found the first evidence of humans in the yorkshire dales, an 11,000 year old harpoon tip --- i spent much of today reading the parish register of births and deaths and what not --- a surprising number of "bastards" being baptized --- a note that on 9 June 1638 was buried, "a woman, being a stranger, whose name is unknown, who died at Scoles" made me a little sad

best place name so far today is nether shitlington, a few miles south of leeds --- it was recorded as "schelingtone" in the domesday book, so who knows --- unfortunately, they dropped the "h" to make it "sitlington" in 1921 --- a great loss --- also unfortunately, it's a few miles from barwick-in-elmet and so not my ancestral homeland