Frank Davis – Christopher Francis Davis – died on October 8, 2021. He was 73 and is much missed by his family and friends. His blog of 10 years is being preserved here as a tribute to his writings, the ideas he explored and his commitment to his values.
In the months since his passing a fuller picture of his thinking and the pathways he travelled has come to light. There is a mass of paper, computer data and much else that will need to be reviewed and taken further – or not.
A website containing a fuller spectrum of his output is under consideration – as a record of the flow from an original mind.
For the moment, however, there will be regular monthly posts to this blog – in the form of scans taken from his notebooks and other papers. They may not have particular relevance to immediate concerns but it will mean his voice will continue to be heard.
Frank Davis 
Thank you <3
Thank you. It was startling to see a new post from Frank come up in my inbox. I can’t think of a better way to keep his memory and ideas alive.
Thank you – from Germany …
Oh, wonderful news! Thank you so much.
Very good news – I always loved how he challenged orthodox thinking.
Many thanks for posting this. Frank was a wonderful person and it is great to hear that you are goi g to continue his legacy. ❤️
Thank you very much.
You are a WONDERFUL Brother! There are many of us out there VERY grateful to you, And I’m sure Frank is foremost among us!
Great news, thank you. I miss his posts
Yikes! Rather startled by the message, but thought if anyone could conquer the metaphysical time space continuum, or something like that, it would be Frank the inspired and inspiring blogger, with global reach.
Posting the original thoughts of Frank will continue to inform and challenge his devoted netizen acolytes, and is a touching caring digital tribute. 🤓👍 from Mark in Canberra, Australia.
PS: do any readers in the UK know of genealogy research from pre 1833 records? I tracked my ancestor George, born June 1833, Croxton, Cambridgeshire but unsure where else to search, check if we own a castle or estate…
Hi Mark
I’ve done quite a lot of family research for myself and my OH over the years. For very old (i.e. largely pre-census) information, try familysearch.org. It’s a site which was, bizarrely, originally set up by the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons to you and I), I understand largely for religious reasons which I won’t go into here, and it was originally issued on several CDs back in the days when computers were common but websites hadn’t really got going as an information resource. Thankfully, they have now transferred all the data to a website, so it’s much easier to access.
The other site that I use (and I think they sort of work in tandem with familysearch a bit) is the big one, Findmypast.co.uk. If you search on Findmypast for parish records you’ll find a lot which go back way beyond 1833. The other big one, which I’m sure you already know about, is ancestry.com, but I’ve never used that, so can’t give any indication as to how good or otherwise they are or whether they give access to parish records, but I expect they do. I suspect that they have pretty much the same information as the other two – there certainly seems to be quite a lot of cross-pollination between the two that I mainly use.
There are quite a lot of other little sites which might offer specific information that the big guys don’t have – so it’s always worth just doing a general Google search for, say “marriage records in Lancashire” (or whatever) because sometimes if you scroll down beyond the big sites that always appear at the top of the list you might strike it lucky and find a little one which has information or more details that are helpful that aren’t on the big sites.
To access familysearch you have to register but not pay. To access Findmypast, you have to subscribe and pay for the privilege!
Hope this helps!
Excellent tips thanks very much jaxthefirst. I found the marriage certificate of “bleedin’ Pom” ancestors George and Sarah, at Cottenham near Cambridge in 1853 before sailing to Sydney, and the Cambridgeshire local genealogy society, who seem very professional. I also populated the free Gramps database which produces various useful primate trees. Will see what else I can find, back to 1066 and all that… 🤓
This is fantastic news! Thank you very much for keeping Frank’s legacy alive, Andrew!
This didn’t appear when I posted it first time, so I’m trying again. Apologies if it appears twice!
Thank you soooo much for this. As I said when I first heard of Frank’s passing, not only did I feel as if I had lost a good friend, but I also feared losing contact with all of the wonderful regular commenters on here who have come, too, to represent to me a group of online friends with whom I could “meet” regularly for chat, information and a lively exchange of ideas. I felt rather like my OH (a pub man right down to his boots!) did when his local pub shut up shop and all his regular group of friends sort of scattered to the four winds. Of course, he still sees them individually round and about town and even occasionally in one or other of the few pubs which are still open, but it isn’t the same as having them all as regular visitors to the same spot – a feeling which I know that Frank knew and understood and felt very keenly, and indeed wrote about many times on this blog. I even considered trying to start up an old-fashioned “forum” on t’internet (I don’t do Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or anything like that – I simply don’t understand it all!) to keep contact with all these people but sadly I’m much too old and non-tech-savvy to know where to start. So to know that you are kindly prepared to keep the blog alive has really lifted my spirits today. Again, thanks so much.
Well said and totally agree jax… continuing Frank’s sustained theme, public health monomaniacs care nought for the collateral damage created by their socially destructive “for your own good” diktats, including harm to pubs, places they would never go. Also RdM, Ross in NZ, how’s the St Jacinda tobacco prohibitionist policies going?
The global CV19 hysterical debacle is a stark and costly reminder of placing cult like faith in “experts” and their grossly inaccurate flawed models.
Hi Mark;- it’s something to be worked on, a response, I mean, to NZ govt news.
Guided by the public health zealots, the govt has accepted their proposals uncritically.
Yet there’s so much to criticise in them. It will take some time to refute effectively.
As for CV19, politics, globalism doom & etc. I had this link sent by a friend:
https://johnwaters.substack.com/p/the-economy-of-permanent-emergency-5af
A long read, worth reading carefully. I spotted a couple of typos;- “valourisation” should be ‘valorisation’ (or US valorization) and another small one I can’t recall right now.
valour is not valor. The Latin ad valorem, etc. Tobacco taxes.
Ad valorem or excise.
An interesting interview, and presentation of views.
I’m not so sure about the Marxism references though.
An alternative essay on Marx might be this odd one:
Click to access marx.pdf
But apart from that, Mark, we are only a couple of hours apart …
The half dozen – 4-5-6 at any one time – remaining regulars at the SDB that was established by Frank, tend now, and have settled on, to meet at Sat 10pm UK time, 7pm Boston, a few hours earlier in California, 11am Sun here in NZ, would be 9am Canberra.
(We’d get to drink coffee and smoke while the rest can have beer or not, depending.)
Depending on daylight saving, summer time, E&OE.
But a small group have become friends, as we did with Frank, in this online weekly video conference, as though in a virtual bar at home. All sorts of topics get discussed.
Ages from 40’s. 50’s. 60’s, 70’s.
People from the UK, Denmark, USA, NZ, so far. Why don’t you join us?
9 am for a coffee and smoke? And anyone else from around the world?
You just need a PC, maybe laptop, with a mic and camera.
Internal or better external speakers, or just headphones with a mic or not as well.
https://whereby.com/smokydrinkybar
Supposedly encrypted end to end, if that helps to allay any security fears! ;=})
Might work better on Chrome or Firefox than Edge or Safari, unless they’ve improved.
Join us, Mark!
And anybody else? Why not? Be adventurous! ;=})
Where is Walt Cody;- does he know that Frank has died?
And Andrew: Thanks so much for this work.
I treasure the few lines of Franks handwriting I have in a short note he sent me with a package, from his place to mine here in Auckland, NZ.
Regards!
Ross Matheson
Hi Mark;- it’s something to be worked on.
A response, I mean, to NZ govt news.
Guided by the public health zealots, the govt has accepted their proposals uncritically.
Yet there’s so much to criticise in them.
It will take some time to refute them effectively.
As for CV19, politics, globalism doom & etc. I had this link sent by a friend:
https://johnwaters.substack.com/p/the-economy-of-permanent-emergency-5af
A long read, worth reading carefully. I spotted a couple of typos;- “valourisation” should be ‘valorisation’ (or US valorization) and another small one I can’t recall right now.
valour is not valor. The Latin ad valorem, etc. Tobacco taxes.
Ad valorem or excise.
An interesting interview, and presentation of views.
I’m not so sure about the Marxism references though.
But apart from that, Mark, we are only a couple of hours apart …
The half dozen – 4-5-6 at any one time – remaining regulars at the SDB that was established by Frank, tend now, and have settled on, to meet at Sat 10pm UK time, 7pm Boston, a few hours earlier in California, 11am Sun here in NZ, would be 9am Canberra.
(We’d get to drink coffee and smoke while the rest can have beer or not, depending.)
Depending on daylight saving, summer time, E&OE.
But a small group have become friends, as we did with Frank, in this online weekly video conference, as though in a virtual bar at home. All sorts of topics get discussed.
Ages from 40’s. 50’s. 60’s, 70’s.
People from the UK, Denmark, USA, NZ, so far. Why don’t you join us?
9 am for a coffee and smoke? And anyone else from around the world?
You just need a PC, maybe laptop, with a mic and camera.
Internal or better external speakers, or just headphones with a mic or not as well.
https://whereby.com/smokydrinkybar
Supposedly encrypted end to end, if that helps to allay any security fears! ;=})
Might work better on Chrome or Firefox than Edge or Safari, unless they’ve improved.
Join us, Mark!
And anybody else? Why not? Be adventurous! ;=})
Where is Walt Cody;- does he know that Frank has died?
And Andrew: Thanks so much for this work.
I treasure the few lines of Franks handwriting I have in a short note he sent me with a package, from his place to mine here in Auckland, NZ.
Regards!
Ross Matheson
Good work thanks Ross! I only just checked back. OK, 09:00hrs Sunday morning is equivalent SDB link time for eastern Australia, except Queensland where they don’t have summer time: fades the curtains. I will put in my calendar and might be functioning then.
Thank you from America. Frank’s voice will live on. I truly enjoyed his posts throughout the years and was honored to have him in our midst. Please keep his memory alive. I salute you, Frank, as now I salute your brother.
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Frank was a philosopher, a scientist, a great guy. He never stopped posting and he had something new to say every day, something of value. I suspected something like that, when the e-mails about his new blog postings stopped by the end of last year. We’re all mortals, but I’m crying right now. Thank you so much for keeping Frank’s legacy alive!
All the best.
I was so glad to see this. I checked in, thinking it was for the last time before moving Frank to the Defunct folder along with Nisakiman, Junican and Raedwald. I lost my own brother a few years ago, and part of the sadness was losing the friends who I knew slightly through him – in a way, very like a pub closure or the end of a favourite blog. Many thanks: it is good to know that this is not quite the end.
Thank you. We miss Frank’s writings. Greetings from Brazil.
Thank you so much, Andrew.
Frank was kind enough to host my notes and links, in fact as Idlex he made Rose’s Garden, because I had no idea how to do it.
I am delighted and relieved to find it still there.
So glad to see we are back.
I don’t believe it. Don’t even know what made me look at that old adrres, some kind of nostalgia maybe. I still have no idea abuut who has inherited the website. but I really feel happy about it. Cheers!
I used to read this blog and mail Frank when I was 18. His independent thinking influenced me for the better in life.
Love from Israel