Why the Tawny Owl?
Good question, and a simple answer follows. It all started when I first mooted the idea of creating my own dedicated website,
and hosted instead of relying on the harvesting websites of FTM, Ancestry and others. I needed a logo to go with the site,
and looked around for something to be of relevance, simple and something even I could manage. I kept and still do, two porcelain figures
of Tawny Owls in my back office, and these came from years back in some sale from the UK, but where I forget. Also, where I now live in Spain,
we have an Owl that has decided our Unionisation looks like a canyon, and has been heard screeching on many a night, as it searches its domain
for four legged goodies. Well I was sitting in the office one night, looking at those porcelain Tawny Owls, and our resident screeched past the window
and across several gardens at roof height. This made me look again at the figures, and it was then it came to me, a Tawny Owl! Well we had no idea what
flavour the real Owl was, except he/she was brown in colour and largish, so assumed he/she could be a Tawny. Anyway, from that moment I searched
for a rights free image, and came across the one now on my website.
Later I added the tree image, as this was used in the green theme on PGV, a web based solution pre dating Webtrees. This image, along with the Tawny Owl
go well together, and compliment each other in a wooded setting, that represents many Family trees and others yet to be found. What the Owl does not represent,
is any indication I am a wise old man, or the site is a wise choice for Family research. I am an old man, but probably not wise enough,
or I would not have made mistakes in my life, as we all do. As for the site being a wise choice? Well only you can decide on that one, but I do hope
you have found something of interest, and helped you along your quest.
Oh, and that resident Owl turned out to be an Eagle Owl, as spotted sitting atop a street light in broad daylight before Christmas 2015,
and boy was he/she big! but this old fool was too slow to grab a photo, and i don’t use a so called smart phone, tut, tut.
Best regards and
good luck, James