Category: family history
-
A bunch of artists
For a change, an item featuring contemporary relations, as various cousins have been caught in a Facebook trawl over the last month or two. Apart from being a source of family photos, including a few oldies (thanks Brenda), the number with an artistic line of work (or serious hobby) was noticeable. While this may be down to other occupations not leaping out quite so obviously, it seemed worth doing a round up, whether they are on Facebook or not. Top of the list, not least » »
-
My type of relation
Or: A fine Boddy of a man
Or: A fine Boddy of a man Shortly before Christmas, I decided to check through notes I’d left myself a few weeks earlier, indicating that half cousins the Malletts needed further work {1}. Flora Mallett married Frank Webb 1917 in Norwich. A search on Ancestry’s database came up with three daughters – Muriel, Margaret and Ileane, all born Norwich. Ileane died young, so nothing further to search for, but Margaret got to marry Wilfred Henry Ward (1946), and Muriel married Jack R Boddy in 1943. It » »
-
A family history year around the globe
It is time once again for a review of the year just gone, and clearly the top highlights are all from overseas. Bob sleigh The Griffiths branch in Wilkes-Barre By no means the only result from visiting cousin Islwyn in July, but almost certainly the largest impact, was finding enough details on the family of great great grandmother Phoebe Griffiths to trace where they went – 3 sisters to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, 1 sister to New Zealand. Cracking a family myth gets the story started. Staying together » »
-
A better view of the Canadian Neals
A few old photographs have thrown a whole lot of new light onto the great aunt and uncle who separately left Norwich for the relative wilds of Canada. Gayle, a second cousin once removed and living in that country, has been looking into her family history for longer than me and has got a collection of photos not just of her ancestors going back to Robert Neal and Mary Earl but also Robert’s sister Alice. Links to earlier articles giving more details on their history are » »
-
Sixty years on
Today, 6th December 2012, marks 60 years since the height of the great smog in London. The Guardian has produced a picture gallery of those days and other smogs in London and Manchester. And 60 years since the day my paternal grandfather Sydney Charles Howes died after cycling in the smog from his teaching job in Nunhead to home in New Cross. As previously mentioned here last year, when a photo blog featuring similar photos surfaced. See The London smog of 1952 for the blog link. » »
-
American as candy corn
As I may have said before, when starting out down the family history track, I didn’t think we had any relatives in the USA, just a few Canadians. A few years down the trail, getting on for ten per cent of individuals on the ever extending tree (which has a total of just over 5000 right now) are American cousins and their connections. And in neatly timed research, I discover that the firm which first commercially produced the sweets closely associated by many Americans with trick-or-treat, » »