Social, economic, political, environmental etc. context of ancestors’ lives
A year ago, ‘Hanging by a thread‘ traced the delicate strands which led to establishing the family of John Harper Smith junior, master mariner {1}. I speculated that the reasons he and his spouse couldn’t be found in 1871 and 1881 England census was that they could be on voyages out of British waters.
Continue reading Word-Smithing from Smyrna or Lyrical lines from Lydia {2}.
The Cutlock & Co articles on Bush Houses are some of the most popular on the website. As the latest batch of old news uploaded to the Welsh Newspapers Online archive includes nine year’s worth of the Rhondda Leader from the start of the 20th century, a quick trawl seemed a good idea. Forty items came up for “bush houses”. Here are some key ones about the place {1}, which also shine a light on inhabitants’ lives.
Continue reading No beating about the Bush Dreadful conditions, a strong community in Cwm Clydach
A couple of self-published family history tales available on Amazon’s Kindle have come my way recently (via Facebook). Oh, aren’t I up with the trendy stuff. These prompted me to think about how such e-book devices make it easy for genealogy folk to release stories based on their researches for a wider public, at low cost. Getting the material known to a wider audience isn’t always so straightforward though, if it is hidden in the depths of the popularity contests of the Kindle Store, for example.
6th December 1952 – the day my paternal grandfather Sydney Charles Howes died after cycling from his teaching job in Nunhead to home in New Cross. Smog related death not long before he was due to retire and the reason I never met him. (6th December was the height of the smog.)
Last night’s Who Do You Think You Are? kicked off with Len Goodman checking out his Bethnal Green roots, and the area’s living conditions through Booth’s survey into life and labour in London (1886-1903). I’ve had the start of a short item on Booth’s survey lurking here for months, so a good time to get it out and give it some attention.
It has been rather a long summer break for this blog – time to get back down to the writing.
The only possible subject for this week is making contact with a genuine descendant of my great great grandmother Harriet Cutlock and her husband William Bishop Cullum (see Cutlock/Cullum page). Muriel’s daughter happened to stumble on this website as she was checking out the Cullum name and noticed that Muriel was mentioned. We have been exchanging emails since Sunday 11th, and got as far as a Skype conversation by the Tuesday. This completes the wish list for the year three months early {1}!
Continue reading Uncle William comes into focus No longer in a pickle with the Cullums
