Chris Sefton-Hearn
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Mystery Photo Album
  • Hwb ChrisQuiz
    • Mastodon
    • -----
    • Flickr
    • LinkedIn
    • Pixelfed
    • Twitter Archive
    • YouTube (Stop, Rewind, Eject)
    • Blog RSS
  1. Home
Jack & Mary Hearn

Bringing my great uncle's photos to the Fediverse

Details
Published: 15 January 2025
  • social media
  • family history
  • photographs
  • fediverse

After my great uncle Jack died a few years ago I was given the task of scanning the thousands of photos he and his wife Mary had in their collection.

Read more: Bringing my great uncle's photos to the Fediverse

Winding down on Facebook

Details
Published: 08 January 2025
  • facebook
  • social media

When I heard the other day that Nick Clegg had stepped down as Meta's President of Global Affairs, the news that followed about Meta were making changes to their content moderation policies wasn't surprising. Nick Clegg was responsible for setting up the platform's Oversight Board which, in turn, was the ultimate body responsible for content moderation decisions. 

Since then, more details about these changes have been published which has led me to start winding down my use of Facebook and other Meta products.

Read more: Winding down on Facebook

A composite image of five red crosses over places in the UK, and a village welcome sign edited to read "Something Mile Cross".

x Mile Cross

Details
Published: 08 December 2024
  • towns
  • united kingdom
  • history

After a friend and I were talking recently, we commented on how kinda unusual it was that he was originally from Mile Cross in Norwich, and I was from Three Mile Cross, near Reading. 

"What happened to Two Mile Cross?" we wondered. It's in Aberdeen, apparently.

Which got us thinking: how many other "Mile Cross"es are there out there?

Read more: x Mile Cross

Me and my mum

Losing my mum, five years on

Details
Published: 24 October 2024
  • grief
  • family

I'm starting this post with a content warning. This article is a way of getting my feelings out, so if reading about death, grief, cancer, or the pandemic isn't for you, feel free to pass on by.

I started writing this article at the start of 2020, with the intention of talking about the loss of my mum six months after her death. However, I think we all know what happened that year and it just felt inappropriate.

Read more: Losing my mum, five years on

Me and my sister in the living room at Pound Cottage one Christmas in the late 1980s

Pound Cottage: Memories of a hub of family activity

Details
Published: 14 October 2024
  • family history
  • family
  • 52ancestors
  • Shinfield

When I saw the topic of 'full house' for #52Ancestors, there was one place that immediately came to mind: Pound Cottage.

Pound Cottage was where my maternal grandparents lived, where my mum, aunt, and uncles grew up, and where I have many memories of family gatherings.

Read more: Pound Cottage: Memories of a hub of family activity

A montage image with a black-and-white photograph of a wedding party in the background, a colour photograph of the church the party is stood outside of in the bottom-right corner, and an extract of a decorative, handwritten bookplate that reads "First Marriage at Three Mile Cross Methodist Church".

Love and (the first) marriage

Details
Published: 27 April 2024
  • family history
  • wedding
  • 52ancestors
  • Reading (town)

Anyone can tell a love story. About how they or someone they knew met, fell in love, married, and lived happily ever after.

But how many can say their marriage was the very first to be held in their local church?

That's something my great-uncle Jack and his wife Mary were able to lay claim to.

Read more: Love and (the first) marriage

  1. Ancestors at War
  2. Interesting occupations, Reading's 3 'B's, and a dairy research institute
  3. Ruth Logan and the sinking of RMS Lusitania
  4. Surprise!

Page 1 of 9

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9

Blog Tags

family history 52ancestors history holiday cornwall social media photographs retail aberystwyth games twitter diy libraries television self-service customer service ryeish green school wokingham borough council education development

Most Read

  • Will Ryeish Green breathe again?
  • Becoming part of the Borg Collective
  • Ryeish Green School - celebrations and sadness
  • Completing the 2011 Census
  • Supermarket Self-Service - is it really that bad?

Search

Latest Toots

 

I could previously be found on the mastodon.org.uk instance.

Jack & Mary's Photos

Photos from my great-uncle and aunt's archives brought to the Fediverse! Find out more or visit the Pixelfed account.

 

Change The Look

  • Page Views 445543
Copyright © 2009-2025 Chris Sefton-Hearn. All rights reserved, unless otherwise stated.
Privacy and cookies policy. Blog RSS. Blog Atom.

Floppy disk image credit: Dead Media Society: 5 1/4" floppy disk by Theo Curmudgeon, used under CC BY 2.0. Background removed and label edited from the original.