- Details
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
- Details
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.
- Details
Thankfully not at war with each other, although I'm sure there've been quite a few domestic barnies over the years! As with any family, there are various ancestors of mine that I'm aware were involved with the military.
I'll be honest, I don't really know that much about any of their stories but I've taken the time to research as many of them as possible just for this article.
Let's start with my paternal grandfather, Bob.
- Details
For this post I thought I'd start by taking a dive into the data sitting in the genealogy software I use.
One piece of data that's commonly collected - from census returns to birth records - is an occupation. The individual's occupation, their parents' occupations, sometimes who they work for. All of that is stored in my family tree database and some of them are a little bit interesting.
Read more: Interesting occupations, Reading's 3 'B's, and a dairy research institute
- Details
On the first of May 1915, the RMS Lusitania left New York on a return sailing to Liverpool. Unlike many other passenger ships, Lusitania hadn't been called up for frontline duty in World War I. Instead, she was given a grey paint job and kept her regular route between England and the United States, assisting with the war effort by conveying personnel and small arms across the Atlantic.
The atmosphere aboard was probably a little nervous throughout as the Imperial Germany Embassy had placed advertisements alongside those of Cunard's reminding potential passengers that "a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies" - including the waters around Great Britain.
And, whilst the passengers may have felt a little more comfortable knowing they were just off the Irish coast and mere hours away from Liverpool, sadly any concerns they had were to become a reality.
- Details
This week's 52 Ancestors topic of "Surprise!" really couldn't have come at a better time as I was surprised by my family history research just the other day.
Hi, I'm Chris. I run the online shop for one of the UK's largest charities.
