Follow the stories or follow the documents?
Someone in a family history group I’m in on Facebook asked whether we should follow stories handed down by family members or the documentation, if the two...
Category: History
Grass widows in Stoke-by-Nayland
I’m currently transcribing Stoke-by-Nayland’s parish registers, and I was rather confused by a marriage that took place on 23rd July 1622 between: A...
Some notes on the Mannock family
Do you have Mannock ancestors in your tree? The line of Mannocks who lived at Gifford’s Hall in Stoke-by-Nayland, the descendants of George Mannock’...
The Griffin family
I decided on a whim to make use of the Buckinghamshire records on Findmypast and research my Griffin ancestors who come from that county. I wasn’t sure I&...
Interview on BBC Essex
I was on Peter Holmes’ BBC Essex show this morning, talking about the wonderful snippets of history I’ve found in parish registers. In the UK, you c...
Suckling’s Essex
I’ve found something rather fun on Google Books – Suckling’s Memorials etc of Essex, published in 1845. He went round many of the parish churc...
Guest blog: The Mystery of the Sailor in the River
A guest blog for Wivenhoe’s History about a sailor who drowned in the River Colne in 1850. But all was not as it seemed. (A shorter version of this text w...
An epidemic in Brightlingsea, 1803
I’m finishing off the transcription of Brightlingsea‘s burials, in a register covering 1765-1812. It’s not a very interesting register, and is...
Interview: John Broom, author of “Fight the Good Fight”
With the First World War 100th anniversary commemorations ongoing, I’m welcoming John Broom, author of Fight the Good Fight: Voice of Faith from the First...
Workers’ Memorial Day – “Remember the dead, fight for the living.”
There was a terrible accident at the ropery on Wivenhoe High Street on 19th February 1855, when a boiler exploded. It killed three lads – Henry Browne (ag...