The government’s consultation on the storage and retention of wills: my response
I use wills all the time for my family history research, and for local history research too. They might come from county archives, or from the National Archives...
Category: Sources
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...
Essex marriage licences – online, for free!
And here’s my tips on how to navigate them.
Rotterdam parish registers – with bonus Brits!
Quite by accident, I stumbled over the Stadsarchief Rotterdam site. It’s definitely worth having a look on here if you have merchant ancestors who go off-...
The Essex Wills Beneficiaries Index – what it is and how to use it
I first heard about the Essex Wills Beneficiaries Index (EWBI) in a newsletter from the Essex Society for Family History. It’s a remarkable index compiled...
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...
The Bridges family of Lawford and John Constable’s portrait
If you’re from north-east Essex, and perhaps if you’re from south-east Suffolk, you cannot avoid John Constable. My grandma had a print of The Haywa...
Updates – Lawford
I’ve finished transcribing the earlier parish register (1558-1764) for Lawford in north-east Essex. It’s right by the Suffolk border, so you might f...
Did Jane Austen fake a marriage?
Ahhh, see, I told you that notes left in parish registers are endlessly fascinating! Not only is it possible (at least I think so) that Charlotte Brontë got the...