What's in a name?

Those who read this blog regularly know that musings on names are nothing new to me, but I've been thinking lately of the names of virtues or 'grace names' that were popular first names for girls in particular in much of the western world from about the 17th century onwards. These are names such as Prudence, Patience, Faith, Hope, Joy, etc.

I think it's quite interesting that the names Prudence, Temperance, Constance and Patience were far more common in the 19th century than Faith, Hope, Love, or Joy. So clearly, the Victorians, on the whole, wanted daughters who were well-behaved and sober, rather than happy and hopeful.

Some of the weirder names were found in the Puritan period, both here and in the USA - unfortunately, some people took taking names from words in the Bible a little too literally, leading to children named such bizarre things as Job-raked-out-of-the-ashes and Continent. Slightly more common (but still not in wide use) were names such as Humanity, Silence, Experience, Diligence, and Tribulation.

Names were also not always gender ascribed in the way we would do so today. Hope was a name for both men and women, for example. The name Christian was not usually used for a boy; it was however relatively common as a girl's name until about the mid-nineteenth century.

Welsh family history (Coming Home) and a series from a little further away (WDYTYA? USA)

Thought I'd let you all know that the Welsh family history series Coming Home starts tonight on BBC1 Wales at 7.30pm. Viewers outside the region will be able to see it on iPlayer.

Though the celebrities may not have the razzle-dazzle of a big series like Who Do You Think You Are? the programmes are well presented, interesting, and, at half an hour long, perfect to slip in between other things you want to see.

On a similar note, the digital TV channel Watch has been showing Who Do You Think You Are? USA in the UK (if that makes sense,) to allow us here in Britain to see the US episodes which the BBC may not have decided to screen, or have screened at off-peak times in the middle of the night (they have the habit of putting WDYTYA?USA on at 11.35 or a similar time, with little to no advertising, and choosing a selection of episodes as opposed to purchasing the entire series. Although, the editing the BBC does perhaps makes it more suited to British audiences.) So keep an eye on the schedules, as Watch have been repeating them and are likely to continue to do so.

The WW1 Christmas Ad

I assume you've seen this year's Sainsbury's ad - most people have. It reminds everyone of the Christmas truce of course - that time in 1914 where they were no longer Germans or British (or whatever other nationality - there were, after all, many other countries providing soldiers) but just men. Or, more accurately, boys. So many were under 30, and even under 20.

I'm a little torn about this event being used to publicise a supermarket - millions died, so buy your sparkling wine here, seems a little odd to be honest; on the other hand, many will see it as a lovely tribute - the advert itself was fairly good, after all. What do you think? Do you feel that it's appropriate? Inappropriate? Somewhere in the middle?

Last chance to order that special Christmas gift!

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WW1 Commemorations

There's a lot of resources now available to learn about and commemorate the First World War.

If you want to learn more there's a couple of sites that it might be worth you looking at. For some striking images, I recommend the Google Cultural Institute page. Whereas, for a look at all sorts of aspects of the First World War, including remembrance, artwork, interactive guides, and resources for schools and pupils, you need not look further than the BBC History World War One homepage.

I hope you find in an interest in WW1 - and perhaps your family's part in it - that lasts beyond this week.

A Poppy

This is a little something I put together for this year's Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day. 100 years since the whole world changed forever. (By the way, feel free to use this image as long as you don't edit it in any way.)

 

 

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Link to ἹΣΤΟΡΊΑ: The Woollen Factory

Thought I'd link to this very interesting post from Louvain.



ἹΣΤΟΡΊΑ: The Woollen Factory: An Illustration of Bridgend. "Bridgend's first effort in the industrial revolution was a heavy disaster"    ...

Welsh in America

Many Welsh immigrants headed to America for the chance of a better life and steady work - most notably to Pennsylvania, where many found work in industries familiar to them such as slate.

I cam across this BBC iWonder page about the Welsh in America - including a very interesting theory about a Welsh prince - Madog ab Owain Gwynedd - finding America in 1170, and also a comparison of Welsh words with a very similar Native American language called Mandan.

I'm afraid I don't agree with the theory over the origin of the name America - I'm pretty convinced that that honour goes to the explorer and all-around-rogue Amerigo Vespucci.

WDYTYA? 100th episode - Twiggy

So, what better way to round off this series, and air the 100th episode of Who Do You Think You Are? than with Twiggy - someone whose name caused family tree puns left, right, and centre last night!

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Twiggy wanted to know about her mother's family - of which she knew very little, and found a story of desperation, crime, and poverty. The poor of London often ended up in such dire conditions as Twiggy discovered, and it was not unusual for a child's father to 'desert' - particularly when they couldn't make ends meet.

The criminal great-times-however-many-grandmother of Twiggy was sentenced to hard labour for passing counterfeit coin into trade - which led to an argument in my house as to how you can get change for a farthing. A farthing was a quarter of a penny; it turns out (thank you Wikipedia) that there was such a thing as a half farthing in circulation from the 1840s until about 1870 - always good to learn a new random fact!

The episode was a bit more interesting than I've made it sound here - particularly the death by bargain hunting. Shopping can be dangerous, it is, after all, a contact sport.

So, the end of the series. Have to fill up my Thursday nights now, and start looking forward to the inevitable next series - hopefully another 10 years and 100 episodes to go.

A conflicting view

I came across this poem entitled Genealogy  by Hannah Lowe; I say this poem - it's actually, rather cleverly, three poems in one. It does show though that sometimes family history can be quite painful. Our families were human, after all, and prone to do the things that humans do - the good and the bad. I think it's important to remember both, because though it can be painful (particularly in terms of recent family) it still made us who we are today.

On the other hand - trust me when I say genealogy is not all doom and gloom! There will always be people within your family who were good and honest, and made successes of their lives - though the interesting stuff isn't necessarily the most positive!

WDYTYA? - Billy Connolly

So, the penultimate episode of this series of Who Do You Think You Are? starred the wonderful Billy Connolly, who's delightful outlook and turn of phrase made every part of this enjoyable. Another fantastic episode, this time we took a trip to India (with Billy sporting come typically and wonderfully eccentric footwear and trousers,) to find out about Billy's ancestral colonial soldiers - with a fair side of alcoholism and syphilis in the mix (which Billy was quite impressed with!)

It wasn't all fun and games though, the tragic events and brutality of war at Cawnpore and other places showed the cruelty on both sides of the Indian Mutiny. John O'Brien, Billy's ancestor, would've seen some very unpleasant things in his military life, as the soldiers witnessed the dreadful atrocities - as Billy said, this is not the history that's taught in schools, and perhaps, to an extent, it should be.

My favourite moment was when the penny finally dropped and Billy realised that 13-year-old bride Matilda Allen was in fact an Indian girl, not a European. So, the famous Scot has some Indian, as well as Irish and Scottish, blood.

I have to say, the experts the series found to talk to Billy about his ancestors were also fairly entertaining - and quite the characters, though, of course, not as funny as the man himself.

WDYTYA? - Reggie Yates

Last night's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? showed us the interesting story of the diverse family of Reggie Yates. Reggie's father was born in Ghana, the former British colony of the Gold Coast, to a mixed race father.

The theme of mixed race family runs through Reggie's episode. His great-grandfather was the white British goldmine employee George W Yates, who maintained his family in England while travelling back and forth to his mixed-race family - his son and his wife by Ghanaian customary marriage, Dorothy. This marriage was as legally binding as existed between a Ghanaian and an Englishman at this time - though this was argued about by the British government when Reggie's father tried to obtain the right to stay in this country in the 1980s.

Dorothy was herself the result of the mixed race relationship between a Mr Lloyd who worked for a mining company, and Dorothy's black Ghanaian mother Sarah. Dorothy and Sarah seem to have been very close, and also very, very, strong - both having to raise their mixed race child without consistent support from the child's father.

The other thing I found interesting was the way in which Reggie's family in this country were very much thought of black African, but in Ghana were thought of as white European. I guess this was the fate of many mixed race families - always slightly different to their friends and neighbours; though the family were very clearly loved in their communities.

The tradition of oral history in Ghana was also very interesting - albeit leaving Reggie in a very fish-out-of-water position when it came to addressing the elders. He made a fair few blunders in terms of etiquette, and you wonder if maybe the production team could've drummed the rules in a bit more, but it was all taken in good grace.

So then, a very interesting episode about a country and a part of history I knew very little about.

Queen Wars!

I came across this interesting write-up of the results of a poll which asked the question: Who was the best English/British Queen?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the famous Tudor Queen Elizabeth I comes out very well in the poll!

WDYTYA? - Martin Shaw

So, yesterday was Martin Shaw's chance to get the Who Do You Think You Are? 2014 treatment. He was interested in his father's family - primarily his grandfather, who he never knew due to the fact that his grandparents had been separated.

His grandfather's tale was one of soldiering and bombing. It really brought home the effects that bombing had on the rest of the UK outside London during WW2. Birmingham and bomb damage seem, for a period of time, to have gone together hand-in-hand.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The other tale of this episode was one of Birmingham's industrial past, and the success that could be found within the city for an enterprising ancestor by the name of Edmund Eaborn. Unfortunately, the rampant disease of the Victorian period - TB (also known as Phthisis or Consumption) - put an early end to Edmund's ambitions. He died of the disease at the age of about 39.

To end the episode, and bring it full circle, we returned to the story of Martin's grandfather, and the revelation that he had another child, still living - Martin's half-aunt. The response (in letter form) of this aunt about what happened between her father and his first wife (Martin's grandmother,) was very different from what he had been told - and he, understandably, found it difficult to merge these two stories into a narrative. I believe the truth was probably somewhere in the middle - a pinch in one story, a pinch in the other; as is often the way with these things. Whatever happened, it's difficult to say, and difficult to judge - but at least each spouse found happiness in re-marriage.

Last date for Christmas orders

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WDYTYA? - Mary Berry

So, Mary Berry, that's an interesting family! Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of Mary's ancestors - Robert Houghton - was a baker. Perhaps more surprisingly, he lived in a street in Norwich known as 'blood and guts alley!'

Robert Houghton, as well as working as baker, also worked as a builder, and was on the parish council. He worked hard - no-one can deny that, over seven hundred loaves of bread with only 3 helpers per day is hard by anyone's standards - and fulfilled his contract to provide bread to the workhouse and the out-of-workhouse parish/poor law union relief. Unfortunately, what with margins being tight, most people who supplied bread to the 'paupers' of the Victorian period tended to stretch out the ingredients more than a little - with such scrummy ingredients as sawdust and bone. There were indeed complaints about the quality of Robert Houghton's bread, though nothing was ever proved.

On another side of the family, it was the story of another Mary Berry that caught Mary's attention. Mary (the ancestral Mary) had three or four children - none of which ever had a father recorded on a baptism or birth record. Poor Mary (the current Mary) didn't quite know what the explanation for the lack of a father was - celebrities can be more than a little naïve when it comes to illegitimacy. Mary (the ancestral Mary) would like have had a difficult relationship with her own father - Christopher Berry, a printer who had gone bankrupt, had in all probability abandoned his wife and six of his eight children, who ended up in the workhouse - it's not certain what happened to the other two in this period, but he probably kept them on as apprentices, or they found work elsewhere.

I really felt for Mary (the current Mary) when she found out what became of several of the children who were admitted to the workhouse - she was almost in tears when she saw their burial records at such young ages. Unfortunately this was likely to have brought up memories of losing one of her own children - William - when he was nineteen. She truly empathised with Mary (the ancestral Mary) who lost siblings as well as one or two of her children, as well as Mary's mother, whose children never left the workhouse.

There was a happy ending for Mary (the ancestral Mary) however, becoming a staymaker (posh definition: a maker of corsetry; practical definition: she made undies,) and earning enough to keep her small family afloat.

The Queen's Lover?

The Victorians were prim, proper, and moral to the point of insanity, right? Maybe not. There's always been a question or two hovering over that most famous of Victorian ladies, Queen Victoria herself, and her Scottish servant John Brown.

This fascinating article from the New York Times explores the relationship - one of certainly confidante levels of intimacy (she referred to him as her 'best friend') which would have been seen as quite unseemly between a man of his class and the widowed Queen.

One doctor of Queen Victoria, Sir James Reid, referred to one instance of intimacy which involved some skirt (and kilt) lifting - though this may have been fairly innocent by today's standards, at the very least there would have been some showing of leg, unthinkable in the Victorian period. Completely scandalous between unmarried individuals of any class - a Queen and her servant being quite so flirtatious would have been atrociously sinful! And is there truth to the secret instructions to place the wedding ring of John Brown's mother onto the Queen's finger after her death? She certainly couldn't marry him in life! A servant! How dreadful!

So maybe, then, there was less of the prude to the Queen than there at first would seem. Maybe she too, displayed the behind-closed-doors hypocrisy partaken in by so many.

Jack the Ripper strikes again

Another Jack the Ripper story - smacks slightly of the anti-Semitism that hampered the original investigation, and given that the oldest profession was involved, there was more than one way for the DNA to get on Ms Eddowes' shawl. Still, what do you think?

 

'Jack the Ripper was Polish barber called Aaron Kosminski', new book claims

www.independent.co.uk

WDYTYA? - Sheridan Smith

OK, so last night was the turn of Sheridan Smith - the bubbly Northern actress. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ms Smith has show business in the blood. Her family have been musicians and singers since the late Victorian period, and played some very distinguished performances. Their (musical) weapon of choice was the banjo.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The banjo, in the late Victorian period, was enjoying something of a fashionable phase - it was becoming acceptable to have a banjo concert for a middle-class audience, and all the rage to have a banjo player play a private session for yourself and your guests in your drawing room. So, Sheridan's ancestor, Benjamin Doubleday, a boy born in a workhouse, was playing for the high-and-mighty; as was pointed out, the moment he spoke, it would have been clear that this was a working-class boy. Luckily for him, he was also a heck of a banjo player.

But there was the downside. One wrong step and suddenly the family was in desperate straits, so much so that Benjamin tried to set fire to their pub - with himself in it. There was also the undercurrent that perhaps drink had been a recurring problem for Benjamin.

It's a fun episode over all though, interesting and enjoyable - and I have to say, I'm really jealous of Sheridan's ability to pick up an instrument and learn to play so quickly, much as she protests how bad she is. Some people are just annoyingly good at music!

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WDYTYA? - Brendan O'Carroll

Brendan O'Carroll's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? was in some ways more like a detective story than family history. Brendan (who is famous for being Mrs Brown in Mrs Brown's boys,) had one simple mission that consumed the entirety of the episode - who murdered Brendan's grandfather one night in the autumn of 1920?

The search led him through the murky world of the fight of the IRA for Irish independence from the UK, full of spies and assassins. Indeed, assassination seems to have been Peter O'Carroll's fate, an almost silent shot within minutes of opening the door of his shop. As Brendan says when trawling the Dublin newspapers of the period and coming across tragedy after tragedy, shooting after shooting, murder after murder: these were dangerous times.

The danger came not least from the handful of British units without conscience - teams of spies and hit-men, these were largely made up of seasoned officers from the British army. Many of these officers had served in World War One, perhaps embittered and hardened by their experiences - certainly, there seemed to be no qualms about killing.

A dark time indeed, a war, of which Peter O'Carroll was undoubtedly a victim. There were murders and executions on both sides, and it was only natural for Brendan to feel that justice had not been done - his grandfather's killer/s had never been arrested for their crime. Yet, in order for the country to move on after independence was achieved, a line had to be drawn in the sand; the settling of scores would unfortunately have done more harm than good and simply perpetuated the war; that meant that personal tragedies unfortunately had to remain unaddressed. A dark period indeed.

The Question of Mrs Maybrick

I doubt you've ever heard of Florence Maybrick, but she was the name on everyone's lips in 1889. On trial for murder, on trial for her life, Florence was accused of killing her husband.

Florence Chandler was a girl from Alabama, young and naïve. She married James Maybrick, a cotton trader, and together they lived in Liverpool. James was almost twenty years her senior. This was a fashionable marriage - American high-society girls marrying into 'old world' money. It was a marriage that soon ran into trouble - within a few years there were arguments and the spectre of divorce (attainable, though expensive, difficult to obtain, and socially shameful.) Florence's husband, a drug addict with a fascination for all things tonic and medicinal, was having an affair, was acting somewhat irrationally, and on at least one occasion had hit his wife (something that was socially and legally acceptable so long as the 'punishment' the husband dealt out was in proportion to the alleged misdoing by his wife.)

James, never in good health, became severely ill and died not long after. So, why would it be suspected that his dear wife - his dear 'bunny' - had killed him? Firstly, a few circumstances that may have been innocent - soaking flypapers in water (to extract arsenic for cosmetic purposes,) adding something to a bottle of meat juice (common invalid food) which may or may not have been on the behest of her husband, moving medicine from one bottle to another to prevent sediment from forming at the bottom, being accused by a, frankly delusional, ill husband, etc. etc. The second, and more damning in the Victorian mind frame, was that Florence Maybrick had had an affair with a man named Alfred Brierley - had stayed in a hotel with him over several nights - anyone capable of infidelity must be capable of murder. The fact that her husband kept a mistress seemed to nobody to bare any importance.

And so, the odds were stacked against poor Florence. In her favour was slowly rising public support - with a notable female faction, and the poor scientific evidence against her. Toxicology was in its infancy, with the fallibility of medical knowledge and early tests for poison. The scientific experts and doctors could not agree on the cause of death - many argued for arsenic poisoning while others said it was more likely that James had been killed by a bad infection or gastroenteritis. Certainly, there was not sufficient arsenic found in James' remains or excreta to kill (and, for those of you more scientifically minded, the remains decayed at the normal rate, instead of being partially preserved by arsenic.) Florence had also been the victim of that most heinous of Victorian class-crimes - insubordination. Her children's nurse had made accusations against her (her mistress! oh, the scandal!) and had even read her personal correspondence (to her lover, Alfred Brierley.)

Arsenic was commonly found in almost everything in the Victorian period - food, medicine, cooking utensils, wallpaper, clothes; it wasn't as if it was difficult to purchase or find in the average house. In the Maybrick's home for example, amongst the sources of arsenic found was a packet of the stuff designed specifically, according to the label, for poisoning cats. It was in a great deal of James' medicines (along with some other, equally tasty ingredients,) and when he became ill the doctors prescribed a series of medicines and tonics, any of which could have reacted with one another, and included such substances as nitro-glycerine and cocaine.

But Florence was faced with a biased judge who, it seems, did his utmost to prejudice the jury against her, a jury made up entirely of men, and a national press that had reported so many details of her life and trial that many had already made up their minds as to her guilt or otherwise.

The case raised many issues with the justice system: all male juries, the impermissibility of defendants to give evidence in cases which may result in capital punishment, and the lack of a criminal appeal system - as well as society: the place of women, the responsibilities of servants, the morbid fascination that such trials created, and the sense that moral impurity created criminal tendencies.

To find out more about the Maybrick case (including what happened to Mrs Maybrick,) I highly recommend Kate Colquhoun's book Did She Kill Him?: A Victorian tale of Deception, Adultery, and Arsenic - a very informative and descriptive book, though perhaps a little flowery and imaginative in places. The case is well discussed, though sometimes the tone falls more towards fiction than non-fiction. This is the book in which I found a great deal of the information for this post.

And, just to prove the fallibility of the press (even then,) I found that the Pembrokeshire Herald and General Advertiser on 24 May 1889 repeated the general misreporting that Florence was 'a French Canadian, the daughter of a baron.' Florence was from Alabama, not Canada, and her mother - an eccentric and colourful lady - was indeed the Baroness von Roques, but Baron von Roques (who had by this point abandoned her mother,) was not her father - that honour belonged to one of the Baroness' previous husbands, Mr. Chandler.

WDYTYA? - Tamsin Outhwaite

Ok, so yesterday was the turn of former Eastenders actress Tamsin Outhwaite to get the Who Do You Think You Are? treatment, focusing on her British-Italian ancestry. An interesting story, Tamsin's shock at discovering the treatment of Italian immigrants during the Second World War was touching. The interment camp on the Isle of Man (referred to by Tamsin's grandmother, perhaps not unfairly, as a 'concentration camp,') was an unfair place in which hard-line fascists were entrapped with people who were, to all intents and purposes, British, and had no love for the Italian regime.

The fascists were unfortunately able to dominate the camp, largely due to the fact that the British left organisation of accommodation, roles, and work, up to the inmates. This meant, perhaps inevitably, that those in charge were those who were the most likely to be violent, intimidating, and thuggish. Innocent people, also labelled 'enemy aliens,' tried to get on and keep their heads down.

The other interesting facet to this story was the immigration of Italian ice cream and café workers to Glasgow, sometimes only for a few months a year. This reminded me of the South Wales tradition of the affectionate title of the 'Bracchi' café (the name was thought to originate with one of the first Italian families to move to South Wales.) Several of the older members of the South Wales communities still refer to ice-cream parlours, Italian cafes, etc., as 'Bracchi shops,' though this is less common than it once was.

The Other Darwin

This is a theory of how life developed:

'Would it be too bold to imagine, that in the great length of time, since the earth began to exist, perhaps millions of ages before the commencement of the history of mankind... that all warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living filament... with the power of acquiring new parts, attended with new propensities, directed by irritations, sensations, volitions, and associations; and thus possessing the faculty of continuing to improve by its own inherent activity, and of delivering down those improvements by generation to its posterity, world without end'

These were the words written by Erasmus Darwin - the grandfather of the famous Charles Darwin. He died in 1802, before his famous grandson was even born. His works were influential in how the theory of evolution would develop, and he was also a well-renowned doctor in his day. A man that history should perhaps pay a little more attention to.

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WDYTYA? - Brian Blessed

Last night's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? featured the unique and larger-than-life Brian Blessed. It's worth the watch just to see him - what a character.

Image courtesy of dan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The story of the Blessed family was actually quite tragic (and, much to Brian's surprise, originated in London.) Barnabas Blessed fell on hard times, and when he and his wife died within a few months of each other, his children were sent back to London from Portsmouth - to be beholden to the workhouse and poor relief system there.

In no way was it unusual for people to be moved from parish to parish as they squabbled with themselves over who was responsible for supporting the 'paupers.' The poor laws in place from the 1600s until the 1830s was rife with confusion, relying on a complex system of the claiming of settlement in a parish - by earning the right to settlement in one parish, you were no longer a burden to your previous parish, or so the theory was. Generally, as I said, it just led to a lot of confused argument and bureaucracy by those attempting to foist the poor off on another local authority. The situation changed to civil poor law unions in the 1830s, which relied more on regions rather than individual church parishes.

The family (mini-spoiler alert!) broke the cycle of poverty with Brian's ancestor, Jabez Blessed, moving to Lincolnshire and having thirteen children while working as a licensed hawker (a wheeler-and-dealer sort of occupation.) Brian showed his soft side by having a little cry, and showed his eccentric side more than once; a very enjoyable and interesting episode.

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WDYTYA? - Julie Walters

So, there we are, first episode of the 2014 series (series 11.) While perhaps it wasn't the ground-breaking episode a season opener deserves, it was still a fairly interesting episode. It started off kind of slowly, with tales of Irish agricultural workers (not that there's anything wrong with that but I think perhaps a touch too much time was devoted to it,) and then picked up when Julie learned of her ancestors' association with the Land League.

The Land League, seen in their day as radicals, was an association of tenant farmers who wanted fairer rents and better tenancy agreements from the landowners, particularly at a time when they barely had enough money to feed their children. So radical was this seen to be (it is, after all, a very early form of socialism when you think about it,) that Julie's ancestor, Anthony Clarke, had to flee the country to avoid arrest. When Anthony returned to Ireland, he was arrested for another reason - seemingly unjustly.

Another side of Julie's family, the O'Brien's, were also involved in the Land League; Maria O'Brien was part of the Women's Land League - supposedly a charitable organisation, this was a cover that allowed them to take part in politics and continue the work that the men's part of the Land League could not then continue. Maria's maiden name was Buchanan, and it turned out that her father was on a very different side of the debate - that which took over the land of evicted tenants. It was really interesting to see Julie try to work out in her head whether Cummins Buchanan was justified in his actions or not. Overall, a slow and steady start to the series - and hopefully with more enjoyable episodes to follow.

Who Do You Think You Are? - Series 11

The new series of Who Do You Think You Are? starts Thursday at 9pm on BBC One. You can see the full list of the celebrities from this series below:

• Julie Walters
• Brian Blessed
• Tamzin Outhwaite
• Brendan O'Carroll (Mrs Brown from Mrs Brown's boys)
• Sheridan Smith
• Mary Berry
• Martin Shaw
• Reggie Yates
• Twiggy
• Billy Connolly

Should make for some very interesting episodes in the next few weeks! For the duration of the series, I won't be posting any 'Friday Quick Tips' as I'm planning on doing reviews of the episodes the day after they air instead - like I did last year.

Ooh, and don't forget 'Secrets From the Clink,' is tonight, 9pm, ITV1, and a Who Do You Think You Are? special looking back on the last decade of programming is on 10.35pm, BBC1. Enjoy!

A bumper week for family history on TV

Well, not only did we have a pretty devastating episode of Long Lost Family last night, but we've got ITV's new series of Secrets From the Clink tomorrow (9pm, in a similar vein to Secrets From the Workhouse, only with jails,) but there's the brand new series of Who Do You Think You Are? on Thursday (9pm, BBC one, I'll post further details about this year's celebrities tomorrow,) and a look back over the last ten years and 100 shows of WDYTA? tomorrow at 10.35 on BBC1 - not to mention the amount of WW1 related programming you can find on various channels this week. I can't wait!

A Quick Note of Remembrance

Just a note of remembrance on the centenary of Britain's entrance to the First World War for those millions of souls who would lose their lives in the years to come. 'In Flanders fields the poppies grow.'

image courtesy of njaj/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A Beautiful Tribute

Hey,

I came across this beautiful act of remembrance to commemorate world war one at the Tower of London while surfing online and decided I had to show you all. I think it's a fantastic and beautiful idea, what do you think?

Friday Quick Tip

Hi everyone, I'll keep this Friday's new handy genealogy tip short and sweet: If you can't find someone, try looking for someone you know is related to them - a brother, sister, or parent. Good luck! And remember, if you're stuck, you can check out my hourly rate here - I'd be happy to hear from you.

Computer Says No

I read about Wales Online's research tool in today's Western Mail and decided to see how good it was by typing in the name of a relative I already know was a Welsh WW1 soldier. Nothing happened. There was no search, no results, no sign that it was even doing anything.

For now, I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that so many people have been trying to use it that it's crashed or something. I'll try it again soon and let you know what happens.

Friday Quick Tip

And so Friday's Quick Tip comes rolling around again. This week I will tell you this: never underestimate middle names, if you are looking for a Jane Emily, try looking for an Emily Jane, a Jane E, or even an Emily J, or a just plain Emily. You'd be surprised how often people change the preferred order of their names.

Looks Like A Job For A Woman

Image courtesy of dan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The British Red Cross' Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs) were an integral part of the medical system for wounded soldiers of the first world war. Many VADs were women, ready to help the wounded. 11,000 women of the general service section of the VADs took over the jobs of men who went abroad to fight - this included cooks, clerks, and storekeepers. VADs also undertook air raid duties in London (there were air raids in the First World War as well as the Second.)

So the women kept the country moving, and when the men returned, they were expected to go back to being wives and mothers (much as like the Second World War.) There was a step forward for women's rights however, women would soon by granted the vote. Their voices would soon be heard.

If you want to know more about VADs, you can take a look at the Red Cross website.

Friday Quick Tip

OK, here's this Friday's quick tip for helping you look at family history from a different angle: your ancestors were only human, sometimes they made mistakes - as all people do. Try looking at things from their point of view.

Christmas Orders

It may seem early to be thinking about Christmas, but as I've already had interest in orders, I thought I'd start early.

And as a bonus, all packages are £5 off when you order before September 5th (excludes Leaves Hourly Research, deposit amounts remain the same.)

TV Shows - Long Lost Family

The new series of Long Lost Family started last night on ITV1, proving once again that research into family members can have a huge bearing on the present day. These are people who have a direct link to their own histories and who want more than anything to be reunited with a piece of themselves.

The only thing is that I usually want to give at least one person per episode a good old-fashioned Welsh 'cwtch!'

Friday Quick Tip

Ok, this Friday's quick tip is short and sweet - cats will sit on your research, you have to accept this. If you have a cat it's going to happen. If they sit on your laptop or scratch your research however, stop them!

Those Who Fail To Learn From History...

'Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.' - Winston Churchill


Our history can make us who we are - even though we shouldn't bind ourselves to it. If it wasn't for my ancestors making their way through one thing and another to Glamorgan, then I wouldn't be here. Although, Mr. Churchill will always have a downside in my mind for sending the army against the Rhondda minors, but no-one is perfect - and he certainly was the right man for the job in WW2.

Friday Quick Tip

Sorry I haven't posted anything this week, but here's your Friday Quick Tip, right on cue.

Ever think, 'I'm sure there are books that could help me learn more about the social/local/parish history that I'm interested in?' A lot of these books are out of print - some of them by more than a hundred years - but with a little ingenuity you can track some of them down. Abebooks provides a platform where you can track down and order copies of old books, while Hathi Trust and Open Library provide searchable scans of books held by universities etc. I'm not a fan of eBooks in general - so please don't see this is an endorsement for reading books in electronic formats - but for the purposes of research, these online libraries can be very valuable in allowing access to information which would otherwise be too difficult to find.

Happy searching - and remember, if you need any help you can always give me an e-mail or check out my website www.familyhistorybycerys.co.uk to browse my range of services.

Friday Quick Tip

OK, so this Friday's quick tip is this: in family history, if it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck - sometimes it's unbelievably not a duck!

A Strange (and Creepy) Tradition

One of the odder, and more unnerving, of (thankfully) outdated Victorian traditions is that of post-mortem photographs. This is where photographs would be taken of deceased relatives, often in poses as if they were alive when photographed, in order to have a memorial picture. Many would not be able to afford such a photograph, so they're generally found in middle-class families. And, unfortunately, with the child mortality rate being high, many of them are of deceased children; these tend to be the most unnerving. For those of you with an interest in this ghoulish tradition, you can see some examples (warning: seriously creepy and unnerving and probably not suitable for children) here.

Friday Quick Tip

I guess that it's that time of week again: Friday Quick Tip time! This Friday's tip may seem like a no-brainer but you'd be surprised how easy it is to forget to do this. So do your best to remember that online genealogy resources often update what databases are available, or add more names to their databases - so it's worth you checking what new records are available on a regular basis.

Victorian Crime and Penny Dreadfuls

Found this interesting article about the Victorian fascination with crime and it's similarity with our own.

Of course, the Victorian penny dreadfuls, those cheap papers full of salacious and gory details, and fully illustrated throughout, weren't all bad (and bare a striking resemblance to some modern magazines.) Penny dreadfuls were accessible to the lower classes, undoubtedly they would have helped many to teach family members to read and extended the vocabulary of hundreds if not thousands. The 'lower-end' press would also allow working people to connect with what was going on in the country; people could take the first step on the line to developing their own opinions on current events and the prominent figures of the day. Of course, unless you owned property you couldn't vote anyway, but it was a step forward in the inclusion of all in what happens in this country.

War Snippets - Our Four-legged and Feathered Friends

My great-grandfather's regiment (likely to be his main regiment, the mounted military police,) with a puppy in the front row

The animals of world war one also deserve a little recognition. Of course, the success of War Horse has raised the profile of these deserving animal friends, but there's still very little the public knows about the animal contribution to the war. There's an interesting overview of the Blue Cross' involvement with war horses here. Many officers used horses as a means of transport around the trenches, with some regiments - such as the Mounted Military Police - generally riding horses, regardless of rank.

Pigeons also served as messengers in both wars, risking their lives to deliver messages and keep the lines of communication going. Thousands served and died in the first world war alone.

Dogs also worked as messengers, as well as carrying aid, sniffing out soldiers, and acting as watchdogs. Several also helped carry equipment such as machine guns. As well as, of course, the odd regimental mascot. Thousands of dogs served in the trenches in one capacity or another, as many as 7000 had previously been pets.

Friday Quick Tip

What can I tell you for this Friday's quick tip? Let me see, well I'm in a rather odd mood today so this Friday's quick'n'handy family history tip is this: perseverance. Sometimes something can drive you mad because there's just nothing you can do to find the answer to your question. But that's ok, take a break and put it on the backburner perhaps, but don't give up on it completely; you never know when you'll break through that infamous 'brick wall.'

(And if you need another perspective to the problem, you could always try my hourly rate 'leaves' service at www.familyhistorybycerys.co.uk)

Just For Fun

One of my favourite Horrible Histories moments, the Dick Turpin highwayman song - you're never too old.

Tales From China

Image Courtesy of sakhorn38/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The notorious China area of Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, was one of crime and prostitution. In 1862, the Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian reported on how a fool and his money is often parted.

A boatman named Evan Salathiel had gone to 'a house of illfame' (essentially a brothel, or a lodging-house used by prostitutes,) in China with Ruth Lloyd, who is described as an unfortunate. It looks like Ruth saw her chance when he'd had a bit to drink, and seems to have stolen 10s. 6d. from him, for which she was sentenced to three years.

I found Evan Salathiel in the 1861 census, about a year before this, working as a boatman in the hamlet of Rhydyboithan, Eglwysilan. His address is Walnut Tree Bridge, which would put him somewhere in the 'Walnut Tree' part of Glyntaff, on the canal. He was a married man with three sons, Taliesin, Jachomis (sic) and John.

Ruth Lloyd meanwhile, in 1861, lived in China with her 4 month old daughter, Milla. She claimed to be a widowed dressmaker, with a lodger by the name of Jane Davies who apparently worked as a washerwoman; Ruth and Jane are likely to have been prostitutes. The street had no need of more dressmakers, washerwomen, charwomen, or lodging-house keepers. There are also a few general labourers (men,) a huckster (female,) a few iron-workers (unisex) and what appears to be a handholder (though the writing is bad so it may be something else) and a yard girl (I think; again, the writing isn't the best, I also don't know whether a yard girl was innocent or not, particularly in a house with several washerwomen.) 
Whether Milla lived through her childhood is unclear. Certainly, living in the poorest of conditions with her mother in prison, in an age where child mortality was high would not have left her in good stead. What her fate would have been beyond childhood is another question mark, maybe she would have been able to make something of her life or maybe she would've become another dressmaker or washerwoman in China. I like to think the poor girl made it, somehow, to happiness, but I guess that's the optimist in me.

Bye for now!

Friday Quick Tip

This Friday's quick and handy little genealogy tip is to do with organisation. Because first names run in families (e.g. if your ancestor was William Davies it's likely he had a son named William Davies, a grandson named William Davies, a great-grandson named William Davies, a nephew named William Davies, etc.) it's best to find ways to tell them apart when you're researching/writing about/talking about them. One of the simplest ways to do this is simply by putting their birth year after their name, e.g. William Davies (b. abt. 1835,) in an attempt to avoid confusion.

An Ordinary Man and An Extraordinary Life

This story is a bit more modern than what my blog posts are normally about - but I couldn't get over the story of Jean-Louis Cremieux-Brilhac, which can be read here. One of the many examples of how wars take ordinary people and put them in extraordinary situations - many of which no-one would hope to be in. Jean-Louis survived being a PoW to make a real contribution to the liberation of France after WWII - and I'm very happy to say is still alive at the genial age of 97.

War Snippets

Another one of my interesting newspaper finds folks, and hopefully one which will show yet another view of the first world war.

I came across an ad in the Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard on 15th June 1917, which reads:

You are tired of reading about the War and

THE KAISER

Read this and Learn how you can SAVE MONEY

 

The Executors of the late MR. J THOMAS

are offering for Sale the whole of the Stock

of Jewellery, Silver Goods, and Electro-Plate

at a REDUCTION OF 3s. IN THE £.

If you would like to secure some Real Bargains

It will pay you

 

TO VISIT

 

Us, and see our Fine Selection of Goods.

Watches and Clocks of every description.

Many Special Bargains at LESS THAN COST.

Any Purchaser bringing this Advertisement

will be allowed a Special Discount of

4s. IN THE £.

 

NOTE THE ADDRESS-                                                          

18, GREAT DARKGATE STREET

 

ABERYSTWYTH

 

Turns out that people will never miss the chance for some unique marketing!





Friday Quick Tip

This Friday's quick tip is one you can use in everyday life as well as family history - if it's driving you mad, take a break. Have a cup of tea and a biscuit and go back to it.

Hope you have a good weekend!

Some Things Never Change

This is a joke from The Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard from 3rd March, 1916. It's a little tame, but it shows that teenage girls even in 1916 were not always prim and proper:

"What course is Sarah studying at that boarding-school?" "I can't remember, but I think it's cosmetics."

Swansea Jack (The Ripper..?!?)

Jack the Ripper is perhaps this country's most famous murderer, and almost certainly it's most famous serial killer. The agreed upon victims (historians love a good dispute) killed in the autumn of 1888, were Mary Ann 'Polly' Nichols, Annie Chapman, Catherine Eddowes, Elizabeth Stride and Mary 'Marie Jeanette' Kelly.

The identity of the Ripper is something that has been debated ever since the murder spree in Whitechapel in 1888, a fascinating book - The Fifth Victim by Antonia Alexander - suggests that Jack was a prominent Welsh doctor, Sir John Williams, who originally came from the Swansea valleys.


Image Courtesy of Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Sir John Williams was an obstetrician/gynaecologist who also worked for the royal family. A difficult man to like personally, one of the few people who did like John in a social sense was Queen Victoria. John Williams continued to preside over births within the royal family into the 20th Century - including the birth of the current Queen's father. A prestigious man then, as well as a Freemason, who would probably have seemed above suspicion at the time of the Whitechapel murders.

Antonia Alexander is a direct descendant of Mary Kelly (well, sort of, but I'm not giving the ending of the book away, you'd have to read all the way to the last couple of pages for the final twist in this fascinating tale,) who had been having an affair with Sir John Williams since before he left for London, leaving her family in Swansea behind to follow him there.

The story is certainly a compelling one, and Antonia Alexander puts forward some very persuasive arguments. It has to be remembered however that Ms Alexander wants the evidence to fit in with her view of what happened, and as such this is a subjective, rather than objective, view of the facts.

If Sir John Williams were still alive today, the evidence Ms Alexander puts forward would not be enough to secure a conviction - it would definitely be enough for an arrest though. Not least, the fact that several of the victims seemed to have a connection to the Whitechapel workhouse infirmary, where John Williams worked on a voluntary basis, and the fact that many of the pages of his diary of 1888 have been systematically removed.
The book itself is slow to start - personally, I could have done without the story of how the author met her husband, but I suppose that to some people it would make it more accessible. And I do personally find it a little stylistically irritating that Ms Alexander is constantly speculating without pointing out that she is doing such - but again, that's just me.

Sir John Williams lived into the 1920s, returning to Wales from London to become a prominent figure in Welsh society. He founded the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, and was present at many prestigious social functions. At one such event, he sat at the table of the man the dinner was to honour - David Lloyd George, along with one of my own (very distant) relatives, a man named Lewis Morgan who was Lord Mayor of Cardiff at the time. Although, this dinner isn't mentioned in the book, it's something I came across in my own research trawling through old newspaper articles.

Whether John Williams was Jack the Ripper or just another in a long line of suspects may never be known, but it certainly makes for one 'helluva' story!

Friday Quick Tip

Ok, this week's handy little genealogy tip is that people were often mistaken, misunderstood, or dishonest on census records - for example, stating their last town of residence instead of their birthplace.

The Welshman and The War Poets

Found this interesting article on the BBC Wales news website about Daniel Cuthbert Thomas, a Powys schoolboy, who fought and was friends with Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves - the ww1 poets.

If you're interested in pursuing research into your own relatives who fought in world war one, check out my range of services on www.familyhistorybycerys.co.uk

Friday Quick Tip

Ok then, here's this week's quick family history tip: books on local history can show you how your ancestors lived, and details on the places they would've seen in their day-to-day lives.

War Snippets

The Glamorgan Gazette from this day (14 May) ninety-nine years ago (1915,) has an account of fighting that supposedly comes from a socialist soldier in Northern France.

It says 'a cry and a murmur here and there...And when the victims of death are so uncannily still, then they speak the loudest...An attempt is made to count the dead. An impossible task. There lies a young officer, beautiful as a god...There he is lying, quiet and friendly. At home, perhaps, there is a faithful wife, a loving sweetheart, an old mother, weeping their eyes out. Who knows?...'

Who this man was may never be known, but his account seems truly heartfelt, and shows the humanity and reality of war.



Image Courtesy of dan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A Note on Craft and Family History

Hi, I know some people like to use their old family photos, letters, and postcards for scrapbooks, jewellery, etc., etc., but please, please, please if you are going to do this then use copies! You will never get the original back, and if you damage it you will have lost something precious. So bare that in mind and happy crafting (with copies!)

Friday Quick Tip

Ok, here's this week's quick genealogy tip: Details passed down by family members can be a great help, but aren't always 100% accurate - dates, places, etc., can often be changed slightly in the telling and the remembering.

War Snippets

This is one of the more unusual newspaper articles of world war one that I've come across:

The Abergavenny Chronicle of 18th February 1916 describes the sentencing of Horace Dennis Kingley at Folkestone Police court for supplying cocaine to soldiers. Horace was convicted on the evidence of Corporal Price of the 8th Canadian Battalion, and Captain Murray of the Canadian Army Medical Corps; Captain Murray asserted that the drug led to insanity, and that he knew of at least forty soldiers with an addiction.

Horace Dennis Kingley's defence was that he gave the cocaine away instead of selling it, and that 'He had taken it five or six years, and it made one most keen on what he was doing.'

Finding the Past

A little while ago I found this book - Through the Linn by Agnes Giburne - in an old cupboard. It may have been my mother's or my auntie's, but how they got it, nobody can remember. The book itself though, is far older than either of them (I have to point this out - they are not as old as this book! If I implied otherwise I'd be in big trouble.)

Ok, so there it is, in my hands, this slightly odd old book, and when I open it there's a label inside the front cover. The label tells me that the book was once owned by Annie Long, and that it was presented to her for attendance at Sunday school in the Cymmer and Porth parish of St. Paul's. For those who aren't familiar with the area, this is a Rhondda Church in Wales parish. Annie was nothing to do with my family, but my great-gran lived in the area and was always buying things from chapel second-hand sales (guess bargain hunting runs in the family,) so it's possible she picked it up that way. I haven't been able to find Annie Long (there are a couple of possibilities, but none I'm sure about,) in historical records, so if anyone out there knows about her please let me know. The book was presented to Annie on May 16th 1915, by Mr and Mrs E. S. Williams. As books would have not been cheap at the time, I certainly hope that she enjoyed it - she definitely took good care of it, because despite a few loose pages, it's still in one piece ninety-nine years later.



I have been able to track down some of the other people named on the label - William Hutchings, the Church's superintendent was a Railway Inspector who was loving at 107 Birchgrove, Porth, in 1911, and was originally from Bishop's Lydeard, Somerset. David A Collier, one of the treasurers, would have been one of two men (a father and son, David and David Arthur Collier,) who were also working in the railway industry - at a wagon works. Fellow treasurer Samuel Pugh would've been one of two men, both born in Shropshire. One was a miner living in Trebanog, just outside Porth and not far from Cymmer in 1911; the other was a carter of wine and spirits who lived on the same street as William Hutchings in 1911 - at 76 Birchgrove.


So, what is this book, Through the Linn? It's an evangelical, moral tale, that would've been seen as a way of teaching children right from wrong and the importance of faith in God. Very appropriate for a book presented by a Sunday school, but it would probably be seen as more than a little dour today. Agnes Giburne, who wrote the novel, was born in Belgaum Town, Bombay Presidency, India - presumably while her father, who lived into his 90s, was an East Indian Service Major. Eventually Agnes and father Charles moved to Eastbourne, Suffolk, where Agnes lived with her father until his death; in 1911 she is renting rooms, and living alone, at 2 The Avenue, Eastbourne. She herself lived from 1845 to 1939 (The Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English.)

Still, it is a beautiful old book, with lovely illustrations, and one I'm happy I now own.

Friday Quick Tip

Hi - it's time for your second Friday Quick Tip. If you didn't see last week, this is where I provide a quick genealogy tip that may be helpful for someone new to family history, or someone who would just like a fresh perspective.

So, today's Friday Quick Tip: Don't always trust the online trees of other amateur genealogists - they may have made an error, so check their research carefully.

All in the Name

I'm sure that I've discussed names and name meanings on this blog before, but I've been thinking about name meanings a lot lately. I wonder how many people actually consider the meaning of names before giving them to their children. The name James, for example, at it's heart is a translation of Jacob, which means the usurper. Francis or Frances essentially means French. And of course, many cultures have anglicized their names to correspond with the English - so somebody recorded as James may have been known as Seamus or Seumas if they were Irish or Scottish, or Shams or Iago if they were Welsh. The writers of the Welsh national anthem, Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, had the bardic names Iago ap Iago and Ieuan ap Iago - or James [son of] James, and John [son of] James. There are several versions of John in Welsh such as Shon, Sion, Ieuan, and Evan.

Another name with a huge amount of variations, this time a lot of which were in English, is Elizabeth - think about it, Elizabeth can be recorded as Liz, Lizzy, Lizzie, Bertha, Betty, Betsy, Liza, Eliza, Bess, etc. etc. This page, shows the huge extent that the name Elizabeth has been varied in different times, countries, and cultures. Names tend to be more fluid than we think they are.

The Classified Past

Image courtesy of Naypong/FreeDigitalImages.net

The Classified adverts in old newspapers are always so interesting - read this from the Cardiff Times, 5 October 1866:

'WANTED, a Young Lady to give lessons in Dancing for the winter quarter. Address W. H., Cardiff Times office.'

 

After all, every decent young lady needed to learn to dance.

Family History By Cerys is on Cyndi's List!

A big thank you to Cyndi's List for listing both this blog and www.familyhistorybycerys.co.uk! It's much appreciated!

Friday Quick Tip

Every Friday I'm going to try to  give you a 'quick tip' for genealogy - just a little something that may help a beginner or you might not have thought of before.

So here's your first Friday Quick Tip: Always start with what you already know, about yourself, parents, grandparents, siblings, etc. Write it out to get a good idea of your starting point.

At Home with the Georgians (BBC)

Image courtesy of sattva/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Last night's episode of the At Home with the Georgians on BBC Four (originally on BBC Two) is perfect for all of you who love Georgian architecture, interiors, fabric, wallpaper, etc...

I recommend a cup of tea (or something stronger if you wish) and a box of chocolates to accompany you as you watch it on iPlayer and pretend that you live in the world that the wonderful Amanda Vickery describes. I particularly like the part where she describes the quilt as the family's history (but then, I would!)

And, if you haven't had your fill of pretty fabrics, I suggest looking at the V & A museum collection images - including this pretty piece of dress fabric.

Of course, all these pretty relics of the past once belonged to real people who had families, lives, aspirations, problems, and maybe descendants out there right now. What your family may have owned or enjoyed of these things varies according to circumstance, but as the section of the programme showing the foundling hospital demonstrates, beautiful fabric could be owned by the poorest and most desperate, as well as the richest. And, as I'm sure you're fed up of me saying by now, the only way to gain a true understanding of your ancestry, is to also learn about social and local history.

Stranger than Fiction

I recently read a (fictional) book about the Pendle witches (Daughters of the Witching Hill by Mary Sharratt, for anyone with a reading habit to rival my own,) and it made me think, is historical fiction as interesting as historical fact? I have to confess to loving both - I am both a reader and a researcher after all.

For anyone interested in the true and very strange story of the Pendle witches - there's good background information here about the Pendle witch trials, which, after all, came before the famous trials at Salem.

Just a Note

Hi,

Just a quick note to say I hope you're enjoying the bank holiday. If you've been trying to research your family history this weekend and have got stuck or hit a brick wall, then why not check out my range of services - particularly my 'leaves' hourly rate, perfect for knocking those brick walls down! Take a look at my website www.familyhistorybycerys.co.uk for details.

Bye for now!

And A Bit More Easter Joy

I love this video - vintage Astaire, and perfect for Easter. I'll be singing it mentally all day

Facebook likes and google plus one

You can now like my website www.familyhistorybycerys.co.uk on facebook, as well as google plus one.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all of you!! :)

Easter Bunnies

Antique Images: Free Digital Easter Clip Art: 2 White Easter Bunni...: Quirky Easter bunny images from the Antique Images site, hope you like them - they brought a smile to my face!

Game of Thrones

Here's one for the Thrones fans, an interesting video (7.10) from PBS News Hour about similarities with mediaeval literature. Literature, after all, has always played an important part in history. Enjoy!

Different Circumstances

I've recently completed research taking me back to the one of the oldest periods I've reached. Sometimes it's possible to get back to the 1780s or 1770s, but this time I was able to get back to people who were probably born in the 1690s or early 1700s.

It's great when I'm able to do this, but sometimes the trail runs cold in the 1820s, or even later. This is most common in families with names such as Williams and Jones, but regardless of the time I manage to research back to, I always do my best to bring the stories of your family to life - to create a sense of the people that came before. I'd love to help you out with your research - why don't you check out my website - www.familyhistorybycerys.co.uk - to view my range of services, and get in touch!

Hide and Seek

Hi,
I came across this incredible gallery from the guardian website, showing early baby pictures with the mother hiding - quite ingeniously in some cases - in the background. Take a look!

New Gadgets

Hi, just wanted to let you know that I've added new gadgets to the blog so you can share and follow more easily,
Bye for now!
Cerys

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers, past and present. They are our heritage, a part of ourselves. Every human being ever born has a mother, even if you haven't had the fortune to know much about them - there are a long line of mothers stretching back through history leading to you. Happy Mother's Day!

Love and Marriage

Whether you support it or not, history is being made today by same-sex couples across the country. Marriage law has always evolved to meet the needs of the people making use of it. Laws relating to the age at which you can get married, the licensing of marriage venues, whether you may marry a widowed brother-in-law or sister-in-law, and the civil registration of marriage have all been passed since 1800. The age of marriage was only raised to 16 in 1929, before this a girl aged 12 or a boy aged 14 could marry with their parents' consent.

Yes, marriage law has come a long way since the time when all that was needed was for a couple to state their intention to marry (they could even, at one time, do this in private - no witness need be present,) and (ahem) consummate the union, for it to be binding. This is just one more step.

Trips to the Past

I went on a trip today and visited the grave of an ancestor. Yes, that may seem a little weird, or maybe even morbid, to those who haven't done so before. I'm not going to lie, graveyards are not the easiest places to navigate (especially in Wales, they tend to be half-way up a mountain,) but if you allow yourself to travel between (and sometimes over, again, difficult to navigate,) the different graves to find the one with significance to you, you can sometimes find gems of information.

Gravestones (and are) a way of creating a memorial to those who have died, sometimes this can be touching and personal, sometimes simple and plain. Often, they can provide details of relations, death dates, ages, and addresses. The stone itself can also give you an idea of your family's circumstances - many poor people could not afford a stone, whilst the rich would have ostentatious monuments, or a memorial in pride of place within the church itself (I think this made them feel they were closer to God, or maybe just that their family could point out the memorial to the entire congregation every Sunday.)

If graveyards freak you out, and I know that they do freak out a lot of people, then you could always focus on the church or village your ancestor(s) would have seen and walked in throughout their lives. A little connection to the life that came before.

Hidden Pasts

Objects can have their own history. At a visit to the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, I saw this painting on display.

The painting is of Catrin - also known as Kathryn - of Berain, an interesting lady who lived in the Tudor period. The portrait of her on display in Cardiff was bought (legally, no plundering in this case) by the infamous Hermann Goering in 1940. The painting was retrieved by the adults in 1945, and returned to the dealer who had originally sold it. More of the painting's fascinating story can be found on this fantastic BBC page.

Other pictures of Catrin can be found on the BBC your paintings website (I know, I know, one of my favourites!) here and also here.

time goes by again

Hi, again apologies for not posting for so long - busy little researcher here!
I'm hoping to start regularly posting again, starting today. Stay tuned folks!

Something to think about

It might be a good idea, now January is rapidly receding, to think again about things that you'd like to do this year.

Finding out your family's history is a great new(ish) year's resolution - but staring out can be a daunting and difficult task. My roots package could be just the thing you need - an opportunity to find out the basics of your British family history with names and dates. Alternatively, my branch package could give you a fuller picture of your family's story.

To find out more about these and leaves, my hourly rate, see my website - www.familyhistorybycerys.co.uk

Bye for now!

Names On a Page

I was wondering the other day what it would be like if I'd known my ancestors as people - would I have liked them? Would they have been like me?

I don't have a time machine, so there's no way I can know for sure what these people were like - but they are far from just names on a page to me. I know things about them and the people they grew up with that they may never have known themselves. Did Mary Ann know that John was not her father? She was young when her mother married him, he always referred to her as his daughter, she had his last name - did she know? Did she know of her mother's court battles to ensure her biological father paid maintenance?

People's stories never completely disappear - they just wait for a while, a hint here, a clue there; they wait for centuries if they have to.

An Unexpected Find

Hi, Sorry that this is my first post of the new year - been busy again!


Came across this on the Heritage of Wales blog - seems nice that something positive has come from something so awful -


Heritage of Wales News: Subsiding Storm-hit Shelter reveals lost Marine Ba...


Bye for now!
Cerys