A Prees parish burial register reveals rather more than the usual name and date for my 6th great-granduncle, Joseph Dickin. In 1792, the clerk recorded exactly how he died: “Fell from his horse when drunk.”
Stories from our own family history research - the people in our family tree, discoveries, records, places and unexpected connections uncovered along the way.
Some posts tell the stories of individual ancestors or family groups. Others explore records, places, family mysteries, photographs, occupations and the wider history that shaped our ancestors’ lives.
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A Prees parish burial register reveals rather more than the usual name and date for my 6th great-granduncle, Joseph Dickin. In 1792, the clerk recorded exactly how he died: “Fell from his horse when drunk.”
For years I believed my 2nd great-grandmother Ellen and her sister Agnes were daughters of John Rose. Their marriage records seemed to support the theory. Then two birth certificates turned everything upside down and uncovered a much larger mystery involving Joseph Barnes of Cheshire.
Two Welsh-speaking children born illegitimate in rural Denbighshire, only twelve miles apart. Did they meet in the countryside or later in Wrexham? The story of Francis Owens Hughes and Mary Elizabeth Roberts spans farms, collieries, Canada, tragedy at Gresford, and a pocket watch that survived when its owner did not.
A thirteen-year-old boy in the 1881 census appears in the Oswestry workhouse at Morda, while his siblings were placed elsewhere. His story, and a visit to Llanfyllin, reveal how close this history really is.
What began as a short piece about my great-great-grandfather Thomas Edwards, a cabinet maker in Wrexham, soon became something much more. First mentioned in the newspapers in connection with keeping animals in unsanitary conditions, the story took an unexpected turn as I followed the records.
Tracing the family through the streets of Wrexham revealed a picture of everyday life in the Victorian and Edwardian years, a hardworking family raising children and building their lives. Along the way, it became clear that Thomas wasn’t the man responsible for those animals after all.
But the research uncovered far more than I expected, including a family secret that had remained hidden for a generation.
Born exactly one hundred years apart, my great-grandfather John Hinton and I entered two very different worlds. By setting his life alongside mine — from Victorian farm service to nurse training, from the Suez Canal to the Moon landing — this story explores how much changed between 1865 and 1965, and how much quietly stayed the same.
Some parish registers offer little more than names and dates. Others, very occasionally, tell stories so vivid they feel almost intrusive. The burial register for Prees, Shropshire (1782–1799) records causes of death, burial locations within the churchyard, and — unusually — family relationships, even for adults. Together, they reveal lives, losses, and clerical honesty rarely preserved for this period.
A long-standing family mystery about my mum’s great-aunt, Martha Parry, and the twin daughters she gave up during the First World War seemed impossible to solve. It was only when I turned to a Facebook genealogy group that the pieces finally came together, proving that collective knowledge can break down even the strongest brick walls.
A troubled figure from Hanmer, Haughton Hinton was sentenced to transportation for horse theft in 1822. His journey from the English borderlands to Van Diemen’s Land reveals the harsh realities of convict life in 19th-century Australia.
When researching family history, you sometimes come across surprises that make you stop and double-check the records. One such moment came when I realized that a couple in my family tree—John Lee (1805–1853) and Margaret Maddocks (1804–1883)—were not just husband and wife, but also first cousins. This discovery was one of those classic genealogy research […]
