Château Gaillard was one of the places we knew we wanted to see on our campervan journey through France. Richard the Lionheart’s ruined fortress is spectacular, but it was the story of the ordinary people caught up in its siege that stayed with me.
Posts focused on specific locations (e.g., village, town, church). Locations and Parishes
Château Gaillard was one of the places we knew we wanted to see on our campervan journey through France. Richard the Lionheart’s ruined fortress is spectacular, but it was the story of the ordinary people caught up in its siege that stayed with me.
A few days in Warwickshire took us through the villages and churches of my Clarke, Boneham, Lines and Checkley ancestors, with one unexpected discovery at Stretton-on-Dunsmore that made the whole trip worthwhile.
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.”
Discover why Maelor Saesneg confuses even experienced family historians, and how changing counties, dioceses and registration districts can hide your ancestors' records.
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.
Britain’s first lager was brewed in Wrexham. From Victorian German founders and North Wales water to the Titanic, Khartoum, football chants and modern revival, this is the remarkable story of Wrexham Lager.
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.
When I first started my family tree, I thought I was being careful—until I trusted a well-researched tree that quietly sent an entire branch in the wrong direction. Two first cousins, the same name, the same birth year, and the same village.
Read the blog to see how I untangled it—and what I learned along the way.
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.
