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.”
Posts where you uncover new facts or solve a mystery. Genealogical finds
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.
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.
While researching a family tree, I stumbled on “Panton Place” in Wrexham—a name hiding the harsh truth of workhouse births. What I found next was a surprising tale of rural morality and Victorian euphemisms.
Tucked into woodland near Overton-on-Dee stands a Victorian mortuary chapel built to honour Anna Maria Peel—and a cemetery full of forgotten souls, including a drowned youth and a poet-musician
