#52ancestors (Wk52): Me, Myself, and I – Joyce Hale

A different theme has been handed down each week for a whole year and now the final, Week 52 of the #52ancestors family history project for 2023 has arrived. Each theme provided the opportunity to write about a different ancestor on my family tree and has proved to be the perfect stimulus to reflect on …

#52ancestors (Wk51): Cousins – Arthur Taylor

Well “Hello, Dolly!” Actually, our focus in this week’s post is Arthur Taylor (1926-1984) – my Dad’s Cousin, and my 1st Cousin 1x removed. My Dad's cousin on his Dad's side, Arthur Taylor, with his wife Olive Dickson. Arthur was the son of my Dad’s Dad’s sister, Ellen Simpson (1904-1978). Ellen’s husband – Arthur’s father …

#52ancestors (Wk50): You Wouldn’t Believe It – Jane Hobtrough

She had quite the surname. When I first stumbled upon on Jane, I could not believe  it – what a potent sounding new addition to my tree. For a name so far back in the tree who I had identified so early on in my research, I was surprised that I had managed to be …

#52ancestors (Wk49): Family Recipe – Samuel Gill Simpson

No torn-out pages of an exercise book, yellowing, lost and inserted in a cheap mass-produced version of a Mrs Beeton cookbook I got back in my childhood. Cheap mass-produced version of a Mrs Beeton cookbook I got in my childhood - no family recipes stashed inside. No index-style, handwritten recipe cards, stashed in a drawer …

#52ancestors (Wk48): Troublemaker – Arthur Noad

This troublemaker’s place in my family tree was confirmed just as the Manic Street Preachers song “The Secret He Had Missed” was beginning to get airplay in the summer of 2021. https://youtu.be/4Q3sDyp3mbo?si=rWD0BuvjbVHfTqC- "The Secret He Had Missed" - Manic Street Preachers ft. Julia Cumming. Not only was it a powerful tune, it seemed to speak …

#52ancestors (Wk47): This Ancestor Stayed Home – Frank Holland

This story is close to home. My maternal Grandad, Frank Holland (1921-2014) was always close to my home. Growing up, my Dad was often working long double shifts to make ends meet, and since my Mum’s parents lived in the next street, I saw a lot of my Nan and Grandad, and thought a great …

#52ancestors (Wk46): This Ancestor Went to Market – Charlotte Noad

This is no nursery rhyme. “This Ancestor Went to Market,” but her trade went by the name of ‘bunter’. Official listings of occupations of the time describe a ‘bunter’ as a female rag and bone collector. While that inevitably was an occupation associated with poverty and the streets, the term ‘bunter’ also had more lewd …

#52ancestors (Wk45): War and Peace – George Henry Holland

A silence would descend on my Grandad’s kitchen if we ever mentioned the subject of his brother, George. My Nan and Grandad, Joyce and Frank never used their ‘front room’, so if we ever popped round, ‘Gramps’ as we called him would always be sat in the same wooden armchair at the far end of …

#52ancestors (Wk44): Spirits – Frank Stephen Francis Holland

A huge explosion onboard the battleship HMS Vanguard, anchored in the sheltered waters of Scapa Flow, echoes out across the peace of the harbour in the Orkney Islands, Scotland. It is just before midnight on 9 July 1917. Scapa Flow, which served as the UK’s chief naval base during WWI and WWII is sheltered by …

#52ancestors (Wk43): Dig a Little Deeper – James Swayne and Mary Philpot

I can’t lie. When I first caught the family history ‘bug’ the first time around in my teens, it was all too easy to get carried away after the ‘whiff’ of scent of a particular blood line entranced my nostrils. In those early days, it felt like more of an addiction, with ‘how far back’ …