#52ancestors (Wk22): At the Cemetery – George Backhouse

The cemetery is our location in this week’s family history post, coming after the ‘delight’ of seeing the corpse of Leeds United’s three-year return to the English Premier League well and truly buried at the end of the 2022/23 season this last weekend. The club was relegated back to the EFL Championship, ending with it …

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#52ancestors (Wk21): Brick Wall – Charles Barrett and Jane Mary Trudgett; George Phillips and Lucy Lawrence

A sprinkling of brick dust on this week’s genealogy post. To build a brick wall requires a bricklayer. To source the bricks involved originally requires a brickmaker. My family tree has that covered. Both trades can be found among the couples that make up my sixteen sets of 3x great grandparents. They can be found …

#52ancestors (Wk20): Bearded – Thomas Arundell, First Baron Arundell of Wardour

Top billing for a triumphant beard on the face of a nobleman. Thomas Arundell, 1st Baron Arundell of Wardour (c1560-1639) cuts a fair dash and secured himself quite a reputation in the annals of the history of England some 450 years ago. Thomas Arundell, 1st Baron of Wardour (c1560-1639). Public Domain. Arundell had to be …

#52ancestors (Wk19): Bald – Crabtree Simpson

It’s all about the name. As soon as I stumbled upon the identity of my 3x great grandfather Crabtree Simpson (1831-1903) of Bradford, West Yorkshire (England), one image immediately locked itself in my head, and has never left. If a film had ever been made of my family’s ancestry, my Dad’s, Dad’s, Dad’s, Dad’s, Dad …

#52ancestors (Wk18): Pets – Charles and James Watts

Horses loomed large as I considered Week 18’s #52Ancestors theme of ‘Pets’. The animals are not really what you would consider as a domestic pet, like a dog or a cat, but equally, they are not your typical farm animal. The bonds between a human and any horses they have in their lives are deep. …

#52ancestors (Wk17): DNA – Elizabeth Margaret Rose Coombes

Chicago, Illinois, USA opened up as a whole new front on my family tree last year when a DNA kit led to friendship with one of my cousins on my Mum’s Dad’s side of the family – Andrew Michael Castillo – although that wasn’t his name when we met. His DNA test revealed a whole …

#52ancestors (Wk16): Should Be a Movie – Spencer Simpson

It’s got all the ingredients. He’s got more than a hint of actor James Cagney about him in many photos. Maybe from some angles, even Herbert Lom with my grandfather’s slicked back hair in younger days. My grandfather Spencer Simpson - more than a whiff of James Cagney. His wife, despite having a difficult life …

#52ancestors (Wk15): Solitude – Reginald Richard Hale

The isolation of a farm cottage surrounded by rolling Hampshire fields above Wootton St, Lawrence, just north of Basingstoke, England provides the backdrop for the beginning of the life of my Mum’s Mum’s Dad – my great grandfather, Reginald Richard Hale (1899-1981) – and likely infuses this tale with more than its share of solitude …

#52ancestors (Wk14): Begins with a Vowel – Emily Charlotte Vickery

Pepé the pet poodle is pretty emblematic of the challenge facing us in getting a grip on the personality of my Mum’s Mum’s Mum, my great grandmother Emily Charlotte Vickery (1901-1967). To my Mum and her two sisters (pictured below), she was their sweet Nan who was missing an eye due to a wood-chopping accident, …

#52ancestors (Wk13): Light A Candle – Harriet Ann Noad

Tough times, but a response equal to the strength of the leather she used when a young boot machine hand starting out at work in adult life turning out new boots at one of the many local factories in Leeds, West Yorkshire. Born into the soles of a family of crime and challenging poverty, my …