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Ancestry Anomalies
I don’t understand Ancestry – as in the online family tree builder, not the concept of discovering our ancestors. Perhaps I’ve just never...
Wendy Percival
Apr 9, 20212 min read
Aftermath & Mystery
On #AncestryHour this week (Twitter, Tuesdays 7-8pm BST) I mentioned my blog post, Tragedy & Loss, about the death of my 2x...
Wendy Percival
Apr 2, 20213 min read
Tragedy & Loss
In my post, From ankle deep to knee deep, I discovered my great-grandmother Eliza Roberts, had been only 13 when her mother died. Well,...
Wendy Percival
Mar 26, 20212 min read
Propaganda & Mystery
I found an odd – and slightly disturbing – postcard amongst my family history collection this week while searching for something else. I...
Wendy Percival
Mar 19, 20213 min read
Mystery heirloom
I’m always fascinated by (and often a little envious of) the family heirlooms which are brought into The Repair Shop (BBC TV programme,...
Wendy Percival
Mar 12, 20213 min read
Long hair & lugs - memories of my gran
My paternal grandmother, Edith Alice Diggory, was born 123 years ago this week. Happy Birthday, Gran! Edith’s mother was a Roberts – the...
Wendy Percival
Mar 5, 20212 min read
Flat on his back & plastered!
If you read this blog last week, posted on my late dad’s birthday and you clicked to read Preserving the Memories, you’ll know that my...
Wendy Percival
Feb 19, 20213 min read
Revisiting memories
My dad would have been 92 today. As his birthday approached this week, I browsed through some of the posts I’d written mentioning aspects...
Wendy Percival
Feb 12, 20213 min read
From ankle deep to knee deep
If I was hoping to find some easier surnames to research while wading through the Roberts quagmire (see, The Nightmare of the “too...
Wendy Percival
Feb 5, 20212 min read
Postcard from Auntie Lizzie
Following my recent mystery aunt post (see Who's the Mystery Aunt) I found another postcard sent from an aunt while organising my old...
Wendy Percival
Jan 29, 20213 min read
The nightmare of the "too difficult" list
I rashly accepted a challenge on Twitter’s #AncestryHour this week! We’d been discussing those common surnames which tend to get...
Wendy Percival
Jan 22, 20212 min read
Who's the mystery aunt?
While sorting out my large bundle of postcards over the past couple of weeks, I came across a mystery aunt. My own great aunt, Hilda...
Wendy Percival
Jan 15, 20212 min read
Looking back, looking forward
Well, it’s certainly been a weird year! But some things don’t change – it’s about now we look back at what we’ve done and think about...
Wendy Percival
Dec 18, 20202 min read
It's panto time!
It’s panto time! Oh no, it’s not! Oh yes, it is! Well... sort of. I read that there are a number of socially distanced pantomimes being...
Wendy Percival
Dec 11, 20202 min read
Finding Bessey - one letter out!
Don't you love it when you knock down a brick wall by coming at it sideways? I decided it was time to have another bash at tracing the...
Wendy Percival
Dec 4, 20202 min read
Another "out-of-wedlock" story
There's been no breakthrough so far in finding the birth record of my 2x great-grandmother Emma Shelley (see last week’s Illegitimacy &...
Wendy Percival
Nov 27, 20202 min read
Illegitimacy & Mystery
I’m currently listening to the audiobook version of In the Family Way, by Jane Robinson. It’s a fascinating account of illegitimacy and...
Wendy Percival
Nov 20, 20203 min read
A shared history - #WWI and beyond
Alfred Joseph Saunders, my husband’s grandfather – pictured here with his wife Caroline and daughter Eunice Irene – joined the Royal...
Wendy Percival
Nov 13, 20203 min read
Remembrance roll call - #WWI
Like most people, I'm sure, my family history's wartime and military research has had mixed fortunes - some successes, occasional...
Wendy Percival
Nov 6, 20202 min read
The power of an image
I’m excited to be able to share with you a wonderful photograph of The Booth family – the family into which my gran’s cousin, “Nellie”...
Wendy Percival
Oct 30, 20202 min read