Search
Escape from the workhouse
It must have been a traumatic experience for my great uncles and great aunt to be admitted to the workhouse in 1886, after their father...
Wendy Percival
Oct 18, 20192 min read
A brush with the workhouse
I discovered last week that two of my great-uncles, Allen and Ernest, and their sister Maud, spent a brief time in the workhouse in 1886....
Wendy Percival
Oct 11, 20192 min read
Off for a jolly!
There was a report in the media this week about the aim to get people in towns and cities to visit the coast and countryside, both to...
Wendy Percival
Sep 28, 20192 min read
My #familyhistory autumn pledge!
Last week my copy of the Family History Record Book devised by professional genealogist, Sheridan Parsons, arrived and I spent the...
Wendy Percival
Sep 20, 20192 min read
Forgotten #WWI heroes
Last week we went to see the stage production of Michael Morpurgo's War Horse at The New Theatre, Oxford. The story of War Horse tells of...
Wendy Percival
Sep 13, 20192 min read
Meet the author!
I'm delighted to welcome Sandra Danby, author of the 'Identity Detective' series, to this week's Bite-size blog. Sandra's series...
Wendy Percival
Sep 6, 20196 min read
A Cornish conundrum
Last Sunday was my parents' wedding anniversary. Sadly, neither are alive to celebrate what would have been 64 years as husband and wife....
Wendy Percival
Aug 30, 20192 min read
Reels of family history fun!
I crawled into the back of the loft the other day (no mean feat, I have to say!) and dug out the carrier bag of my late dad’s cine films....
Wendy Percival
Aug 23, 20192 min read
An unusual heirloom
Even though our water lily is about to take over our pond, I could never bring myself to change it for a less monstrous variety because...
Wendy Percival
Aug 3, 20191 min read
Schools out!
It's that time of year again when schools in the UK break up for the long summer holidays and the dreaded (for some) school reports come...
Wendy Percival
Jul 27, 20191 min read
Old photo phrustration!
The family historian's greatest frustration - unnamed old family photographs! When we came across a fabulous Victorian photograph album...
Wendy Percival
Jul 12, 20191 min read
Museum of the Year - my favourite!
I was delighted to hear this week that one of my favourite museums, St Fagan’s National Museum of History in Cardiff, had won Art Fund's...
Wendy Percival
Jul 5, 20192 min read
If only I'd kept...
Have you ever got rid of something only to regret it later? My dad always maintained he should never have sold his Morgan sports car....
Wendy Percival
Jun 28, 20192 min read
7UP #familyhistory style Nº 2
It's my dad's turn today for the 7UP experience, following on from Mum's story last week, inspired by the TV series of programmes which...
Wendy Percival
Jun 21, 20192 min read
7 UP #familyhistory style
1964 saw the start of a fascinating project inspired by the quote: " Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man."...
Wendy Percival
Jun 14, 20192 min read
Ghost ship
You can actually smell the Mary Rose! When you pass through the air-lock on the top floor of the Mary Rose Museum into the same chamber...
Wendy Percival
May 31, 20192 min read
Living history
As you'll know if you read my recent post [see Stepping Back in History] I revisited The Weald & Downland Museum last week. I can confirm...
Wendy Percival
May 24, 20192 min read
Precious old toys
The other day I stumbled across the BBC TV programme called The Repair Shop, which takes old broken items, precious to their owners, and...
Wendy Percival
May 10, 20192 min read
An Australian coincidence
While researching the family of my Metropolitan Police ancestor, Ernest Ellisdon (read more about him in my post The Whitechapel Murders...
Wendy Percival
Aug 8, 20182 min read
Secrets I never knew I had!
The benefit of revisiting old family history research notes is that you may discover a gem of information you never realised you had....
Wendy Percival
Jul 30, 20183 min read