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Bride equality, 19th century style
I was researching the Percival side of the family the other day and noticed that on the 1850 marriage record of Eliza Willsher and...
Wendy Percival
Jul 10, 20181 min read
#WW2 bomb nightmare - my aunt's story
You may recall that on this blog recently I wrote the story of my mum Pat's terrifying experience of having a WW2 incendiary bomb drop at...
Wendy Percival
Jul 4, 20182 min read
The Whitechapel Murders - a family connection!
I knew my ancestor, Ernest Ellisdon, had served in the Metropolitan police force as a constable but it wasn't until yesterday - the...
Wendy Percival
Jun 20, 20182 min read
Terror of a WW2 bomb - was Jack to blame?
As children we loved to hear our mum tell her childhood story of the night she was almost killed and our gran's bravery in saving her....
Wendy Percival
Jun 8, 20182 min read
Poor old George
I'd always known the story of my great uncle Tom, (Thomas Diggory) and the disabling leg wound he'd received during WW1, in March 1917....
Wendy Percival
May 24, 20181 min read
Opening a can of worms...
Having only ever had a "short" birth certificate, I thought it was about time I got a copy of my full certificate for the family history...
Wendy Percival
May 16, 20181 min read
A day of celebration during 3 years incarceration
After falling off a wall when he was about 7 years old and damaging his hip, my dad spent almost 3 years in Standon Hall Orthopaedic & TB...
Wendy Percival
May 12, 20181 min read
Unravelling the WW2 mystery
The family story goes, that during WW2, Winston Churchill attended a secret meeting at The Foxhills, (left) the house where my...
Wendy Percival
Apr 24, 20181 min read
Trails lead to secrets!
One of the things I love about family history is where a trail can lead. Another is discovering how things join up and make sense of what...
Wendy Percival
Apr 16, 20181 min read
Fishing anyone?
While following clues from my great uncle Tom's postcard (see Message on a postcard) , I was keen to find out why he may have been in...
Wendy Percival
Apr 9, 20181 min read
Clue in the postage stamp?
While the year may have been missed off Tom Diggory's postcard during the franking process, I wondered if I could glean anything useful...
Wendy Percival
Apr 6, 20181 min read
Message on a postcard 2
As I mentioned in my previous post about the postcard I found (see Message on a postcard), on the reverse of the photograph, there was a...
Wendy Percival
Mar 29, 20181 min read
Know your onions
Following my discovery of this wonderful photograph of the forge, The Wergs, near Wolverhampton (see Message on a postcard) I've been...
Wendy Percival
Mar 26, 20181 min read
Message on a postcard
Sorting through some old photographs recently I came across this postcard (undated) of the forge, The Wergs, near Wolverhampton. While...
Wendy Percival
Mar 19, 20181 min read
The new bite-size blog
I've been writing my Family History Secrets blog for well over four years now and have made some fascinating, occasionally poignant,...
Wendy Percival
Mar 19, 20181 min read