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Wendy Percival
Feb 12, 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 5, 20212 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
Jan 29, 20213 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 22, 20212 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 15, 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
Dec 18, 20202 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 11, 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
Nov 27, 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 13, 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 6, 20202 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
Oct 30, 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 9, 20202 min read
From one mystery to more
Sometimes in family history a simple trail can explode in all directions, creating a myriad of new lines of enquiry. Which is what...
Wendy Percival
Oct 2, 20203 min read
Assaulted in the Line of Duty
This week saw the anniversary of London’s Metropolitan Police appearing on the streets of England’s capital for the first time, in 1839....
Wendy Percival
Sep 25, 20202 min read
My mystery photo pouch
Every now and again, I take out one of my favourite mystery packages, a small leatherette pouch full of (mostly) unnamed photographs, and...
Wendy Percival
Sep 18, 20202 min read
Birthday of a Black Sheep
Today is the 170th birthday of one of the Black Sheep of my family – Edward Henry Coules Colley. It was a while before I found out...
Wendy Percival
Sep 11, 20202 min read
Mystery of the Opera
Having corroborated the previously unknown story of my grandmother’s time spent at boarding school, (see On the Trail of the Mystery...
Wendy Percival
Sep 4, 20202 min read
Back to school
Back to School has been on everyone’s mind this week, and I must admit to still being a little shell-shocked from solving the mystery...
Wendy Percival
Aug 21, 20202 min read
On the Trail of a Mystery School
A comment in my late aunt's family history notes about my grandmother, Winifred Griffiths, (the little mite in the middle, pictured left)...
Wendy Percival
Aug 14, 20202 min read
Precious memories
“She was a sweet gentle lady and we all loved her.” So my late aunt recorded in her family history notes about her great-aunt Minnie...
Wendy Percival
Aug 7, 20204 min read
Secrets of a photo enthusiast
I’ve always been fascinated by Lynn Heiden’s enthusiasm for collecting photographs (some would say, obsession!). So much so, that it...