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Wendy Percival
- Jun 4
- 3 min
A special centenary!
Today is the hundred-year anniversary of my grandparents' wedding! When they got married in 1921 they were living in the same road –...
Wendy Percival
- Dec 18, 2020
- 2 min
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
- Nov 13, 2020
- 3 min
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, 2020
- 2 min
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, 2020
- 2 min
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 23, 2020
- 2 min
Unravelling the Booth Brothers mystery
I'd imagined that this week I would follow on neatly from last week’s post about Charles Booth (see: Mystery and Death), who sadly died...
Wendy Percival
- Oct 16, 2020
- 3 min
Mystery and death
Sometimes during family history research you make assumptions – not unreasonable assumptions – but, as we all know, what we discover...
Wendy Percival
- Oct 9, 2020
- 2 min
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
- Sep 25, 2020
- 2 min
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
- Jul 17, 2020
- 2 min
Politics on a postcard
Sorting through my gran’s postcard collection at the weekend, I came across this one, dated 27th September 1918. Although it shows an...
Wendy Percival
- Apr 10, 2020
- 2 min
The sanctuary of gardens
During this lock-down period, those of us lucky enough to have a garden are extremely fortunate. Perhaps some have realised the value of...
Wendy Percival
- Mar 20, 2020
- 2 min
Loss of a loving father
The Prime Minister spoke this week about the current Coronavirus situation being the biggest crisis in a generation which made me think...
Wendy Percival
- Dec 20, 2019
- 2 min
#WWI Christmas
I'm lucky to have amongst my family treasures four beautiful embroidered postcards, known as "WWI silks" sent from the front during the...
Wendy Percival
- Nov 15, 2019
- 1 min
An exciting find!
I signed off last week's blog post (Mystery of George's WWI wound) lamenting the fact that I had no photograph of my great uncle, George...
Wendy Percival
- Nov 8, 2019
- 2 min
Mystery of George's #WW1 wound
A photograph of my great-uncle Tom Diggory, my gran's older brother, always stood proudly on my gran's mantelpiece. Tom had been wounded...
Wendy Percival
- Sep 13, 2019
- 2 min
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...