Nearly 700 years ago, our 19th great-grandmother Doña Sancha de Toledo de Ayala was born in Toledo. She married into English nobility and became the […]
Little Breeches
It’s rare that you see a nickname appearing in Ancestry.com. So when we saw 12th Great Grandfather Alexander irvine listed as Alexander “Little Breeches” irvine, we had to find out more.
The Clandestine Wedding
Today, if something is ‘clandestine’, it’s usually something dodgy. Think clandestine drugs lab, clandestine affair, clandestine espionage… so when we saw that sixth great grandfather John Smith’s marriage to Ann Smallbone in 1726 was clandestine, we didn’t know what to think.
In the Workhouse
Great Grandfather Alfred Swain found himself in the Workhouse in Bermondsey in southeast London for a year at the age of 14. Children in the workhouse during the Victorian period experienced poor conditions, limited education and hard work.
The Trail-blazing Queen Consort
Twenty-fifth great grandmother Joan Plantagenet was the illegitimate daughter of England’s King John – but she married Prince Llewellyn the ruler of Wales, and mediated her husband’s stormy relationship with her father and the English.
The Stone Delver
Looking at the census records of third-great grandfather George Fenton Pearson revealed that he was a ‘Stone Delver’ – not an occupation I’d ever come across.
The Tin and Copper Miners
Our Trathen forebears may have ended up in the lead mines of Cumberland but before that, the family had worked in the tin and copper […]
The Ingenious Miner
Fifth great grandfather Richard Trathen had worked in the copper mines of Cornwall in Gwennap, the richest copper mining district in Cornwall and once called […]
The Cordwainer
Great-great-great grandfather Pierre Joseph Lemaire was a Cordwainer. It’s a term that’s drifted out of common use but it’s an honourable profession.
The Country Pub
The Talbot Inn in Much Wenlock, Shropshire was my grandparents’ home for most of the 1940s and 50s. In fact, I spent a fair proportion of my first two years there. But the Inn’s history goes back much, much further.