WRITER
Family Stories
All families have stories; some stories are almost myths… did my ancestors really come from Sweden? Were they really river pilots or pirates operating out of the east coast port of King’s Lynn? Some family stories are true, although some facts may be hidden; my great-grandparents loved each other across a religious divide, but where and how did they meet? Some family stories are only revealed through census records and some genealogical detective work. I want to tell the stories of my family, and others who otherwise might be lost in the past.
Reuben and Maudie
I haven’t written much about my dad Donald’s side of the family, here are my grandparents.
MoreWhere there’s a Will…
In a previous post I mentioned Dr John Kennedy Will, who was in charge of what we would now call a hospital but in the nineteenth century was called a lunatic asylum, in Bethnal Green. I was writing about a patient of his, but I think Dr Wills would be an interesting person to investigate. His wife was Ella […]
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Easter holiday with the family
Each year my four cousins and their families, and me with my family, go on holiday together. We first did this ten years ago at Easter, and went to the Ebenezer Chapel in Derbyshire, near Belper. Some of the older generation came too, my cousins father Ken, and our Aunty Audrey and Uncle Sid. We had a wonderful time together, nearly thirty of us staying […]
MoreThe end of my Colgate story
I have yet to publish the last chapter of the Colgates in Bletchingley, but on a recent visit there I found Henry and Charlotte Colgate, the first of the family to live in the pretty little village. Henry came from Kent where his family had lived for generations over hundreds of years. Charlotte came from Horley and was a Jeal before she married […]
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Touching Louis’s hand…
My great-grandfather Louis Walford died at a tragically early age, just before his fiftieth birthday in 1895. He left a grieving widow, Lois, and young children… or maybe they never married… After his death Lois was supported by the charity of Louis’s very wealthy Jewish family; however, because she was a Gentile their support did not extend beyond the […]
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Lois Elsden 