In search of the family

TOMBSTONE TOURIST OR TAPHOPHILE? My fascination for a cemetery and the beauty of it's monuments. I think my interest in cemeteries started after visiting The Jewish Cemetery in Prague in the late 1970's. The first burials were from the 15th cemetery and burials continued for approx 3 centuries. Space was limited, resulting in burials being placed on top of burials in layers. It is said there are approx 12,000 tombstones within the cemetery. Whilst the Jewish Cemetery started my interest in memorials, traditions of various religions and philosophies related to death, I perhaps have a deeper rememberance and empathy for the beautiful country of Czechoslovakia and it's people, increasingly discontent with Soviet rule.   Years later I began photographing local churchyards and cemeteries, transcribed and sent the images to www.gravestonephotos.com. much like www.findagrave.com. This was in the very early days of the project, but I caught the bug and over time I had photographed ...

COUSIN BAIT I had never heard the expression  'Cousin Bait' so I thought to myself this would be the ideal time to write about a marriage between 2 cousins. I had ideal candidates and was looking forward to writing up their story. So I was somewhat disconcerted when I read the true meaning of the expression. Nonetheless I do still intend to write the original cousins story in a seperate blog. So 'cousin bait,' well no I have not utilised any of the techniques indicated within the definition consciously. I write my blog posts as an easy way to share information with my wider family or anyone who may find these people's lives interesting. I check Ancestry trees and DNA matches, never realising that what I was doing was  fishing for cousins. However, it was through a request on Ancestry message boards, that I first made contact with a cousin in Australia. John sent me a wealth of information and photographs of  his family. Our genealogical link is our Great Grandfather...

 SARAH ANN PITTS 1883-1952 I am related to Sarah in two ways. She was the sister of my Great Grandfather William Richard Pitts but she also married Charles Deaney, the brother of my Great Grandmother Eliza Deaney. Sarah was born on the 2nd February 1883, the eldest daughter of Thomas and Esther Pitts nee Jackson. She was baptised at St Johns, Coln St Aldwyns Gloucestershire on 4th March 1883, the family were living at Swyre Farm Cottages, as an Agricultural Labourer, it would be reasonable to assert that Thomas was working at Swyre farm at this time. As Thomas and Esther moved around the Cotswolds as work took him, so Sarah moved too. By the 1891 census, Thomas and family were living in Aston Blank also known as Cold Aston, living and working at Aston Blank farm.  The next documentation for Sarah is in 1901, but not the census, I have been unable to identify her there, but on 22nd June 1901, Sarah married Charles Deaney in Brentford Middx. Whilst I have been unable to find Sar...

MARGERY ROSELLA RANDOLPH 1823-1863 This week I am focusing my blog on my 2x Great Grandmother, Margery Randolph, more regularly documented as 'ROSELLA'. Margery was the 4th child and 3rd daughter of Surgeon John Randolph and his wife, William Mary.  She was born in New Romney Kent in 1823 and was baptised there on 1st June 1823. The Romney Marsh area of Kent historically has been described as; 'one of the most sickly and unhealthy places in Kent.' Despite this John and William Mary managed to bring up 5 physically healthy children, just their 6th child Jane Blizard died at the young age of 4 in 1830, because this was in the years before registrations there is no documentary evidence of the cause of death. However the family moved to Westminster in London in 1834, where her younger sister Margaret Isabella, married at a young age of 15/16 in 1837 and died a year later of TB. Rosella married George Pye, a surgeon and the youngest son of a Gentleman farmer, Thomas Pye at t...

 JAMES DEANEY 1863-1885 This weeks title offers an opportunity to write about any number of individuals in my family. Some committed crimes, others were the victims of crime. As 'Taggart', a Scottish TV detective, would say: ' There's been a Murrdur. '  Jane Youell, a cousin of my Great Grandmother, was murdered by the lodger, who was then hanged.  Prior to this Jane's father was imprisoned for 'embezzlement. As you can imagine this is a long story in it's telling, so one for another day There have been several charges and imprisonment for 'Bigamy', including my Great Grandfather, who also appearred to spend more time in Prison for going AWOL and desertion from the Army than he actually spent in the military itself. But, this week,  I have decided to write about how a young man's day poaching rabbits ended with ultimate punishment. This is a long repetative article but appears to follow the coroners court comprehensively. BUCKS HERALD 5 th S...

  THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME I have been fortunate in my life to have travelled to many countries around the globe and there are a handful that I would be happy to live, but I am doubly fortunate to live in a part of the UK that I happily return to after each adventure. So what has this to do with family history, you may ask? Well, the answer is that in discovering my cousins and receiving old photographs of my ancestors I have discovered that this area has been a constant draw to my paternal family since the 1920's/30's. My Great Grandfather and my Grandfather's siblings all lived in and around the North of, South Western area of London and surrounding counties. I was bought up in a small village in Berkshire, an area now within a stones throw of the M25, (London orbital road), places such as Harlow, Willesden, Wembley, Bedfont are frequent addresses associated with the wider family.  However my own small offshoot of the family moved to the North Devon coast in the ear...