The Fray Family
Find me a scientist was a challenge issued by my late brother Colin Pillinger. At Christmas I would send him a story about our numerous ancestors but the nearest approximation to science I came...
Mary Dafter and her great trouble
Thomas Dafter, yeoman of “Wollen” (ie Oldland) Glos, yeoman, took out a marriage licence on 8 Nov 1684 to marry Mary Pollen, of St Augustine, Bristol, with the wedding to be at the bride’s...
The Bristol Magdalens
Mary Magdalen (Maudlin) is traditionally, though unproven, the New Testament’s “fallen woman”, who Jesus saved through her repentance, but it was probably by accident rather than design that Bristol’s Female Penitentiary was situated at...
Some distressed Bristol Seamen and their dependents, 1758
Jonathon Bisp of Winterbourne, c1754, who appears in my Kingswood Index (elsewhere on this site) was apparently also nown as “Bliss”. In 1996, Mrs Walsh, a descendant of the Bisp Family, sent me a...
KILLED IN A COALPIT: Lives of the Kingswood Colliers
Though the main theme of this hardback book concerns the accidents, fatal (and otherwise) which befell the coalminers who worked in the historic Kingswood (South Gloucestershire) Coalfield it is hoped that through these tragic...
Some Commonwealth marriages 1653-1660
During the English Civil War and Commonwealth period between 1653 – 1660, births, marriages and deaths were poorly kept and those recorded by civil officers, confusingly called Parish Registers, in place of the dispossessed...
‘Honour Thy Father and Thy Mother’ – A Family History.
Pem, tell me about when you were a little girl..….” This was me, as soon as I learned to talk. So, take one excessively inquisitive child, who wanted to know everything about everything; ‘a...
From Little Acorns Great Oaks Grow: The Pillinger Family of Kingswood
I was born a Pillinger. This is the story of my Father’s family. Click the links below to download: From Little Acorns Great Oaks Grow part 1 From Little Acorns Great Oaks Grow part...
Charles Perrett: Totterdown’s Father Christmas
The following article was originally printed in the September 2016 edition of the South Bristol Voice. “This may seem a silly question,” one of the mums said at the Grand Opening of the playground...
Bristol Men in Nelson’s Navy
Bristol and other local Men at Trafalgar, 1805. Royal Navy (of Bristol unless otherwise stated) John Alden, 20, Landsman, HMS Naiad, 1804 William Alden, 35, AB, HMS Thunderer, 1805 John Allen, 20, Landsman, Bath,...
About Me
I have been researching the social history of the West Country for 45 years. During this time I have collated information on a wide range of people living and working in the West Country including miners, ethnic minorities, petty criminals, sailors, tommies, benefactors, brassmakers and many more. The thing that I find amazing is that ordinary people always lived extraordinary lives. I hope you like my blog that brings together my lifetime of research.
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