Joachim Ganz or Why I love research………you never know what you’ll find next!
A few years ago, an emailer to my website asked me to help find her Jewish ancestor who lived in Bristol. Alas I found nothing on the lady’s particular family, but after a few...
Five Collier Boys
On pages 126 -127 of my book, ‘Killed in a Coalpit’ there is a picture of five young colliers named Stephen Hill, Daniel Poole, George Garland, Charles Lewis and Isaac Britain. They were entombed...
Crowd funding 19th Century Style…….Jeremiah Pillinger and a tale of two (?) horses…..
Looking for a simple paragraph or two before my executive technical adviser goes on holiday, I dug this up. It proved more than I anticipated. Sorry Kevin: From Bristol Gazette, 5 March 1807: “To...
Hard Times: Another Victorian Girl – Harriet Bumford Darke, c1831-1895
Harriet’s Story Thomas Bumford and Amelia Evans were married on 3rd August 1828 at Abergavenny, a small Welsh market town on the river Usk about six miles from the border with England. This is...
A mural of Bristol civil rights hero Roy Hackett taken down by emergency services
Avon and Somerset Police were called to St Paul’s when rendering on the side of a building came loose. They then called on firefighters from Temple to join them in Byron Street after part...
A Sea-Faring Family – the PINES of Bristol, Liverpool and Australia
A large part of the fun of family history is making contact with distant relatives that you never knew you had. This is especially so nowadays with the joys of the internet and this...
Sarah Matthews: A Poke from the Psychic Facebook
“Overture and Beginners Please” Miss Sarah Matthews was a surprise package. I had never heard of her before. She had a life of two halves: an actress from our Theatre Royal, Bristol who was...
A Bristol Man aboard the Titanic
On 14 April 1912, the White Star liner ss Titanic struck an iceberg in the middle of the Atlantic. Within hours she sank to the bottom of the ocean. Of 2,200 passengers, only about...
“ZULU CHIEF DIES A SOLDIER’S DEATH” – Buried at Arno’s Vale
“With military honours, a Zulu Chief who served with the South African Labour Battalion was buried at Arno’s Vale on Saturday. His name was Private Mrogoy Modlala (sic) who died at Southmead War Hospital...
My World Cup, 1966
Did I dream it? Did it really happen? And did Mum really say “Well, I’ve never seen anything like that…..the poor chap,” as the North Korean player in one of the qualifying rounds came...
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.
Popular Post
The Great Laxey Wheel & the Miners of Laxey and Snaefell
18 August 2025
An Irish Odyssey – Part 1: The Lusitania
25 June 2025
