The Ubiquitous Budgett family of Bristol – links to Brooklea House & the US Army in 1943
First, as the March 2025 BAFHS journal amply illustrates with its article on Ridgeway Park Cemetery, it is easy for family historians and conservationists to overlap, which is why a couple of paragraphs in...
Gleson/Glisson Family of Brislington
I have heard from Peter Wynn who has published two articles in the Genealogists’ Magazine about his Glisson family of which one is entitled “The Glissons of Bristol & North Somerset: a Family in...
The Willoughby family of Brislington – revisited
The Willoughby family, Roman Catholic gentry, at “Wick”, Brislington, 1787 – 1824. When my friend sent me a cutting of an oldish article from a family tree magazine she did so because it covered...
Home Thoughts From Abroad
The two letters partially reproduced for this article were sent in 1859 by a Brislington man, Richard Turner, to his widowed mother, Mary, and the family back home. He and his wife Liz had...
Is Your Name Comet?
As my small band of followers will know I have a family connection with Outer Space. Way back in the days of yore I was idling through the Brislington parish registers when I spotted...
My Booklets for Sale – Proceeds to Charity
To those, like me, who prefer to read from a hard copy, I still have a few of my booklets from the days when I photocopied and bound them for interested parties. They are...
A Brislington Autograph Book, 1916
Through the magic of the internet assisted by the mention of Brislington on this blog, I was recently contacted by Carol Gordon of Bolton, Lancashire. A while ago Carol bought a tiny autograph book,...
Brislington Coal
There are references to coalmining in Brislington from the early 17th century: the first being in 1614 when Anthony son of William Roache, collier, of Brislington was apprenticed to Chris. Powell, a Bristol weaver....
Index of names: Brislington’s & St Anne’s “We shall remember them”.
I had a few people who enquired whether I might add an index to “We Shall Remember Them” book so they could easily track down their Brislington and St Anne’s ancestor in World war...
I love synchronicity – how I ended up owning a Lysaght’s plaque
I love synchronicity. The story of how I was given my treasured drawing of the Five Collier Boys was at that very moment in preparation and not quite ready to go up on the...
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.
