Connections – Sappho and Jonathan Dove’s Odyssey
I told my son, “I’d like to go to a concert one of these days.” He pounced at once. My Dad would have said, “like a dog on a rabbit.” He, my son, is...
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...
Survivor of Ravensbruck: Stefania Ekner, nee Biegarczyk, 1921-2001
Family History research often leads to something entirely unexpected. In 2014, my first cousin Jack GREGORY was due to attain a milestone birthday. What to give a 90 year-old-man? The majority of us who...
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...
More Black Bristolians
My book, “Black Bristolians” was written in 1986 and I added a supplement a few years later. As with much of my output it took the form of lists in name order. The book...
Black Bristolians of the 18th & 19th Centuries
In the mid-1950s, at the impressionable age of 18, I remember reading “The Sun is My Undoing” by Marguerite Steen, a popular historical novelist of the time, which alluded to a “Bristol slave market”....
Black Bristolians – Addendum
Some additional Black Bristolians that I found after completing the book. Includes Pero, who is now immortalised in the name of the bridge across the Bristol floating harbour. Click the link below to download:...
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.
