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Women

Mary Kennedy – Adventures on the First Fleet and Beyond

Mary Kennedy of Baptists Mills in Bristol is one of an elite group of people who made landfall at Sydney Cove in January 1788. They numbered approximately 1,373 persons, consisting of convicts, male and...

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...

A Victorian Girl

The Victorian Girl is the Cinderella story in reverse. Mary Britton, previously Leighton, was a dear old soul, who was “in Service’ in Downend from leaving school until her late marriage to Samuel Britton....

Remarkable Women: Following the Drum. Biddy Skiddy – Hannah Scuse

I became interested in the Peninsular War period through the TV series “Sharpe”. This is predominately a male tale of derring-do but when visiting the National Army Museum in London (www.nam.ac.uk) I discovered the...

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...