Bristol History – Celebrating the lives of ordinary people

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Hello I’m DP Lindegaard and I’ve been researching social history in the West for nearly 50 years

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Warts and all - my family history: Honours; Pillingers; Frays & Lindegaards

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Norman and Doreen Lindegaard smiling

The Linden Tree – The Lindegaard Family History

I wrote this a long time ago and refer to it as “my juvenelia”! I need to revisit it and improve it. It charts the story of how my husband’s family (by the name...

People looking through the drawers to see artefacts in the Museum of Totterdown

Futurology at the Museum of Totterdown

We are a family of fossil collectors, and though out of habit I look down at the ground if I go for a walk, I have never thought much of the detritus the filthy...

A picture of Maori's performing a Haka painted by Joseph Jenner Merrett, 1816-54

Bristol and The Haka – 1917

I hazard a guess the first time any Bristolian had ever seen the Haka was on Saturday the 29 December 1917. The Haka is synonymous as a precursor to rugby matches involving the New...

Norton James’ official MN card stating him to be a “Man of Colour”.

Domille Lucia James – A story of a black Bristol woman for Black History Month

Please Note: This post contains words which are no longer acceptable but were commonplace during the 2nd World War when these incidents occurred. I cannot say that DOMILLE LUCIA JAMES is inspirational; in fact,...

“Free Coloured Persons”: the ancestral story of Charles Walter Cumberbatch

“Going to Barbados” (a euphemism for being “under the influence”.)  Benjamin Franklin, 1737. (attrib.) [1] “Barbados is the other place where I like to be.” Cliff Richard. Introduction This is the sequel to “Pamela...

My Pillinger Women: No. 4 – Martha Britton Pillinger and her daughter, Pamela Pillinger Cumberbatch

On 12th May 1850 when a baby girl was baptised at a small village in Somerset called Queen Charlton, her first name may have caused a slight flutter of interest, as it did to...

Fossil Hunters on Charmouth Beach

Charmouth Tales: “All he did was sell Monmouth some fish……”

Only a few days back from Charmouth in Dorset, so I’m still demob-happy, not yet ready to contemplate the list of historical ideas I’ve got for future blogs in the dark days and long...

A jam pan for making jam

The Family Tree of a Jam Pan

Today, 7 August 2023, I made five pots of Strawberry Jam in the Jam Pan. My young man grows fruit at the allotment but don’t worry if you don’t do the same. Strawberries are...

Comet 1811

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...

Sad Memories of a failed Rock Chick

On 23 March 1958 Buddy Holly and the Crickets played at Bristol’s Colston Hall. I had a ticket but nobody to go with. I was in the doldrums, and it was a Sunday. I...