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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“With every good wish from the Brislington Boys!”

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...

Ram Hill Colliery

‘Killed in a Coalpit’ – Ram Hill – seeing the place where it happened

Years ago when researching my paternal family I came upon hitherto unsuspected connections with an ancient industrial history. From that time I became obsessed (not too strong a word) with the lives of coalminers,...

A gift from Queen Victoria to Lady F Bailhe

A Present from Queen Victoria

Some years ago my distant cousin, the artist and author Ian Pillinger bought a bag of items in a junk shop which “looked interesting”. Being a man of many talents, he started to put...

Bristol is a village……or…….Who will I find next?

It has been said often enough that “Bristol is a village”; you will generally meet someone you know, or if you were my Dad, you would “get talking, and know their Auntie Fanny” or...

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...

Ram Hill Colliery – Heritage Open Day Sunday 19th Sept, 10.30-4pm

Visit this 19th century mine site, with the remains of the mine shaft, horse-gin, bunkers and Dramway. Take a walk through the woodland area and enjoy this fine example of local history. Find us...

9/11 Pic of my old TV on that terrible day

My Memories of 9/11

“Why didn’t they use their cell phones?” an American child is reported to have said recently at the 9/11 Memorial Exhibition in New York. A British boy or girl may have been equally baffled....

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...

Horse with hidden eyes

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...