Blog

…. Knocknobbler. Back in Victorian times, this wonderful title was given to a churchwarden who was in charge of turning unruly dogs out of church! The […]

….Justice. Crime, and how to deal with it, was one of the great issues of Victorian Britain. With an increase from about 5,000 recorded crimes per […]

…. illegitimacy. Back when we have only parish registers to rely on for our family and local history research, comments such as ‘base’, ‘bastard’, or simply […]

…. Hearth Tax. The hearth tax was introduced by the government of Charles II in 1662. Following the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Parliament calculated […]

….grandparents and great-grandparents. Beginning with yourself, you have two parents, four grandparents and 8 great-grandparents…. whether you know who they were or not! Heading back into […]

….Fishing. It is fairly obvious from the title of my first publication that I have a keen interest in the West Country, particularly in Devon…. a […]

….Education. Two hundred years ago education, which we take for granted today, was a commodity only available to nobility and the rich. Before the twentieth century, […]

…. a world of discoveries in family and local history! It could have been for dressmaker, DNA, death, descendant, denomination (of the religious kind) or Devon […]

….copious counties, censuses, clerks, curates, courts, convicts and today’s C, for christenings. The christening (or baptism) of a child was supposed to take place the first Sunday […]