Family History

A couple of years ago I posted about my great-great grandfather Henry Wildman, and the complications I had in attempting to find the real Henry Wildman caused such a headache that I turned my attention away to other things. However, Henry’s marriage has captured my attention in terms of the potential of a Jewish connection. […]

There is a connection between the interestingly named MP Freeman Freeman-Thomas and my maternal Rollings family in Cornwall. But before I reveal the connection, perhaps it is best to provide an overview of Freeman-Thomas himself. Freeman Freeman-Thomas was born in 1866 in Eastbourne, East Sussex. He was from a family of notable standing (his maternal […]

Last year I posted in the Trail of the Wildmen series about the apparent Wildman motto: “the way must be tried.” In the post I outlined how a beer company – Flying Dog Brewery – used this motto in a TV commercial, with a portrayal of a “wild man”, to help promote a new beer […]

In the last post I outlined the uses of what Arthur Marwick called “documents of record”, something that I covered in a recent degree class on the History with English programme at University Centre South Devon. In the weeks ahead I intend on covering other issues and uses of sources, such as the utilisation of […]

In the last post in the series – The Trail of the Wildmen – I discussed the possible origins for the surname “Wildman”. Along the way I quoted an entry from the website House of Names which noted: The surname Wildman was first found in Berkshire where they held a family seat from very ancient […]

Having spent a few months tinkering around with research into my great-grandfather Sidney Levi Wildman – the piccolo player– and his wife, I thought it was time to step a generation further back to look into my great-great grandfather Henry Wildman. As opposed to Sidney, there is far less information available: a few patchy census […]

Whilst doing a bit of Christmas family history research I continued digging further into the Moors of Essex. Three generations of this family lived in Essex and East London throughout the 19th Century, moving – it seems – wherever they could find work. For example, Elijah Moor (1819-1909), was a sailmaker who moved between East […]

Over the past few weeks I’ve dived back into family history research. Earlier in the year I spent a good couple of months researching into the Hines of Hemyock where a branch of family history from my wife’s gran linked into; it was fascinating to piece together the history of this family and to actually […]

During a foundation degree session this week I utilised the records relating to George Edward Donohoe in order to piece together the story of his life. I simply plunk the sources – military records and census returns – on a table and allow them to construct the narrative. I’ve done this activity a couple of […]