Every Family has a story to tell……….Welcome to mine
(Photo: Peter Leibing / Library of Congress / International Center of Photography.) Some photographs capture a moment in time. Others become part of history itself. On 15 August 1961, a 19-year-old East German police officer made a split-second decision that would change the course of his life. As the Berlin Wall was beginning to take … Continue reading The Leap That Changed the Cold War: The Story of Konrad Schumann.
A Dorset village evacuated during the Second World War, where a promise to return was never fulfilled Hidden within the rolling hills of Dorset lies one of Britain's most poignant reminders of the Second World War. For more than eighty years, nobody has lived in Tyneham, yet walking through its quiet lanes feels as though time … Continue reading Tyneham: The Village Where Time Stood Still
Every now and then, family history hands us a gift when we least expect it. Sometimes that gift is a faded photograph tucked inside an old book, or a dusty document hiding at the bottom of a drawer. But in this case, it arrived in a far more unexpected fashion, unearthed from the soil of … Continue reading Digging Up History: A Passchendaele Memory Hidden in the Soil
Discover the dark tales of the past in my brand-new series: "Stories From The Grave." Why would someone be buried on top of a wall? A mysterious coffin sits on a churchyard wall at Edington Priory Church. It sounds like a riddle from another age. Yet at Edington Priory Church, that is exactly what you’ll find: a coffin-like … Continue reading The Coffin on the Wall And The Long-Held Mystery of Edington Priory
Discover the dark tales of the past in my brand-new series: "Stories From The Grave." One of the quiet joys of family history is discovering stories that gently remind us how deeply human the past really is, stories of love, resilience, and choices made within the boundaries of another time. On a recent journey through European … Continue reading When Love Crossed a Wall: The Little Hands of Roermond
Family history often begins with names and dates, but it rarely ends there. In this post, we explore what genealogy can teach us about the space between those dates, inspired by the poem “The Dash.” When we explore family history, whether walking through a graveyard, browsing parish registers, or scrolling through old records, we see the same pattern … Continue reading Your Dash: What Family History Teaches Us About Life Between The Dates
During a visit to the Western Front in the summer of 2025, I was told a story that has stayed with me ever since. It was not a story of sweeping offensives or celebrated generals, nor one that fits comfortably into the familiar narratives of the First World War. Instead, it was a small, human … Continue reading Beaumont-Hamel: A Fragment Returned
Discover the dark tales of the past in my brand-new series: "Stories From The Grave." In 1705, an Irish woman named Margorie McCall (sometimes recorded as McCat or McCool) was believed to have died suddenly from a fever and was hastily buried in Lurgan, County Armagh, a common practice at a time when contagious illness was feared, and medical … Continue reading Lived Once, Buried Twice
Private William Richards Crump was born in Birmingham in 1893, the youngest of two boys born to Minnie Crump. His baptism, alongside that of his older brother Francis, took place on 11 August 1894 at St James Church, Wandsworth. The brothers shared the unusual middle name Richards, which was almost certainly a quiet clue to the identity of their biological … Continue reading Before the Guns Fell Silent: The Final Days of Private Crump
From Orchard Fields to Flanders Fields: The Story of Thomas Wootton Thomas Wootton was born on March 26th, 18921, in the village of Byford, Herefordshire, the sixth oldest of eight children born to John and Frances Wootton. Raised on the family farm at Lower House, he attended Byford School from 1898 to 1906. A quiet … Continue reading The Farm Boy Who Went to War
