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Family history is so much more than names and dates

Month: October 2021

Help, My House is Haunted: unlikely ghost

Help, My House is Haunted: unlikely ghost

Posted on October 30, 2021 by HarrietP
Help, my House is Haunted: unlikely ghost Help, my House is Haunted, is a UK-based paranormal investigations programme. Things have moved on since the early days of the genre. When a few ‘orbs’ (t... Read More
Robert Carleton, last of the Carletons

Robert Carleton, last of the Carletons

Posted on October 24, 2021October 30, 2021 by HarrietP
In a previous post,  I mentioned Robert Carleton, of Carleton Hall, near Penrith, almost ‘in brackets’.  Here is a bit more about Robert, the last of the Carletons. Robert Carleton: a long pedi... Read More
The Sorceries – and old traditions in Carlisle

The Sorceries – and old traditions in Carlisle

Posted on October 17, 2021October 17, 2021 by HarrietP
An account, printed in 1842, of the rescue of notorious reiver Kinmont Willie from Carlisle Castle in 1569 includes: On the 13th of April, they crossed the Eden two hours before daybreak, “at the St... Read More
Benjamin Franklin’s experiment in Cumberland

Benjamin Franklin’s experiment in Cumberland

Posted on October 17, 2021October 17, 2021 by HarrietP
Pouring oil on troubled waters Pouring oil on troubled waters – as a metaphor – is familiar to all of us. It means trying to calm a dispute with soothing words. Benjamin Franklin’s experimen... Read More
Coughs and sneezes and Victorian ‘cures’

Coughs and sneezes and Victorian ‘cures’

Posted on October 17, 2021October 17, 2021 by HarrietP
Victorian cures for illness were an extremely serious matter for the sick. Reading contemporary newspaper adverts for pills and potions makes one very glad modern medicine (and Trading Standards) have... Read More
Dead but no one noticed: sleeping arrangements 1800s

Dead but no one noticed: sleeping arrangements 1800s

Posted on October 10, 2021October 10, 2021 by HarrietP
Sleeping arrangements in bygone times could see servants sharing a bed with their employer. As this curious 1835 inquest hearing records. ‘Suicide not noticed for 16 hours by woman sleeping next... Read More
Average life expectancy in 1776 and 1845

Average life expectancy in 1776 and 1845

Posted on October 4, 2021October 4, 2021 by HarrietP
The idea that people in olden days didn’t make it into old age says a lot about statistics and less about actual life expectancy facts. The average, in maths, is what you get when you add up the fig... Read More
Miss Havisham’s wedding feast – a real-life tragedy

Miss Havisham’s wedding feast – a real-life tragedy

Posted on October 4, 2021October 4, 2021 by HarrietP
Tragedies at sea, in this case on the SS West Cumberland, took their toll on loved ones at home. Charles Dickens described the room, in Great Expectations, where poor Miss Havisham’s wedding feast s... Read More
Cumbrian names and their origins

Cumbrian names and their origins

Posted on October 4, 2021December 3, 2021 by HarrietP
In my previous post on Cumbrian names, I looked briefly at at the riding names (the border reivers), and at the big landowners and politicians who dominated Cumberland and Westmorland for centuries. P... Read More
Branded, burned, hanged – punishments in the 18th century

Branded, burned, hanged – punishments in the 18th century

Posted on October 4, 2021October 4, 2021 by HarrietP
Branded for life is a figure of speech; in the 18th Century, branding was a punishment dished out by judges for a range of offences. The old saying ‘may as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb’ me... Read More
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Port Carlisle – a history built on hope

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