History of Cumberland and Westmoreland (1860) It’s A History and Topography of Cumberland and Westmoreland actually. And a title page inside goes further: A History and Topography of the count...Read More
Thurnam brothers, Carlisle Like Goldilocks, sometimes there is too little information on an individual to make a blog post. Sometimes, there is just enough. And sometimes, there is too much. In the ca...Read More
King James I and the Grahams – Royal grovelling Grovelling to kings in times past was probably a wise, rather than a pitiful thing to do. Displease his or her royal majesty and it was ‘off with hi...Read More
Edward Irving – forgotten Santa Should you pay a visit to St Mary’s Church, Stapleton, on Christmas Day, and manage to find the grave of Edward Irving, you would be partaking in an apparently long...Read More
The Armstrong perjury case – or Robert Bendle Moore and the naughty client An extraordinary letter was read out in court in April 1858, written by a solicitor to a client. But then the Armstrong per...Read More
Pacification of The Borders The Pennington Archive A site about the border reivers has an interesting selection of information about our cattle-stealing ancestors. There are maps, blog posts on ...Read More
John Ellwood Boadle – a reminder that not all who ‘gave their lives for their country’ in the First World War died on the battlefield. Poor conditions in makeshift training camps at home were a ...Read More
Elizabethan handwriting – the ‘decoding’ thereof’ – isn’t something I’m exactly expert at. But that does mean my ‘beginner’s guide’ is written from experience as a beginner, so hop...Read More
DNA tests revisited… In my post looking at whether DNA tests are worth it, for family history, I concluded: Because: In short, I don’t think DNA testing could tell me anything I haven’t or c...Read More
Westmorland girls were given some sound advice, from bitter experience, in May 1874, by a young woman who had learned the hard way. While looking for something else, I chanced upon a notice in the Pen...Read More