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James Cooke – Victorian carman
By Christine Swan I have found that some of my ancestors have been very easy to research. This is especially true of the famous and the infamous but, the ordinary present me with a…
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The emporer’s new supermarket checkouts
By Christine Swan Self-service checkout by Jay Gooby from Brighton, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons I am a complete technophile. I love gadgets and new tech, and I have been…
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The excitement of travel
By Christine Swan I love the concept of a Grand Tour conducted over an extended period, to broaden the mind and enrich the senses. After my first trip to Lyon, I came home and…
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A final walk home
By Christine Swan I thought long and hard about what to do with my parents’ ashes. My dad died four years ago and my mum last year. In 2015, my parents moved into a…
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Life is nothing without friendship
By Christine Swan Walking with friends is good for the soul I am finding that I am becoming increasingly reflective as I age. The recent loss of my daughter has tested the strength and…
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David Deighton Taylor – a family consumed
By Christine Swan The early 1900s seem to have been the best years for David Deighton Taylor. After the loss of their first child in 1893, David and Julia went on to have seven…
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David Deighton Taylor – cats’ meat vendor
By Christine Swan My great grandfather died before my father was born so there was little known family history. “He used to sell horse flesh for cats”, my Dad told ,me. One of my…
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Why isn’t everybody Kung Fu fighting?
By Christine Swan For those of you that know me in real life, you will be aware of my unusual activity regime which includes Wing Chun Kung Fu. I first started learning the Chinese…
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Solvitur ambulando
by Christine Swan Life has been very challenging recently. There is no loss like the untimely passing of your child. I felt a desperate need to escape the crushing sense of grief but also…
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Mary Ann Dighton – fancy trimming maker
By Christine Swan It has taken rather a lot of research to find out as much as I have about my great, great grandmother Mary Ann Dighton. She was born in about 1842 before…
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The life of Ann Dighton, silk weaver 1815 – 1885
By Christine Swan Ann is my great, great, great grandmother. She was born on 4th August 1815 in Hare St, Bethnal Green. Her father, William, was a silk weaver who employed apprentices and was…
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Daniel Crudgington – final years
By Christine Swan Dear reader, the delay in posting this final episode will be explained in another post however, to recap, Daniel Crudgington, returned convict, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to just one…
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Awful Rigours and Wretched Pay 