"In the name of God, Amen ..." Few documents begin with words more familiar to the family historian. For centuries they marked the opening of thousands of English wills, each one representing the final thoughts of an ordinary person whose life would otherwise have slipped quietly into obscurity. Some belonged to wealthy landowners, others to …
The Front Line Letters of 'Tommy’ Wyer ― Part Two Tommy's final letter in Part One left us with a sense of reassurance. He had come through the fighting of late September and early October, had been struck but not seriously, and had been able to tell his parents that he was lucky. Set against …
The Front Line Letters of 'Tommy' Wyer ― Part One There is an assortment of evidence that enables us to tell the story of a soldier of the Great War. There is the military record: a name, a number, a regiment and a date of death. There are medal rolls, casualty lists and official forms. …
A Farmer, his Family and the Inheritance of a Way of Life WHEN RESEARCHING OUR ancestors, it is often the most rudimentary records that speak most clearly. A baptism tells us when a child entered the world. A marriage record tells us who they married. A burial records the end of a life. A will, …
The Story of Archie Winn, a Young Man from Grimsby SOME LIVES survive in letters and photographs, diaries and memories—whilst others have been reduced, over the passing of a century, to a mere handful of official documents. There may be a census return. A military service number. A medal roll. A war gratuity payment recorded …
A Horseman of Dunsby Fen Names carved upon the war memorials of south Lincolnshire are of men whose lives were cut short before they had the opportunity to discover what the future might hold. Thomas Wand was one such man. Thomas was born in the south Lincolnshire village of Dunsby. By the time he was …
Family Connections Behind 'The Lost Fenland Generation' FAMILY HISTORIANS QUICKLY become accustomed to following people through the fragments they have left behind. A baptism places a child in a particular village and identifies the parents; a census records a household on one particular night; a marriage joins two names together; a burial marks the end …
The Harvest for War THE PHRASE 'over by Christmas' has echoed through history as a symbol of misplaced optimism. Yet, in 1914, as Europe slid inexorably toward a full-scale Continental war, there were men in positions of command who knew better. Britain's newly appointed Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener was one of them. …
The Last Harvest ON A CRISP November morning in 2021, three elderly men gathered beside a newly erected street sign in the Lincolnshire village of Hacconby. They stood proudly, smiling for the photographer as the street sign denoting Wyer Close was formally unveiled ahead of Remembrance Sunday. To many people passing by today, it is …
AMONG THE MORE revealing records to survive from nineteenth-century England are those created under the administration of the Poor Laws. We have already glimpsed one aspect of the dystopian Poor Law Act in my July 16 post: 'The Examination of Anne Wyer'. Here is another. Intended as administrative documents rather than family histories, Poor Law …
