My Blog

As I was adding Jethro Shaw to our family tree a few days ago, I came across this claim:   “Jethro SHAW of Oakerside Wensley farmer was a...

I wrote about Hinda, who was Ari and Eva's 4x great-grandmother, back in 2018. Recently, I was given a photo album belonging to Hinda's...

It’s always quite exciting to discover that your relatives had a role to play in sensational events of the day. Last week we visited...

In September of 1914, a highlight of the early autumn social season in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, was the wedding of Bertha Jason and John...

One of the highlights of 2023 has been removing Marie Krivitzky from my list of unsolved mysteries. I had always known that Marie was a...

Sometimes when you discover a discrepancy and realize that you’ve made a mistake in your tree, it’s instructive to look back and piece...

William Branson Strickson was Ari’s 5x great-grandfather, and was quite unusual in that he made the decision to move away from his...

The Daily News, Lebanon, Pennsylvania · Friday, March 17, 1933, p. 10. My aim in doing a one-name study of all the Feinsteins in the...

Kalisz. By Fallaner - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=109880483 I have been busy making great...

Overton Hall is a country house just outside Ashover in Derbyshire. It was described as “a pleasant old residence, embosomed in ancient...

I had a feeling yesterday that I might make another breakthrough this year. I’m not sure why, but it feels as though slowly and steadily...

I recently rediscovered this wonderful photograph of my grandfather Louis. It is a cabinet portrait taken in a photographic studio in...

One of the ways to organize your ancestors is to give them numbers, using the Ahnentafel system. My grandson Ari would be No. 1, his...

Ari’s 6x great-grandmother, Mary Flint, was born on 23 August 1791 in Middleton By Wirksworth, Derbyshire. Her parents were William Flint...

Today I discovered that the name of Ari’s Latvian 4x great-grandmother was Sophia. I knew that her husband was Josif or Jossel, and I...

Today we visited the grave of Flight Sergeant Frederick David Johnson at Botley Cemetery. He died in 1943, at the age of twenty-two, when...

William Stapleton was Ari’s 4x great-grandfather. He was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire, in 1799, the son of David Stapleton (a silk...

James Read was Ari’s 5x great-grandfather. He lost his life on 16 January 1841 in Fonthill Bishop, Wiltshire, after a rapid thaw caused...

Anne Drodge was one of Ari’s 7x great-grandmothers. Her baptism took place in Christchurch, Dorset, on 3 August 1755, but the record does...

James Sims (also Syms and Simms) was Ari’s 8x great-grandfather, born in Duffield, Derbyshire in 1681 when King Charles II was on the...