Dave Annal Lifelines Research

It seems like a nice place. And, yes, dementia, I’m afraid… 😢

Would that be my cousin Alexander by any chance?

Ha ha! I thought about you when I saw this story. What would the guards say if they spotted someone wearing a sweatshirt with an image of a sheela na gig!

I'll be fascinated to see this. My family came from Lythes/the East Side.

I would love to be able to attend but I'm about 600 miles away! Good luck with it all.

Thanks Ruth

I’m back down south after an emotional few days up in Edinburgh. My 92-year old dad is moving into a care home today and it all feels like the end of an era…

Thanks for the repost. Yes, in 1821 there was only one St Pancras church so while it was the ‘old’ parish church, it didn’t become the Old Parish Church until ca. 1848.

So my (admittedly pedantic) point* is that, if a couple were married at St Pancras in 1854, they were married in the new church, but we can just say that they were married at St Pancras. They weren't married at Old St Pancras. Not that Ancestry know this (or indeed care).

* but these things matter!

Here's a handy guide (Ancestry take note):

1660-1822 The original church on Pancras Road = St Pancras parish church
1822-today The new church on Euston Road = St Pancras parish church
1848-today The original church restored and named Old St Pancras church (no marriages solemnised there until 1859).

You Don’t Know What You’ve Got… I realise that I’m running the risk of sounding like a broken record here but it seems like there’s always something else to say when it comes to assessing the work of the major commercial genealog…

Having just read a refence to a marriage taking place at "St
Pancras’ Old Church in 1854" in an otherwise excellent article about a case of bigamy, I thought it might be worth revisiting my blog about the St Pancras churches.

It's easy; the 'old' church is (kind of) the newer of the two...

I am so fortunate to come from a family of hoarders - both my dad's side of the family and my mum's were reluctant to throw anything away. Which is why I was able to find this in a box of my dad's. It's a letter from a garage acknowledging my dad's order for his first car, a brand new Ford Popular!

S10EP01 - 'The Seaman' with Dr. Wanda Wyporska - The Family Histories Podcast Host Andrew Martin meets Dr. Wanda Wyporska, and hears about her seafaring Gt. Grandfather, and they ask for help to find a couple from Barbados

Season Ten is here, and we start with 'The Seaman' with Dr. Wanda Wyporska

familyhistoriespodcast.com/2025/11/11/s... #podcast #genealogy #ancestry #FamilyHistory

In 1939, when my mum was 11 years old, she won the 'Dux Medal' at her school, the 'Normal Practising Primary School' or 'Orwell Normal'. Her achivement was reported in the Edinburgh Evening News on 13 July 1939. And while sorting out a few things at my dad's house today, guess what I came across...?

Remembered Always Two years ago, I set myself the challenge of writing about an ancestor who died in military conflict, with the aim of publishing a Remembrance Day blog post to mark their life. In November 2022, I …

I’m up in Edinburgh for a few days and it seems appropriate to post a link to a piece I wrote a few years ago about my Edinburgh-born great uncle, Samuel Christie Annal who spent the last few months of his short life fighting in the Myanmar jungle.

#LestWeForget #Remembrance2025

10,000 words and counting...! 🥳

I think that's as good a place as any to stop for the day...

#AmWriting

Of course I wholly approve of it all, just as long as it doesn’t disturb my working head!

All that stuff is downstairs out of harm’s way!

My view right now…

Spiritually or physically? 😂

It's taken me a while to arrive at this conclusion, but I now firmly believe that the only way to finish this book is to get on with it.

So that's what I'm doing today...

#AmWriting

I'll be heading up the A41 in a couple of hours' time to speak to the good folk of the Aston Clinton U3A.

I'm giving them my talk on using newspapers to bring our ancestors to life.

It all starts at 2pm...

a man in a blue shirt and tie is pointing at a bulletin board with a lot of papers on it . ALT: a man in a blue shirt and tie is pointing at a bulletin board with a lot of papers on it .

He died at St Thomas Chapel where he wrote his will, but he was buried at Holwell and his will was proved in the Consistory Court of Lincoln.

So he died in Hertfordshire, he was buried in Bedfordshire and his will was proved in Lincolnshire.

Couldn't be simpler...

Just to clear everything up, the person I'm researching was born in Holwell, which was in Bedfordshire but was transferred to Hertfordshire in 1897.

As a young man he moved to St Thomas Chapel which was in the Bedfordshire parish of Meppershall but was administratively part of Hertfordshire...

1/2

Excellent! 😀

Ha ha! The Parish formerly known as Shitlington!

HARTFORD SHIRE intermixed with BEDFORD SHIRE The Limits uncertain Mapmaker: Jefferys, Thomas, -1771. Title: The County of Bedford, surveyed anno 1765 and engraved / by Thomas Jefferys. Date: 1765 https://maps.nls.uk/view/262718874

County boundaries weren't always as neat as we'd like them to be. The area around Meppershall in Bedfordshire was particularly complicated giving rise to this cartographical equivalent of a shrug of the shoulders:

HARTFORD SHIRE intermixed with BEDFORD SHIRE
The Limits uncertain

#MappyMonday

Well, I’ve got to get back later! B

Just about to head off to Dartford for my talk at the @nwkfhs.bsky.social AGM this afternoon.

I'm on stage at 14.15. The M25 seems to be clear. What can possibly go wrong...?

November Saturday 1st 10.00 Garston Ladies football training: U5s & U6s, Powerleague, Watford 14.15 Talk: Lying Bastards, NW Kent FHS AGM, Dartford

It’s one of those confusing days for me today.

First up, I’ve got a football session for Under 5 & Under 6 girls at 10am.

Then, I’m off to Dartford to present my talk on the impact of illegitimacy on family history research at the AGM of the North West Kent FHS at 2.15pm.