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Blog postShop Street, Galway, IrelandPhoto by Peter Gorman* After my success in discovering new information about the St Leger family, I decided to see if I could find out more about another Irish family in my mother's line, Patrick and Margaret Hardman or Hardiman (nee Jenkins.) The Hardmans apparently arrived in England between the birth of their daughter Elizabeth (my maternal grandmother's great
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Blog postImagine that a friend gives you a present, rather clumsily wrapped. You know that your friend has very different tastes to yours, in fact, if you were quite truthful, you'd say that they have poor taste. So you unwrap the parcel with some trepidation. Inside you find a plain white candle in some sort of glass candle holder. You try to look impressed, but the thing is unattractive, hideously
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Blog postThey say everything comes to the one who waits, and that's certainly true in family history research. Back in 2014, when I last wrote about my mother's great grandfather, Samuel St Ledger (sometimes spelled St Leger) and his defacto wife Alice Dodd, there were all sorts of loose ends and unexplained aspects to the story. To recap, Samuel was born in Manchester, in the early 1800s, and worked all
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Blog postHere's a paradox - the longer we've been a Christian, the more we come to realise how sinful we really are. We discover that our antagonism towards God runs very deep. Does this sound familiar? Before I turned to Christ, I sometimes felt guilty about specific things I'd done, but I didn't know what to do with the guilt. It was a joy to discover that because of Jesus' death on the cross, I'm
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Blog postPoverty, chastity and obedience are the traditional vows of those entering religious orders. Benedict, however, added a fourth vow for his order - stability. Benedictine monks and nuns are expected to remain within the same community for life. This might seem strange, even harsh to us. We expect to move house and change jobs several times over a lifetime. Our whole society is hooked on the
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Blog postEquitable Street, Milnrow. Matthew and his family lived at number 33 in 1911. Most of the unsolved mysteries from my family tree involve "what" "when" or "who" questions. What was the relationship between James Beales and William Beales? When was Richard Ward born? Who brought up Harriet Whybrew? They're questions that, at least in theory, could be answered by finding the right records (if
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Blog postA lot of the articles on my old website "One Candle" were out of date, and the site itself was difficult to maintain, so I've closed it. I'm planning to edit or rewrite the articles worth keeping and post them here. If you are looking for a particular article that used to be on that site, please contact me and I'll send you a copy.
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Blog postAdelaide Railway Station in 1878 Back in February 2013 I wrote a post titled "What happened to Jane and Bridget Mason?" about the two youngest of John and Catherine Mason's nine daughters. When John died in Adelaide in 1857, leaving Catherine destitute, Jane was 4 and Bridget 2 years old. At the time of writing I said that I hadn't been able to find out anything about these two girls, and
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Blog postHere's the next family history "mystery" that I've yet to solve. Robert Beales, born about 1785, was the great grandfather of my great grandfather, William James Beales. Robert and his wife Hannah (surname uncertain, but possibly May) had a number of children baptised in the church of St Peter and St Paul at St Osyth in Essex, or in nearby St Andrews, Weeley, between 1810 and 1827. Their names
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Blog postTimorous and Mr Fearing are two of the characters described by John Bunyan in his allegorical story, The Pilgrim's Progress. Despite the similarity of their names, they have rather different personalities, and come to very different ends. The Pilgrim, Christian, meets Timorous and his companion Mistrust at the top of the Hill of Difficulty. Unlike Christian who is heading for the Celestial
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Blog postOne of the things I most enjoy about having a family history blog is the contact it provides with people from far and wide. It's always a thrill to find an email in my inbox from someone who has read my blog and found a connection with their own family. Often this is followed by both of us exchanging information and photos that we would never have come across through the normal methods of
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Blog postMarket Place, Garstang Sometimes the best way to solve a mystery is to think laterally. If you can't find the information you want about someone by a direct route, discover all you can about their siblings, in-laws, neighbours and friends, and you may find a clue that leads to the answer. That was my thinking when I set out to discover the maiden name of Betty Lambert, one of my great great
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Blog postIt's hard to believe that it's a whole year since I published my book about Susan Mason. It was fun writing it, a steep learning curve to publish and market it, and a wonderful experience to get feedback from people, some of them distantly related, from all around the world. To mark the anniversary, I've made the ebook/kindle version of the book FREE for this week only. It's available on
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Blog postRose Whybrew was the fifth daughter of David and Susan Whybrew (nee Mason) and my father's great aunt, though he never met her. She is another of the unsolved mysteries in my family history research. I've been able to follow her life story as far as Chicago, USA, in 1918, but then she disappears. Despite hours spent searching, I haven't found any trace of her after that. What I do know about her
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Blog postChurch door, St Leonard'sWalton le Dale One of the most long-standing mysteries in my family history research is the date of birth of Richard Ward, my paternal great great grandfather. I know from several sources that he was the son of Thomas and Frances Ward, and that he was born in Walton le Dale, in Lancashire. The problem with determining his date of birth is that two baptism records
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Blog postHappy New Year! For the past few years I've used the new year as the time to alternate between writing about the maternal and paternal sides of my family history. If I kept to that pattern, this should be the year I switch back to writing about the Ward and Beales families, on the paternal side. But since I've now covered most of the main individuals on both sides of the family tree in this
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Blog postAs a family historian, I often find myself researching the lives of people who are not genetically related to my family. Friends, neighbours, in-laws and god-parents are all of interest, since their lives often illuminate the lives of my forebears. I've mentioned how tracing the friends of John and Catherine Mason helped me to finally prove (at least to my own satisfaction) that John was an Irish
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Blog postIn a previous post I looked at the life of the first of Alfred Pearson Bentley's sons to be named John Alfred. He was born in Salford, England, in 1873 and died there in 1933. Now it's time to look at the second John Alfred. Boston docks about 1900 As we've seen, Alfred P. Bentley left his first wife and family in England in the middle of 1879, and married Annie Jane Smith a few months later
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Blog postIf you're a member of Goodreads, you may be interested in this giveaway for my book "Susan". There are 3 paperback copies to be won. Already read the book? Please let other readers know what you thought of it by leaving a rating or a review on Amazon, Goodreads or ibooks. .goodreadsGiveawayWidget { color: #555;
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Blog postNine Elms British Cemetery, Belgium As I've mentioned before, my great great grandfather Alfred Pearson Bentley (b 1849) had two sons named John Alfred, one born to his wife Annie Reed in Salford in 1873 and the other born, through a bigamous marriage to Annie Jane Smith, in Boston in 1884. Despite sharing the same name and the same father, the two John Alfreds led rather different lives. In
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Blog postThe Leeds Liverpool Canal at Wigan Pier Never publish in haste! I wrote my last article based on research I'd done quite a while ago, but after digging into things a bit more, I find I now need to correct a couple of statements in my previous post about Hannah Holt and her family. First, I said that her father John Holt was a boatman, and guessed that this meant he was a labourer on the
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Blog postSalford Quays today would be unrecognisable to Hannah Holt and her family When I wrote about Alice Hough, I mentioned that she was the child of Alfred (aka Albert) Hough and Hannah (or Anna) Holt. I've already described the Hough side of her family, who were brick makers in Salford. Now it's time to say something about the Holts. Unfortunately there's little to tell about them besides
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Blog postThe digitised newspaper collection at Trove, the National Library of Australia site, is an amazing (and free) resource. It proved invaluable when I was doing the research for my book about Susan Mason. Trove has many more resources available besides newspapers of course - maps, diaries, journals, government gazettes, and videos, to name but a few - but for those researching their family history,
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Blog postLimerick c 1900 John Mason was 18 years old when he was transported to Australia aboard the Parmelia. Until recently all that I knew about his crime came from his convict records, which stated that he had been sentenced in Limerick for 'stealing cotton'. The Limerick prison records (available at Find My Past) showed that he had been tried on 27 June 1833 and sentenced on 11 July, but gave no
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Blog postMarket place, Barnard Castle (cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Ben Gamble ) Now that I've traced back through Alfred Pearson Bentley's forebears, it's time to have a look at his wife Annie Reed. As I've mentioned before, Alfred and Annie were married in Dewsbury in Yorkshire in 1869, and moved to Salford in Lancashire before 1872. In 1879, soon after the birth of their fifth child, Alfred sailed to America,
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Blog postMost of us have probably wondered at some stage whether we can really go on being a Christian until the end of our lives. Our faith seems so weak and wobbly at times. Perhaps we’ve struggled with doubts about certain doctrines, or felt puzzled and disturbed by something we've read in the Bible. Maybe we’ve tried to share the gospel with others and found ourselves flummoxed by their
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Blog postTwo voices, one song* In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul was writing to Christians who were at risk of believing that keeping the Jewish law was helpful, perhaps even necessary, for salvation. To help them understand that it was their faith in Jesus, not keeping the law, that put them right with God, he pointed out that Abraham was declared righteous by God before the covenant of
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Blog postSt James Church, Tong, built 1727 © Copyright Humphrey Boltonlicensed for reuse under this CC Licence Harriet Smith is one of those people whose story can only be told in terms of "daughter of..", "wife of...", mother of...". Anything we know of her character or actions has to be deduced or guessed. She was born in Armley, near Leeds in Yorkshire, on 18 July 1817, the second daughter of James
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Blog postThis is a rather special post. A few weeks ago I received an email from Dawn Spradlin, who introduced herself as the great great granddaughter of Jeremiah Whybrew, David Whybrew's older brother. She had come across this site and realised that we must be related. I asked if she would be willing to write something about her research into her own family's history, or share some photos, and to my
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Blog postWe all need encouragement to keep doing what we’re doing. As a writer, I’m encouraged to go on writing when someone tells me that something I’ve written has been helpful to them. Teachers are encouraged when their students do well in their exams. Trades people are encouraged when a customer recommends them to someone else, not just because of the promise of more work, but because it shows that
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Blog postMay the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 15:5-6 Photo by Riza Nugraha In a world where conflict abounds at every level, the ability of Christians to live and work together in unity should be a wonderful
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Blog postDrawing of the first patented lockstitch sewing machine, invented in 1845 by Elias Howe and patented in 1846, 15 years after William Bentley's death. He would have done all his tailoring work by hand. After posting a couple of articles about Ben Bentley my plan was to say something about his forebears and those of Harriet Smith, his wife. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot to say with
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Blog postView the book The book I've been writing about Susan Mason and her family is finally complete and published on Amazon worldwide. It's available as an e-book which can be read on any Kindle device or Kindle app. A paperback version is also available (although sadly not through the Australian Amazon site, which doesn't stock printed books yet). I'm still looking into other e-book options such as
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Blog postMy book about Susan Mason and her family is finally complete and almost ready to launch. In fact it's already sitting on the Kindle Direct Publishing page on Amazon. Once I set a price, then hit the "publish" button, it will be on it's way into the world as an ebook. I'm just waiting for confirmation from a couple of people that they're happy for their names to appear on the acknowledgements
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Blog post“Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” Genesis 18:25 The Old Testament is vital to our understanding of who Jesus is and what he said and did. Yet it’s not always easy to read. Sometimes the problem is our distance in time and
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Blog postOh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! (Ps 107:1) In a recent news clip about children’s art being displayed in a prestigious art gallery, one child was asked how she felt about seeing her picture hanging besides works by world-famous artists. Her unsmiling response was “It shows that I’ve worked hard and that if you really want to, you can
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Blog postHe rules the world in righteousness and judges the peoples with equity. (Psalm9:8 NIV)In our judicial system, the role of judge is separated from that of lawmaker. A judge cannot change the law, initiate legal proceedings, or change the penalty imposed by the law. A judge has no role in carrying out the sentence against the guilty.This separation of lawmakers and judges is meant to ensure
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Blog postHe tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young. Isaiah 40.11 (NIV) The prophet Isaiah had good news to announce to God’s people. God himself would come and be their shepherd. He would demonstrate his power and authority, but he would also have a special concern for those who were so often left
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Blog postAfter forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. (Genesis 8:6) When we’re in the middle of a crisis, all we want is for it to come to an end. Each day we look for signs that it might soon be over. We long for life to return to normal. Once the crisis is over, many things do return
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Blog post"I am with you always, to the very end of the age". (Matt 28.20b) A few days before she was to start kindy, a little girl began insisting that her mother should let her walk there on her own on the very first day. This seemed rather strange, so her mother tried to find out why it was so important to the child. Eventually the little girl said “Well, if I go on my own I won’t have to say
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Blog postWhatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3:23-24) Those Christians who work in the helping professions may be tempted to look at those who do creative or constructive work and experience a certain envy. It
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Blog postThis child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. (Luke 2:34b-35) Simeon had waited his whole life to see the promised Messiah. Then one day an unassuming young couple brought their baby into the temple court, and he knew that the moment he had been waiting for had
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Blog postIn the church calendar October 31 was traditionally All Hallows Eve, the evening before All Saints Day on November 1. It was a time for remembering the dead, both the saints and martyrs (”the hallowed” or holy ones)and loved ones who had died. It may have been timed to coincide with an older pagan festival which marked the onset of winter, although originally All Saints day was in May. Many
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Blog postBut to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. (Deuteronomy 29:4) Two sorts of people never change their mind - those suffering from delusions caused by mental illness, and the prejudiced. Mental illness can often be treated, but prejudice has no treatment. A person whose mind is open to the truth may have very strongly held beliefs based on
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Blog postNow the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him.(John 11:57) Mark’s gospel tells us that it was out of envy that the religious leaders sought to have Jesus arrested and executed. But what was the cause of their envy? Perhaps it was that Jesus related freely to God and called him Father,
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Blog post“The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” John 9:11 Model of old Jerusalem.Original image by Berthold Werner The blind man had never seen Jesus. He had only heard him speaking and felt his hands touching his face. But something about Jesus, his willingness to touch a blind beggar, his voice and
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Blog postThe advertising industry has apparently decided that promoting anxiety about being judged inadequate is just as good for business as creating envy. So women's magazines carry pictures of celebrities with scathing captions mocking the size of their thighs, the colour of their lipstick or their fashion blunders. The message to readers is clear - get this right or you too will be judged. Of
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Blog post"Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (Hebrews 4:16) The Pharisees knew the scriptures well. They knew that in order to approach a good and holy God, you must live a life of scrupulous obedience to his law. Since no human being could hope to live a perfectly sinless life, a sacrifice was
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Blog postWe no longer stand alone One of the key themes of Paul's letter to the Ephesians - in fact one of the key themes of Paul's theology - is that through the church the wisdom of God is made known to "the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places." (3:8-10) Christ has been raised from the dead and is seated "far above all rule and authority, power and dominion" (1:21). Now we, who once
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