Taking stock of questions to research, itches to scratch, and development work to do.
Contents
- Family Reconstructions
- Specific People
- Website Development
24 March, 2016
25 May, 2015
The Willetts of Colchester, Essex (and Daylight Saving) 1 of 2
The change to and from British Summer Time can bring about a flurry of interest in William Willett, the original advocate in Britain of Daylight Saving. He was the eldest son of another William Willett. For some reason this spring Google and that ilk have pointed a larger number of people than usual towards this family blog. Some of them have familiar family stories about being related to “Daylight Saving” Willett.
In addition another comment by a relative (about William Willett senior – Daylight Saving Willett’s father – running away from his step-mother) has prompted me to re-examine “the top” of the Willett tree as I have previously understood it.
(more…)1 September, 2014
Identifying FANYs in Newspaper Cutting
This post ties into the post about Evelyn Faulder’s Military Medal. Recent comments by Juliet Webster have prompted me to revisit this story. There is a press cutting in the family (from the Daily Mirror of 23 July 1918):
Cutting; Photo of MM Award Winners
But who is who?
15 April, 2014
Faulder Family – England and Wales Distribution
Although I have been concentrating on my own line of Faulders (who I can trace back to North Cumberland in 1754), I am taking an interest in other lines because they may eventually give a clue to my line further back.
I have also been working with GenMap UK an application that will map Genealogical Data. This has helped me get a view of where there are major groups of Faulders. (more…)
6 September, 2012
Faulders mentioned in BBC Who Do You Think You Are
The 5 September 2012 Edition of (the BBC Series of) Who Do You Think You Are? featured the singer Annie Lennox. Her Great Great Great Grandmother, Mary Rose, was the “Natural Daughter” of a James Rose (Church terminology for illegitimate). It seems that a few months after the birth of Mary, James Rose married an Isabella Faulder. That caught my attention!
(more…)23 February, 2012
The Williamsons in the United States
The 1861 Census for England and Wales shows a Thomas Williamson born 1845 in New Jersey, United States. He is listed as a Tinplate Worker staying in Worcester (England) with his uncle William Bliz(z)ard Williamson. (more…)
4 February, 2011
The Quick and the Dead: Upcoming book
Richard van Emden will be publishing a book later this year about the Great War families left without a father or husband. Although stories of members of our family do not feature, some may recognise the cover.
The picture was taken at Tyne Cot in the 1920s by Marjorie Faulder, widow of Harold Faulder, and shows my father pointing out his father’s name.
A friend of the author saw the picture when I used it to illustrate a post on the Great War Forum and consequently Richard Van Emden approached me asking if he could use the image. My brother and I agreed (almost two and a half years ago).
(more…)21 December, 2010
Research Note: Google Ngrams
(This post is more in the nature of a genealogy diary entry or research note discussing a potential line of interesting research.)
Google in their attempt to “capture all information”, have been digitalising huge numbers of mainly out of copyright books (more than 5.2 million). Now they have introduced a tool to try and analyse this corpus of data: Google NGrams. This allows you to graph by date of publication the occurrence of a word (or even selection of words).
So for a genealogist, the logical thing to do is ego-surf – stick your own surname in the tool and see what comes out. (more…)
29 August, 2010
24 August, 2010
William Willett (b 1837) Founder of the building firm
There are (at least) two notable William Willetts. The most notable two are probably the father and son pair; the son (b 1856) is noted as the advocate of Daylight Saving, whilst his father is noted for founding the building firm Willetts. (more…)
