19th Century
Meet The Family
In part one of this odyssey into the past, you’ll recall me being curious and excited in anticipation of the results of a Christmas present DNA test: Who Do I Think I Am? In part [more…]
Family Tree
History
Who Do I Think I Am? Part Two
Not who I think I am Oh, dear. Be careful what you wish for. Let sleeping dogs lie. Unexpected consequences. Every family holds its secrets – except yours and mine. All is not what it [more…]
History
Who Do I Think I Am?
I think I’ve mentioned this before on these very pages. Perhaps it’s because I am of a certain age and demeanour. Is it the slightly haggard, worldly look or a hint of exotic places in [more…]
20th Century
Nostalgia Album, Joining The Team
November 1963 Last week I invited Puffins to guess, in unread comments below the unread article, what course my father’s cousin Anne may have plotted when, aged only 26, she lost both of her parents [more…]
20th Century
Nostalgia Album, A New Posting
Fair Winds And a Following Sea This time on Nostalgia Album we are enjoying a new posting to a place where the White Ensign no longer flies. If in last week’s unread comments below the [more…]
20th Century
Nostalgia Album, Seville
Las Dos Infantas Elegantes Last time on Nostalia Album we left my father’s cousin, Anne, beaming on the quarry spoil of a Gibraltar beach. She was 15 and thriving in the crown colony, benefitting from [more…]
20th Century
Nostalgia Album, Gibraltar Childhood
At first glance, it would seem unlikely to drive all the way from Carlisle to Gibraltar just to take a photograph of a filling station. Albeit an interesting one which was, as we saw last [more…]
20th Century
Nostalgia Album, Journey’s End
As every schoolboy knows, off the southern coast of the province of Cadiz the 3rd August 1704 ended briskly as Sir George Rooke’s fleet bombarded the Spanish isthmus of Gibraltar. The following morning, 1,900 English [more…]
20th Century
Nostalgia Album, Part Seventeen
Plaza de Cibeles, Madrid As long-suffering Puffins were finishing off last week’s episode of Nostalgia Album ( Aranda de Duero to Madrid) which terminated at the Plaza de Cibeles, thousands of Madridistas were gathering at [more…]