It is New Year’s Eve 1852 and Henry Hydenwell sits at his desk by candlelight. He dips his quill pen in ink and begins to write his New Year’s resolutions.
Prince Charles’s flight from Worcester
December 30, 2007 at 4:00 am (Biography, Genealogy, Location)
Tags: Bridport, Broadwindsor, Charmouth, Godmanstone, Pilsdon, Poole
After the battle of Worcester on September 3rd 1651, the future King Charles II fled from the field attempting to reach the continent of Europe. Heading south he arrived in West Dorset. Even though he was only in the county for about three days, almost every town and village has a story relating to this episode in English history.
Hugh Massingberd (1946-2007)
December 29, 2007 at 12:00 am (Biography, Genealogy)
Tags: Massingberd
For some 15 years from the late 1960′s he edited Burke’s Landed Gentry, Burke’s Royal Families of the World and Burke’s Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage. Then, as obituaries editor of The Daily Telegraph from 1986 to 1994 he gave prominent coverage to the lives of aristocrats and military men. Hugh died of cancer at the age of 60 on christmas day.
A full obituary is available at the Times Online
Understanding the Genealogy of Jesus
December 28, 2007 at 4:00 am (Genealogy)
Some people believe that genealogies in Matthew 1:1-16 and Luke 3:23-38 are indefensible forgeries. And that they were included to validate Jesus’ bloodlines from Abraham through David, a necessary condition for Jewish acceptance. The following video attempts to explain how they could be true.
Dorset’s historic happenings
December 27, 2007 at 4:00 am (Genealogy)
Tags: Dorset
Numerous incidents have happened over Christmas in South Dorset. Drunks have been thrown into the stocks, ships have sunk and villagers turfed out of their homes in years gone by.
Read the full article by Harry Walton in the Doret Echo
Thomas Pride V.C. (1835-1893)
December 26, 2007 at 4:00 am (Biography, Genealogy)
Tags: Boyes, Coombs, King, Pride, Shimonoseki, Victoria Cross, Wareham, Wool
Thomas Pride was born on March 29, 1835 at Wool, Dorset, England. He was the son of agricultural labourer, Robert Pride and his wife Ann King. Thomas spent his childhood around Wool where he is recorded in 1841 at Bovington and in 1851 at Bindon Lane. Whilst his father was from Dorset it should be noted his mother, although a British Subject, was born in America.
Season’s greetings from the trenches
December 25, 2007 at 4:00 am (Genealogy)
A Christmas missive sent home from the Western Front in 1918 has recently been unearthed by Bob Preston of Lansdowne Square, Weymouth. The card and other wartime memorabilia tell of the experience of his father, Herbert Preston, in France in the First World War and the enduring love of his parents.
Read the full story by Nicola Rayner in the Dorset Echo
The Night before Christmas
December 24, 2007 at 4:00 am (Genealogy)
Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all our readers and to get you into the Christmas mood I offer, ‘A Genealogist’s Christmas Eve’, a parody of the well known poem ‘The Night before Christmas’, the author is unknown .
Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893-1978)
December 23, 2007 at 4:00 am (Biography, Genealogy)
Tags: Acland, Frome Vauchurch, Warner
As a small boy, growing up, I was unaware that the two strange old ladies who lived down by the river were probably Frome Vauchurch’s most famous residents. These two old ladies were the author Sylvia Townsend Warner, (1893-1978) and her lover and poet Valentine Ackland (1906-1969) who came to the village in 1937 and stayed until their deaths.
The Perils Of Paid Obituaries
December 22, 2007 at 4:00 am (Genealogy)
Tags: Obituaries
Philomene Offen wrote “Although my paper’s Web site maintains that letting families submit their own unedited text leaves them “in control,” I wonder if they are instead left in a lurch. Many of these accounts have made me cry — and not just from the errors.”
Read the rest of the aricle here
