Our Blog

We have published numerous articles since we started the Manchester Ancestors blog, but can you be bothered searching through all the pages to see what topics you may have missed? - thought not, me neither! Here is a summary of the blogs we have published to date.

Sometimes in our research we discover that that important source, which we are sure will break through our brick wall, has disappeared or is known to have been destroyed. We just have to reconcile ourselves with such losses - or do we?

The archaeologist Alice Roberts makes this point in her book Domination. It may appear to be a statement of the obvious, but what does this have to do with your family history? Well, quite a lot really! Read on to find out more...

In my earlier blog articles about Henry Liverseege, the Ancoats artist I mentioned the artist's friend Michael Pease Calvert. So close was the friendship that Henry painted his mother. Here is how I came to own the painting and a little information about the sitter.

Every immigrant community needs a hero to promote the preservation of its heritage. A stone in George Leigh Street commemorates one such hero. Paul Di Felice tells us about his father's role in preserving the heritage of Manchester's Italian community.

How can a person be in two places at once? One way is to get yourself enumerated in the census in two different places. It is not something you will come across often  in the course of your research, but in this example it seems wholly in character with the person concerned.

One thing that is for certain is that there is nothing new under the sun.

The issue of assisted suicide in the UK is very much of the moment. Nothing has yet been agreed about methods, but nothing is likely to be as bizarrely stylish as this creative proposal from 1902.

...I'd spend it on drink! (Sir Henry Rawlinson)

Today we have the breathalyser, but in 1903 it was down to more traditional means to establish whether someone had imbibed to excess. Tongue twisters anyone?