I love a good story.

I got hooked on family history research when the 1901 Census was published on line in 2002. I haven’t stopped since. I’ve discovered such stories. People’s lives are endlessly fascinating to me and I started this site so I can share them. Hopefully, you will find them interesting too.

Both sides of my family come from London. South London. Bermondsey mostly. Right by London Bridge on the south side of the Thames. I grew up around there just near Tower Bridge (I love Tower Bridge …). Properties located there cost millions today. Years ago, houses flooded twice a day with the tides of the Thames. Right up to the mid 20th century it was damp and people died mostly of Tuberculosis, lung diseases of all sorts and going further back, of Cholera and Typhoid.

My great grandfather lived in Borough in Bermondsey from 1832 to 1930. Can you imagine what he witnessed? And how did he survive in this poor area for 98 years? What a life.

But if you go far enough back, everyone in London comes from somewhere else. They come to London for work. they still do. It was the same in 1820 as it is in 2020.

So, as I’ve done more research, I’ve discovered family in Gloucestershire, Birmingham, Worcester and Kent. A lot in Kent. I’ve found people who died in wars, who married several times over, who drowned in the Thames and died of suffocation with a pillow.

Now there’s a story …

From My Blog