My Blog

Charles Mitchener was one of Ari’s 5x great-grandfathers. He died young, and sadly very little is known about him. He was the youngest...

One of Ari’s ancestors was Isaac Millington who lived in Denby, Derbyshire (where the pottery comes from). Isaac is a recently discovered...

Ari’s great-great grandmother Winifred (Nigel’s Grandma) was adopted as a baby, and this has always been the most solid brick wall in our...

Ari’s great-great grandfather Louis (pronounced in the French way rather than the English) was born Ludwig Feinshtein on 28 Oct 1900 in...

Leigh Sinton is a parish in the Malvern Hills, Worcestershire where “the inhabitants are wholly engaged in agricultural pursuits” (The...

One of Ari’s 3x great-grandfathers was Maurice Katz, originally Moses and known as Morrie. He was born in 1883 in Ekaterinoslav in the...

William Cobley was Ari’s 4x great-grandfather, born in 1814 in Barrowden, a parish on the river Welland in Rutland, and also on the...

Judith Brooks was Ari’s 4x great-grandmother. She was born in Middleton-by-Wirksworth in Derbyshire on 23 Jan 1828 and baptised at St...

Moses Mendelsohn was Ari’s 4x great-grandfather, born in 1856 in Memel. Memel is on the Baltic coast and was part of Prussia until 1923,...

William Orchard was Ari’s 5x great-grandfather. He was born in the Dorset village of Langton Matravers on 8 Sep 1813, and baptised on 10...

Eleazer (or Lazarus) Loshak was Ari’s 4x great-grandfather. We know he was born in about 1845, somewhere near Gritsev, Ukraine. The date...

One of Ari’s 3x great-grandfathers was Frederick Sims, born 25 Jan 1875 in Idridgehay, Belper, Derbyshire. I like to imagine him getting...

Anthony Woodhouse (or Woodiwis) was born in one of my favourite places: Bonsall in Derbyshire. According to Pigot and Co’s Commercial...

Susan Davis was Ari’s 4x great-grandmother. She was born in about 1832 in the now-deserted village of Imber on Salisbury Plain,...

Ari’s 4x great-grandfather, Henry Pearson, was born in about 1838 in Cromford, Derbyshire, but has proved difficult to trace. According...

This week I received a document from Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service, discovered when I was searching the National...

William Henry Sheppard was Ari’s 3x great-grandfather, born on 3 Nov 1865 in Crowle, Worcestershire. His mother was Angelina Tyler (see...

George Ball was Ari’s 9x great-grandfather. He was born in about 1675 in Middleton-by-Wirksworth in Derbyshire, and worked as a...

Another of Ari’s ancestors (his 4x great-grandfather) was Henry Penny, who lived all his life in Fonthill Bishop, Wiltshire. British...

One of the stories told by my grandmother Rose was about her father-in-law, Charles Feinstein, who was born on 3 Feb 1857 in Libau...