Week 30: Licensed Victualler

I am almost embarrassed to say this out loud, but I don’t know really anything about pubs.  It is not something that I have frequented.  I do remember in one of my trips to England a cousin took me to a pub and all the patrons there got a kick out of my Canadian accent, there was a lot of laughter and I believe some of that laughter was at my poor dart playing.  That was my one and only time in and English pub.

There are so many references to publican, or victualler in the census, that I knew at some point in time I would have to research it further. 

Week 29: Suicide by Firearm

I am not 100% sure what to make of this.   My first reaction was total heartbreak and sorrow when I found the death certificate for a person in the tree.  The cause of death was suicide by firearm.  What demons or hardships had this poor man gone through, that he had felt there was no way out but death?  I had to learn more to try to understand why!

Week 28: Barnwood Football Club Concert

It is amazing the things you can find online, or reading old newspaper articles.  It is even more amazing what you don’t find right away – but crops up later.

A number of years ago I had posted a picture of a newspaper article that mentioned my grandfather, Charles Stapleford Palin, and his brother Alfred Hugh, had performed in a local play/variety show in order to raise funds for the local football club.  The newspaper article was found in the Gloucester Citizen February 14, 1911.

Gloucester Citizen February 14, 1911.

Today I found an article about the same event but in the Gloucestershire Echo February 11, 1911, but it offered a very important piece of information that was not in the other newspaper!

Week 27: Convoluted Family Tree

Have you ever heard the little ditty from Ray Stevens entitled “I am my own grandpa”?  If you have never heard it before you can see it here.  It is kind of funny, he marries a widow who has a grown daughter that ends up marrying his dad and then both couples have a child.

Ever family has twist and turns with cousins marrying, and sisters marrying brothers and even sisters marrying cousins.  And we have our fair share in our tree as well.  But there is one that has a unique twist.