- Bargain Brides Before online dating websites like Tinder or Match.com, how did our lonely ancestors find love? They placed advertisements in Matrimonial Journals, in newspapers and sometimes even wrote away to officials in far away places looking for bargain brides. Matrimonial Journals Published in Toronto, the Anglo-American Matrimonial Journal took advertisements from lonely men and women looking for […]
- Extraordinary Rape at the Stepney Toll House On the evening of 27 July 1827, 23-year-old Susannah Poole left her sister’s house at 3 Caroline Street near Commercial Road at about quarter to ten. Susannah had been living with her sister, Ann Elizabeth Parker, for about five months, ever since leaving the service of her last employer in Hackney. That night, Susannah had […]
- Pedlars Tinkers and Hawkers From the feather man who went from town to town, cleaning bedding made of feathers, to the cat-meat men who fed the felines of London, to the rag and bone men who were some of the first recyclers, it was an eclectic group of people who made their living as pedlars, tinkers and hawkers in […]
- The Mysterious Christmas Card from the Isle of Wight Tucked away in Tyler Jacques’ family memorabilia was a yellowed Christmas card from the Isle of Wight dated 1932. The card was from Mr and Mrs H L Williams and had an embossed address of 75 Church Street, Ryde, Isle of Wight in the bottom left-hand corner but no one in the family knew who […]
- Death in the Time of Cholera Symptoms of Cholera: thirst, sunken features, blueness in the extremities, and rice watered stools. What is generally considered the first cholera pandemic began in Bengal in about 1816, spreading through India, China and Indonesia through the next decade. In 1831, a second pandemic of cholera began in Russia and then spread throughout Europe. In 1832, it […]
- An Imaginary Conversation with my Great-Great-Grandfather Having recently discovered the secret to mind-travelling back through time, I’ve journeyed to Sheffield to have an imaginary conversation with my great-great-grandfather. Today is Sunday, 2 April 1871 and I’m sitting in the kitchen at the Don Brewery Yard House in Sheffield with John Blanchard Savage and his wife, Elizabeth. The house is located at the junction of […]
- Breach of Promise Julia McEvers Julia McEvers was the youngest child of Mary Frances Bourke and John Francis McEvers, a Doctor of Medicine of Camden Place in the City of Cork. Julia was baptised on 19 October 1856 at St Mary’s Church in Cork. Her mother passed away not long after she was born and she was raised by her […]
- CSI – The Prologue Journey back only a short time in history, when esteemed judges and assembled juries had only the testimony of witnesses and sometimes the coerced confessions of the accused to rely on, and there can be little doubt that every now and then innocent parties were executed, and the guilty went free. These were the days […]
- 10 Examples of Fake News from History This month, Facebook began prompting users in fourteen countries to read a guide on the fake news phenomenon, with a list of tips that included being sceptical about headlines and checking the source of the story. ‘False news is harmful to our community, it makes the world less informed, and it erodes trust,’ Facebook’s Adam Mosseri […]
- Fraud, Murder and the Burial Club William Spratt, alias Constable, alias Spratty Watts, died on 11 June 1848 after being ill for some days. His half-sister, Mary May, was convicted of murdering him for the burial club money and hanged at the Essex County Gaol on Monday, 14 August 1848. The May Family In 1848, the May household in Wix, Essex consisted of Robert May, […]