Surname clues

All family historians hit brick walls, and this is the story of the techniques (and luck) that enabled me to overcome a tough challenge. My 3x great grandfather Thomas Hoskin lived on the beautiful Go

“One might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb,” goes the old proverb. The meaning is simple: if you are going to be punished for a small crime, you may as well commit the bigger one. In the early

Mary Wade stood trial at the Old Bailey in 1789 for stealing a few items of clothing. She was only 10 years old, but London’s central criminal court condemned her to hang. Her sentence was commuted to

Dorfold Hall, Cheshire, part I The home of Charles and Dr Candice Roundell An outstanding Jacobean house was an unexpected product of dynastic disappointment. John Goodall examines the remarkable circumstances of its construction

In a John Behan bronze, collector Jacqueline O’Donovan, a child of the Irish diaspora, can sense the desperation of a starving people forced to flee their land

This part of Scotland has historically been famous for agriculture and its associated trades – in particular skinners, dyers, shoemakers and glovemakers. But over the years a number of major manufactu