Surname clues

Pluckley is a small English village located on the northern edge of the Kentish Weald between Maidstone and Ashford. It was an Anglo-Saxon settlement, boasts a 14th century church, and found fame in t

I am writing in connection with Sarah Williams’ article “What’s in a Name” in the July issue of the magazine. My great great grandmother, Ann Rogers Wardleworth née Bell, was widowed in 1860 at the ag

It all started with an email. Regular reader Lee Passmore was having difficulties finding out what had happened to one of his three times great-uncles, a man called Bryan (or Brian) Dean, and he wante

After a love-at-first-sight viewing, novelist Rudyard Kipling found peace and sanctuary within the walls of this Jacobean house, located in the wooded landscape of the Sussex Weald

Dear Simon, The history of Pitman shorthand told by Angeline Wilcox in the July edition of Best of British (Write on Time) evoked so many memories. I was amazed to learn that Isaac Pitman actually cre

QMargaret Woodhall (née Smithson), born c1827 Liverpool (according to the 1851 census), was the sister of my great grandfather, James Murray Smithson, born c1835 in Edinburgh. Their father was William