Kind People

Today’s image: Autumn Fire, Cadiz countryside, Spain

The family background search is popping up surprises all the time.

I have followed regular routes, with limited details emerging. A quirk of perversity had me decide not to go via the commercial find-your-ancestry websites – one of these sites had made it impossible for me to unsubscribe after I joined for a supposed ‘trial period’, and I resent being held hostage.

However, Chelle is doing a great work using one of these sites, as she looks back into her own family. She shares my love of history and of discovery, and we are both keen to see if a John Henry Broadbent who features in her family records is connected to these Broadbents.

I had more success – and, frankly, more fun – with the random trails I have been discovering. They have led me into all sorts of diverting side roads, and allowed me to get in contact with a collection of Really Nice People along the way.

One of these Nice People is a truly kind and helpful lady who I will call PB (in respect for privacy). She is connected with an historical site, and on that site is an index of the names on the graveyard headstones of St Bartholomew’s Church, Marsden.

I didn’t even know graveyard information such as this existed, but it just goes to show that given long enough you can find pretty much anything on the internet.

I was seeking information on Eliza and her husband, the doctor John Burnley Walker. Walker was one of the names listed in PB’s index.

I wasn’t sure if Marsden was the right place to be looking, but I took the chance and wrote to her. I received an immediate response, followed by a few questions, then came a bundle of wonderfully relevant information and links.

She directed me to another graveyard site, and, of her own volition, generously provided me with copies of baptism and census registry records.

She did not need to do any of this for a complete stranger on a personal quest, but yet she did. Thank you, P.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2015