John Taaffe: medicine man
“Perhaps he was only one of the many who has drifted to these coral specks on the outer rim of civilization with the intention of severing their connection with the outside world and the memories it held” Origins in Ireland and emigration to Australia John Taaffe, my great-great grandfather’s cousin, was the eldest son of…
Investigating hereditary deafness in Taaffe ancestors from County Louth
In this piece I use the terms ‘deaf/deafness’ and ‘hearing loss’ in line with current guidance from the Royal National Institute of Deaf People (RNID). The terms ‘deaf and dumb’ and ‘dumb’ are referred to as used in historical documents, but not outside of that context, as they are not preferred descriptors within the contemporary…
My Cholderton ancestors and General Sir William Howe
Cholderton is a village in Wiltshire, about nine miles from Salisbury, and close to the county border with Hampshire. It is often referred to as West Cholderton, to distinguish it from the hamlet of East Cholderton. It is a small village, with a population of just 127 people by 1801, most of whom worked in…
Jane Phillips, a nineteenth century Swansea nurse and midwife
Jane Edward, my great-great-great-great grandmother, was born in the Pembrokeshire village of Lampeter Velfrey on 31 May 1788. Her birth was documented in the records of Molleston Chapel, Narberth, on 04 July 1788, which names her parents as John Edward and Mary, of Lampeter. They are almost certainly John Edward and Mary Millard, who were…
Scarlet fever in Sampford Peverell
Between January 1861 and June 1889, there were 335 burials in the Devon village of Sampford Peverell with the cause of death recorded in the parish register by Reverend George William Rossiter Ireland (with one notable exception, his wife Mary Eliza Ireland, who was buried on 31 August 1870). 300 of these burials were for…
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Jenni Phillips - Genealogy 