“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 …
Tag Archives: ancestry
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 The terms ‘deaf and dumb’ and ‘dumb’ are referred to as used in historical documents, but not outside of that context, as they are not preferred descriptors within the contemporary …
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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 …
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What if the parish register is wrong?
I was pleased to see a tweet from Bristol Archives yesterday announcing that Bristol parish registers will shortly be available on the Ancestry website. Parish registers are a fantastic resource for genealogists and it’s great to see that we’ll be getting the images to view alongside transcriptions of the entries. I spent some time poring …
Jenni Phillips - Genealogy 