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Monday 2 April 2012

B is for Blackpool, Brynings, Babies, Bibles, and Brides - A to Z Genealogical Challenge: .......

Ros at http://genwestuk.blogspot.com/ has come  up with the idea of an A to Z genealogical challenge for the month of April.  It soon got me thinking, so here are my contributions.



Blackpool  Tower from the North Pier

B is for:
Blackpool, Lancashire:  My birthplace, a seaside  resort on the north west coast of England which rose to fame in the late 19th century.  My mother's family  came from nearby Poulton-le-Fylde, a much older settlement which is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1085-86. My Danson family is at the core of my family history activities and I have traced them back to 1736. My parents met at the famous Tower Ballroom at Blackpool.

Brynings:  The Brynings were sidelines to my Danson family (Jennet Danson married John Bryning in 1786) and were prominent in their local community of Carleton and Poulton-le-Fylde.  On my list of "yet to be covered"  blog topics.

Brekalls:  My great great grandfather Robert Rawliffe, widowed with five surviving daughters,   married 35 year old Elizabeth Brekall in 1875.  As she had three children of her own, I assumed she was also widowed.  Wrong!  According to the marriage certificate (and earlier census returns)  she was a spinster.  She went onto have a further four children with Robert.  A rich source of further blogging stories.   

Babies:   Who cannot but be fascinated by baby photos and here is the oldest one in my collection - of my mother Kathleen Danson  and my aunt Edith Danson, taken 1908-9. 

Bibles:  What a miss for future family historians, as how many of us now have in the  home a family bible, where we record births, marriages and deaths?    I was delighted to find at my grandfather's house his own parents' family bible, though the entries petered out after the first four children were born.  They went on to have a further 7 children!  



Brides: My most popular page views are anything to do with weddings and I love to see the costumes of the time.  It was difficult to select one photograph,  but here is one c.1910 chosen for the magnificent hat and  contributed by my third cousin.

Business Cards:  perhaps these are a piece of ephemera that often gets thrown away.  I was so pleased to find,  after her death,  this memento  of my mother's early working life.  


Where to stop with B's? 
I could go on to Black Sheep,  Bastards,
Baptisms, Birthday Cards, Burghs and Burgesses
and at the core of all this activity -  Blogging

Copyright © 2012 · Susan Donaldson.  All Rights Reserved

2 comments:

  1. Hello Susan D - great to hear from another UK researcher!
    Glad to think that I may have helped you along with the A-Z Challenge: I think it gives we genealogy bloggers an excellent focus.

    http://www.genwestuk.blogspot.co.uk/

    ReplyDelete
  2. I too love the costumes especially for weddings ( even though I never post about them). This is a particularly lovely wedding image. I'm looking forward to finding out more about MIss Breknals.

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