祝日 / Permanent Vacation
AnasAbdin
noise dept.
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
No title available
trying on a metaphor
TVSTRANGERTHINGS
Product Placement
occasionally subtle
❣ Chile in a Photography ❣
YOU ARE THE REASON
almost home
No title available
NASA
roma★
taylor price
RMH
Peter Solarz
i don't do bad sauce passes
d e v o n
seen from Canada
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from Vietnam
seen from United States
seen from Indonesia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Estonia
seen from Belgium
seen from Japan
seen from United States
seen from France
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Egypt
@chiddicksfamilytree
Digging Up History: A Passchendaele Memory Hidden in the Soil
Every now and then, family history hands us a gift when we least expect it. Sometimes that gift is a faded photograph tucked inside an old book, or a dusty document hiding at the bottom of a drawer. But in this case, it arrived in a far more unexpected fashion, unearthed from the soil of an ordinary garden. While digging outside one afternoon, my father-in-law struck something solid. Thinking he…
The Coffin on the Wall — The Long-Held Mystery of Edington Priory
Discover the dark tales of the past in my brand-new series: “Stories From The Grave.” Why would someone be buried on top of a wall? A mysterious coffin sits on a churchyard wall at Edington Priory Church. It sounds like a riddle from another age. Yet at Edington Priory Church, that is exactly what you’ll find: a coffin-like structure resting on the eastern boundary wall of the churchyard,…
When Love Crossed a Wall: The Little Hands of Roermond
Discover the dark tales of the past in my brand-new series: “Stories From The Grave.” One of the quiet joys of family history is discovering stories that gently remind us how deeply human the past really is, stories of love, resilience, and choices made within the boundaries of another time. On a recent journey through European history, I came across one such story in the city of Roermond in the…
Your Dash: What Family History Teaches Us About Life Between The Dates
Inspired by the poem “The Dash” by Linda Ellis, and what it reveals about the lives behind the records Family history often begins with names and dates, but it rarely ends there. In this post, we explore what genealogy can teach us about the space between those dates, inspired by the poem “The Dash.” When we explore family history, whether walking through a graveyard, browsing parish registers,…
We Are Not Always Who We Think We Are: What Family History Teaches Us About Identity
When we begin exploring our family history, we often start with the basics, simply collecting names, dates, and records. A tidy pastime, perhaps. A way to give shape to the past and connect us to our ancestors. What we don’t always realise at the outset is that genealogy has a habit of quietly rearranging the furniture of our identity. It challenges long-held beliefs, complicates neat family…
'Dear Paul' Where The Genealogy Magic Happens
Betty Corrigall: A Woman the Church Would Not Bury
Discover the dark tales of the past in my brand-new series: “Stories From The Grave.” Betty Corrigall’s grave is reputed to be the loneliest in the UK, yet it is probably one of the most visited in the Orkney Islands. In the late 1770s, a young woman named Betty Corrigall lived at Greengairs Cottage near Rysa on the island of Hoy, Orkney. She was around twenty-seven years old and part of a local…
When Love Shines Through: The Story of Merrit Beardsley
Discover the dark tales of the past in my brand-new series: “Stories From The Grave.” Some family history stories announce themselves quietly, while others arrive and take hold of the heart. The story of Little Merrit Beardsley belongs to the latter. It is brief, tender, and heavy with the kind of love that refuses to let go, even in the face of loss. When we come across moments like this in our…
The Hardy Tree – A Tree That Remembered the Dead
Discover the Dark Tales of the Past in My Brand-New Series: “Stories From the Grave” Sometimes history grows in unexpected ways, like roots pushing through stone, or a story taking on a life far larger than the truth behind it. Few places in London better capture this gentle entanglement of fact and legend than the Hardy Tree in the old churchyard of St Pancras Old Church. This once remarkable…
The Truth Behind Pinner’s Floating Coffin
Discover the dark tales of the past in my brand-new series: “Stories From The Grave.” Tucked away in the peaceful churchyard of St John the Baptist Church in Pinner, Greater London, stands one of the most curious monuments you’re likely to encounter, a tomb with what appears to be a coffin floating above the ground. Its unusual design has inspired folklore, local curiosity, and years of…
Beaumont-Hamel: A Fragment Returned
During a visit to the Western Front in the summer of 2025, I was told a story that has stayed with me ever since. It was not a story of sweeping offensives or celebrated generals, nor one that fits comfortably into the familiar narratives of the First World War. Instead, it was a small, human story, the kind that exists on the margins of history and is easily overlooked. At its centre are a…
Lived Once, Buried Twice
Walking the Great War: My Journey to the Western Front
The land is silent now, peace prevails where once there was chaos. There was a time when the earth here was ripped apart by bombs and tanks, when men were torn apart by machine guns, shrapnel, bayonets and barbed wire. Today, crops and trees grow once more on soil that was once barren, a landscape pitted by trenches and churned by the ceaseless machinery of war. Armies once gained ground by yards…
Before the Guns Fell Silent: The Final Days of Private Crump
Private William Richards Crump was born in Birmingham in 1893, the youngest of two boys born to Minnie Crump. His baptism, alongside that of his older brother Francis, took place on 11 August 1894 at St James Church, Wandsworth. The brothers shared the unusual middle name Richards, which was almost certainly a quiet clue to the identity of their biological father, whose name was never…
In the Shadow of the Great War: Remembering William George Curtin
In the summer of 2025, I travelled to the battlefields of the Western Front to pay tribute to three members of my extended family who gave their lives in the First World War. The experience was both moving and deeply humbling, walking among the countless white headstones, each one marking a life ended too soon and a loved one left behind. As I made my way from one cemetery to the next, I set…
The Story of Second Lieutenant Clement John Byron, Honourable Artillery Company
One of the unknown soldiers I promised to honour……. During the summer of 2025, I had the privilege of visiting the battlefields of the Western Front to honour and remember three members of my wider family who gave the ultimate sacrifice during the First World War. It was an emotional and humbling journey, walking among the rows of white headstones, each representing a life cut short and a family…
The Farm Boy Who Went to War
From Orchard Fields to Flanders Fields: The Story of Thomas Wootton Thomas Wootton was born on March 26th, 18921, in the village of Byford, Herefordshire, the sixth oldest of eight children born to John and Frances Wootton. Raised on the family farm at Lower House, he attended Byford School from 1898 to 1906. A quiet rural upbringing shaped his early life, where he was surrounded by a close-knit…