Instant Cousins

Category: Cheesemongers and Dairies

  • Remembering London Grandma

    It was to differentiate her from my paternal grandmother, that was why she was called London Grandma. The other one was Country Grandma. One lived in London, obviously, and the other lived in the countryside. Well, Limpsfield in Surrey when I was a child was definitely in the countryside. I have no idea what it…

  • A London Field Trip

    Last week I was in London for a sports and culture break. I had been recommended to stay in the Farringdon area of London, EC1 because of its historical links and interesting streets. Never one to miss an opportunity, I realised that it was next to Clerkenwell which is where one of my ancestors lived…

  • The Legendary Bennisters

    In January 2024 I wrote an annual review to this blog to take stock about my activities. I wrote about how researching, using popular research archives, can throw up surprising and exciting avenues which, although connected in some way to the families that I write about, are not directly family members. I mentioned that I…

  • Writing letters, part two

    My mother’s letters were always quite short. Notes mostly, about her week, who she had met or visited. In October 2000 she was very busy with the British Legion annual Poppy Appeal. She had been a member of the Women’s Branch of the British Legion since the 1950’s when my father had joined the Legion.…

  • Letter writing, part one

    Now, in 2025, the number of letters being written are very few. In Denmark a decision has been made to stop collecting and delivering letters because the cost is now so prohibitive and there has been a 90% drop in the us of letter delivery. Given the annual and sometimes sharp increases in postage in…

  • John and Jennie

    I never knew them. My mother never talked about them. My grandmother never mentioned them. There are only two photographs that I have in hand that can give me an image of one of them. They had no children as far as I know. I knew where one of them was born for certain and…

  • The Welsh Tabernacle in Kings Cross

    This week I am returning to my research on Great Uncle John Wilcox, and particularly his wife Jennie. I have described my earlier research in a post last month. Jennie, which was her familiar name, is a significant person in this story, mainly because I am struggling to find any records that relate to her…

  • A Short Thread to a Longer Tale

    Just twelve months ago I wrote a long post about my great uncle Herbert Wilcox. He was the eldest of the Wilcox siblings, born in 1874 in Notting Hill. His career was with the railways, and he lived in flats like the Peabody Trust style and type of accommodation in London, designed and developed as…

  • The Dairy Woman from Dyfed

    This is a continuation of my last post from two weeks ago entitled the Welsh Dairy in Clerkenwell. It was further research into the life of John Richard Howard Wilcox. My research that week came to a stop because I couldn’t find the sort of records that I rely on to confirm and triangulate certain…

  • The Welsh Dairy in Clerkenwell

    John Richard Howard Wilcox was baptised on 25 October 1893. There is a note in the Baptism register that shows John was born on 31 August 1893. That is disputed in John’s death registration and also in his 1939 Register entry. In those latter registers, John’s date of birth was 29 August 1893. There are…