Instant Cousins

Instant Cousins : archiving my ancestry

  • Akenfield

    I have been reading this book after I read the author’s obituary earlier in the year. Ronald Blythe lived in Suffolk and created this oral history of the village that he lived close to. He kept the name of the village anonymous and the name Akenfield is invented from possibly two other village names. He…

  • Searching for Aunt Mabel

    A short posting this week about a Great Aunt who if I met I cannot remember because I would have been very young. My Father, Bill Carver, had two aunts on his Mother’s side. It was Mabel’s  absence in the 1901 Census return when the Spillett’s came to Oxted that led me on a short…

  • Every Picture Tells A Story…………..

    Or does it ? Most pictures from the past will raise questions that can be very difficult to answer. For instance, if I was to explain that the picture above of my Great Grandfather and his six sons has no women in it, yet there were a further six siblings, five girls and another boy,…

  • The Landed Proprietor’s Wife

    My title comes from an unusual find in the 1891 Census return when I was searching for one of my wife’s Great Uncles. Alexander McKie (1873 – 1951) was the younger brother of Andrew, my wife’s Grandfather. He was born in Kirkinner, Wigtownshire, as were all his siblings. In later life I tracked him down…

  • I need to write about the Walkers

    I have been getting carried away as many family history researchers do when they see an interesting thread to follow. I had every intention of writing about the Walkers from Rotherhithe, the family of my maternal Grandmother. Since the publication of the 1921 Census return I have checked names against the records to see what…

  • Bankrupt in Bognor

    I recently wrote about my Great Grandfather’s move from Bognor in Sussex  to Oxted in Surrey and pondered about what made him make this move. I had been researching his life in South Bersted, just outside of Bognor on the main Chichester Road. He had become what I had presumed to be a successful entrepreneur…

  • Feus, Sasines, Jus Mariti and Dispositions

    Medieval terminology dominates much of the house conveyancing language of the twentieth century in Scotland. Getting my head around some of it has been the result of research at the Glasgow Archives in the Mitchell Library and also examining the title deed of my house that I now have in my possession. I will try…

  • When the Railway came to Braehead

    This week I am writing about my wife’s Grandfather, Andrew McKie. The second born child of John McKie and Agnes McKean of Braehead, Kirkinner in Galloway, formerly Wigtownshire. I have previously described John McKie’s tragic death and Agnes McKies reliance on the Parish for Poor Law relief. Agnes had six children to care for and…

  • When Fred and George Came to Wales

    When I was an adolescent taking an interest in family history I discussed the idea of searching family members at Somerset House with my Grandmother, Grace Wilcox. She warned me off from doing this saying that I might discover skeletons that I would not wish to know about. Such a wasted opportunity ! In recent…

  • Henry Comes to Oxted

    In last week’s post I described Henry Spillett’s arrival in Bognor after leaving home in Canterbury. Henry, my Great Grandfather, became the Licensee of The White Horse in South Bersted while also operating a Coachbuilding business at the back of the pub. In this post I explain his arrival and first decade of life in…


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