Instant Cousins

Instant Cousins : archiving my ancestry

  • Written in Stone

    Last year, in March 2024, I went down to Stevenston in Ayrshire to search the headstones in the New Street Cemetery. I wrote a post about this trip that gave some background to the relevance of this interesting burial place. It is where my wife’s great grandparents Peter and Elizabeth Nicol, have a headstone, alongside…

  • The Smiths of Stevenston

    This week I return to the land of dynamite, Stevenston in Ayrshire, where the Nicol family, my wife’s maternal line of ancestry, had established themselves and created a dynasty of workers associated directly or by marriage, with the Nobel Dynamite Factory on the Ardeer peninsula. Peter and Elizabeth Nicol, you might recall in earlier posts,…

  • The End of War Celebrations

    This week’s post comes during the Victory in Europe celebrations that are happening in the United Kingdom and some European countries. The anniversary falls on the 8th May 2025, commemorating 80 years since the end of the Second World War. I have no personal connection to the war because I was born two years after…

  • Rosina Elizabeth Spillett

    This weeks post is written by my cousin, Sue Toms, who has been researching the story of her grandmother, Rosina Spillett, who was also my great aunt. Sue and I share the same great grandfather whose son, Henry fell in love with Rosina. They became responsible for the heart of this fascinating story. My grandmother,…

  • 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…

  • A Great Man Has Fallen in Israel

    This is a story that is unique to my sister in law’s partner. He shared some documents and newspaper accounts of his great uncle Richard with me and we thought it was worthy of posting his story on this blog. The title of this post is a biblical reference to Samuel 2 when David asks…

  • The Stevenston Seaman

    The Nicol family were so well established in their community that each of Peter and Elizabeth’s children made roots in Stevenston and surrounding towns. Stevenston, Ardeer, Saltcoats, Irvine and Ardrossan are the lifeblood towns of my wife’s family. Many second generation children of the Nicol family may have settled in the area but it was…

  • 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…


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