This is my annual review of what has happened on Instant Cousins since the beginning of the current year.
I’m looking back to make sense of how I have been mapping my family’s ancestry and other stories. It has been quite a journey around the UK, seeking out stories that I have pieced together from archives and registration records. So, these are a few highlights from the year.
In January I uncovered the Welsh connection of my Great Uncle John Wilcox who married a Welsh dairy manager whom he met in Clerkenwell. It felt like intricate research because it continued the mystery surrounding the disappearance of John’s two older brothers who fled to the Welsh valleys before the First World War to live in anonymity.
In February I was excited to publish a piece written by my cousin who had been unknown to me until she found my blog and contacted me in 2024. Her article was titled ‘An Oxford Memoir’ and it described in detail her childhood memories of growing up after the Second World War in Oxted, Surrey. Her grandfather, Henry Spillett, was my father’s uncle. This was followed up soon after with an article about Henry’s wife Rosina Payne whose family will be a focus for Instant Cousins in 2026.
Henry Spillett and Rosina Payne, Air Raid Wardens, during the Second World War
The following month saw an interesting Other Story relating to an ancestor of my sister in law’s partner. It was an account of Richard Nassau Davidson who was a professional soldier before and during the First World War, posted to the Caribbean to organise the dismantling of artillery defences. He ended up in St. Lucia where he became the Police Inspector. He died at a relatively young age. His funeral was held in the Anglican Cathedral in Castries where he received a parade of honour from several dignitaries and organisations.
In April I posted about the correspondence between my mother and me which started after I left home at the age of 19 and continued until she died in 2006. I wish I had saved more of these letters but as I grew up and moved from place to place, a lot of her letters would have been thrown away. Most of those I have are from the time that I and my family moved to Glasgow. Letter writing brings a lot of joy, hopefully to the recipient, but mostly to the writer who often wants to gift a part of themselves, even if it’s only a thank you.
My wife’s ancestry is one of the more productive areas of my research that I write about. Her grandparents background in the dynamite, steam train and stonemasonry industries of the late 19th and early 20th Century provides me with so many interesting stories. In May we went to Stevenston in Ayrshire to search for and tidy up the grave stones of her Great Aunt Elizabeth and her Grandparents, the Nicols. They are located in a small graveyard that is accessed through a lane between two buildings in New Street. Grave stones are historical records and should be as cared for in the same way as paper and photo archives.
In June I came to the end of my House History stories about the house that I have lived in since 1987 in Glasgow. As histories go it was not a long one. The house was built in 1911 and so it was only 76 years old when my family moved in. In that period of time there were some interesting stories to be found and a social history involving the feudal system of Feu Duties that continued until they were legislated against in the 1980’s.
I spent the month of July drilling down into the origins of my paternal grandfather, Clarence (George) Carver. His family originated in the village of Lodsworth in Sussex. His family tree is like a spider’s web with so many branches that it is a challenge to make sense of it on my blog. It feels like a dynasty in its own right and an outlier to the rest of my family history.
I was excited in August when I decided to research the family background of a family friend of my grandmother, Grace Wilcox. The friend was Mrs Bennister, known to my parents but not introduced to me, only by name and conversation. I stumbled across a Census return that showed Mrs Bennister’s son living as a Boarder and scholar with my Great Grandparents in Offord D’Arcy, Huntingdonshire. I had not appreciated that the friendship between Mrs Bennister and my grandmother had such an importance, but I have no knowledge why. As a result of writing about the Bennisters I was contacted by two of her grandchildren who are trying to fill in the spaces for me. What I did discover from available records was that the Bennisters were originally emigres fleeing the pogroms in Russia during the 1880’s. They arrived in East London and made a success of their lives ever since. They had arrived under the name of Bernstein and changed their name to Bennister for assimilation purposes, I guess.
The following month I wrote a piece about my grandmother, Grace Wilcox. I was shocked to discover that I had so few photographs of her. There are photo albums everywhere, in all of my cousins houses, they just need to be archived and shared with all family members. Or, better still, digitalised and stored on an external hard drive for the benefit of future generations, but don’t forget about making notes about who is in the picture!
Grace Wilcox, in the deckchair on the right, circa 1950.
In October I had taken out a subscription of the National Newspaper Archive and began to realise its potential for discovering new stories about our ancestors. One of these stories led me to discover some details of Elspeth Nicol’s teaching career. Then I came across some of the articles which my brother Peter, who was a Parliamentary journalist in the 1960’s and 70’s, wrote for provincial newspapers when he worked for Central Press Features. This is going to help me create an interesting series of articles about his work and the politics of that time.
November saw the start of a major series about the Welsh family who were my wife’s ancestors on her mother’s side. Her Grandmother was one of seven siblings and already they are providing me with interesting personal stories and social history. The first part of this appeared in December when I wrote about Aunt Susie, Susan Scott, who married Martin Welsh.
Next year will see as many stories as possible with revisits of old stories when new material arises. I like the way that readers of my blog have contacted me to share their information. Discovering that I, and my wife, have second cousins who we never knew about, and who are interested in collaborating with getting their family history published on this site, has been helpful and rewarding. It is not just about the facts but the stories behind the facts.
All of these stories and much more can be found by going to the Home Page and clicking on the various categories.
Have a rewarding and successful year in 2026. That is my intention as well.