@deadsleuth.com
Ancestral Hawkshaw. Research Fiend and Genealogist for Hire Sleuthing YORK and Beyond. Sometime Speaker. Storyteller. Whatever. Church Crawler. Genealogist: deadsleuth.com Grave Hunter @graveyardsquirrel.com Founder: @politetourist.com
"Though women are angels, yet wedlock's the devil." ~ Lord Byron (1788-1824)
Within the pages of the FEBRUARY publication of The Dalesman Magazine - I muse upon memories of my love of weddings, and the fall-out of a matrimonial scandal from the year 1874.
#DeadSleuth #StillSleuthing 🔍
Cemeteries? Graveyards? I LOVE them!
If I'm not sleuthing an elusive ancestor, unearthing another life lost to history, or haunting the archives as @deadsleuth.com - I could be wandering among the tombstones somewhere.
See YOU in the other side?
#DeadSleuthing #GraveyardSquirrel #StillSleuthing 🔍
A headstone decorated with an urn draped in extravagant stone fabric tells of the fate of the teenaged Albert Cregson who was drowned at sea in the year 1860.
⚰ Wakefield Cemetery. Sugar Lane. Wakefield. West Yorkshire. UK.
#TombstoneTuesday #StillSleuthing 🔍
Heigh ho. Heigh ho. It's off to the archives I now go!
Monday. The view from my perch as I grab a quick lunch before those archives beckon once more.
#DeadSleuth #StillSleuthing 🔍
@yorkarchive.bsky.social
Hidden from view behind an old buttress and framed by a unique stone door frame - a charming and beautifully adorned chancel door beckons to the curious.
⛪ The Parish Church of St Oswald. Fulford. York. UK.
#DeadSleuth #ChurchCrawler #ADoorableThursday #StillSleuthing 🔍
Shielded by tangled ivy and dried ferns - a weeping angel adorns a small pale monument to one Agnes Jane Allison who entered into spirit in the year 1871.
⚰ Symonds Street Cemetery. Auckland. New Zealand.
#TombstoneTuesday #StillSleuthing 🔍
Aged stone in hues of a soft grey palette captured against the dying of a January day.
⛪ The Parish of All Saints. Rudston. Driffield. UK.
#DeadSleuth #ChurchCrawler #StillSleuthing 🔍 with @graveyardsquirrel.com
II) Admired by Byron and Wellington while ignored by her feckless spouse 'Bold Webster' - the 'fair, fickle and false' Lady F was also a victim of assault, libel AND kidnap!
#DeadSleuth #RegencyRecondite #StillSleuthing 🔍
I) 'When we two parted. In silence and tears' - Lord Byron
On this day in the year 1837, the inspiration for this beloved poem, The Lady Frances Webster-Wedderburn died at her home in London at the age of 42 after suffering much.
"My birthday. And I go to my bed with a heaviness of heart at having lived so long, and to so little purpose." ~ Lord Byron
To SO little purpose Lord B?
Me thinks not as I'm celebrating your birthday some 238 years later.
At regencyrecondite.com - the celebrations continue!
#StillSleuthing 🔍
'A guid New Year to aim and An' money may ye see.'
In the JANUARY publication of THE DALESMAN - I muse upon memories of Hogmanay, the New Year customs of penny scrambling and a coastal dip, along with sleuthing those seaside ancestors, AND my love of shortbread.
#StillSleuthing🔍
Before the morning had ended on this day in the year 1815 - the poet Lord Byron had been joined in matrimony to one Anne Isabella Milbanke at her family home at Seaham Hall in Seaham County Durham.
* SPOILER ALERT *
Alas, they were NOT to live happily ever after!
#DeadSleuth #StillSleuthing 🔍
Wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas. 🎄
#DeadSleuth #GraveyardSquirrel #TeeAndTombstones #YorkyHistoryLass #FamilyHistorySleuth #StillSleuthing 🔍
Monday afternoon. The view from my world.
From my garden to their forever home. A little ancestral grave festive gift and tidy up for my maternal 2 x Greats.
🪦 York Cemetery. York. UK.
#DeadSleuth #GraveyardSquirrel #TeeAndTombstones #YorkyHistoryLass #StillSleuthing 🔍 @deadsleuth.com
"Christmas isn't a season. It's a feeling." ~ Edna Ferber.
In the delightfully seasonal DECEMBER publication of THE DALESMAN - I muse upon the final month of the year, an ancestor unveiled and the untold tale of a ghost of Christmas past.
#DeadSleuth #StillSleuthing 🔍 with @teebylo.com
II. For this bed of concrete to be ‘well rammed’ was composed of ‘5 parts of broken bricks and 1 part of the best stone lime freshly burned’.
Be still my beating heart!
#DeadSleuth #GraveyardSquirrel #TeeAndTombstones #YorkyHistoryLass #StillSleuthing 🔍 @uoyborthwick.bsky.social
I. ‘Tis the day for more sleuthing into the working life of my Victorian protagonist and architect, one Charles Toft Newstead who in the year 1874 was instructing his trusty Excavator with his recipe for CONCRETE!
For the curious among us, kindly read on…
Copies available at WATERSTONES in YORK and AMNESTY BOOKSHOP in MICKLEGATE.
P.S. You can also discover my tale about the parish rectory and a priest with delusions of grandeur!
#StillSleuthing 🔍 @teebylo.com
In search of a festive stocking filler?
Why not treat the history sleuth in your life with the new book about MICKLEGATE from @clemhallhistory.bsky.social
Although Micklegate is famous for its many taverns - there is much to discover about this 'Great Street of York' within the pages of this book.
The decision to work with a genealogist as you embark on a fascinating journey to uncover the lives of your ancestors can be exciting - but, it can also prove daunting.
But when those long-lost ancestors finally reveal themselves?
I STILL feel a buzz like no other!
#DeadSleuth #StillSleuthing 🔍
"But this is a family matter!"
Words uttered in anger during a fierce family argument in the Spring of 1904 would damn an unrepentant defendant the following year as he stood in the dock of York Crown Court.
Those Ghosts of Christmas Past Await...
#PoliteTourist #LadyBrigante #StillSleuthing 🔍
As the final hour of my desk and kettle duties on behalf of @yorkfhs.bsky.social approacheth - no more will I go a’ sleuthing.
Although our YFHS Research Room in York will close the doors for the final time on Thursday November 20 - I will be relieved of my duties forever at 4pm today.
Adieu!
'Went the day well?
We died and never knew;
But well or ill, England, we died for you.'
~ John Maxwell Edmonds
Lest We Forget 🥀
⚰ York Cemetery. York. UK.
#ArmisticeDay #LestWeForget #StillSleuthing 🔍 @deadsleuth.com
'At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.' ~ Laurence Binyon
#ArmisticeDay #LestWeForget
Remember! Remember?
In the NOVEMBER publication of THE DALESMAN MAGAZINE - I muse upon sleuthing the 'missing infants', the meaning of ancestral inheritance and a legacy of murder.
#DeadSleuth #StillSleuthing 🔍 @teebylo.com