Mail Rail Map

If you read yesterday’s post about my Mail Rail trip, you’ll remember that my slight quibble with the experience was that there weren’t any maps showing the route that the tour takes. Well, I’ve found one. And I think it explains why they don’t shout about the route. I was Googling for any maps of… Continue reading Mail Rail Map

Riding the Mail Rail

I rode the Mail Rail yesterday. It was very exciting. More about that in a minute. Before that, I went to the Postal Museum. I’ve often thought that the UK needed a museum about the Post Office. And the new (well, newish – it’s been open a couple of months) Postal Museum is a really… Continue reading Riding the Mail Rail

A Life Well Documented

Recently I realised that two seemingly completely different projects were, in fact, both facets of the same project. They both led me to putting more detail about my history into web sites and (once they are complete) this will mean that my life will become far better documented. The first project started when I dug… Continue reading A Life Well Documented

Internet Genealogy

In 1992 I started tracing my family history. The two main tools for amateur genealogists (at least until they get back to about 1840) are the indexes of registrations of births, deaths and marriages and the returns from the census which has been taken every ten years since 1841 (there are earlier censuses, but they… Continue reading Internet Genealogy

James Cross, Lifeboatman

My family have lived in the same part of Essex for over two hundred years. The earliest record I can find is a Thomas Cross who was born in Little Clacton in 1789. Thomas was my great, great, great, great grandfather. The family moved to Great Clacton soon afterwards and then (once it was created… Continue reading James Cross, Lifeboatman