This week’s 52 Ancestors theme is “Cause of death.” It took me a while to come up with an idea for this week, then I remembered that this year marks the one hundredth anniversary of the Spanish flu pandemic. My great-grandmother Emily Thomas was born in Canterbury, England in 1879 to Henry Thomas and Minnie…
The theme for the 23rd week was “Going to the Chapel.” I have a copy of an interesting document for Frederick Hagell and Elizabeth Eleanor Parsley from their parish church in Canterbury, England. It lists their banns of marriage. For three Sundays in 1839 they had to announce their intention to marry in case there…
From London to Houston The above photo was taken sometime in 1916, in Houston, Texas. The couple sitting in the center are my 2nd great-grandparents Walter and Jane Ellen (nee Hagell) Avenell. The theme this week is Mother’s Day, and Jane Ellen is the mother of Bertrand (top left), Eleanor (next to Bertrand) and Walter…