Refugees have been part & parcel of the social history & landscape of the British Isles since time immemorial. They have come in waves and they have arrived in droves. They have melted into the DNA pot, enhancing and enriching all aspects of society. Growing up in the Thames Valley, the author would often hear the Italian name Gagette, one or several refugees who arrived on these shores as a result of the French Revolution. One Gagette descendant married into the Meers family of Dickensian Bethnal Green; and they were poor by the standards of some of his other ancestors. It was when Eliza...

An entertaining odyssey by all means, which all readers, not only karate-ka, can enjoy. The work describes a fascinating 'voyage of discovery' through the Okinawan martial arts during the author's younger years. Both informative & factual, the work leads the reader on a journey of initiation from the preliminary stages of being a 'live-in disciple' of Goju-ryu & trainee of Matayoshi Kobudo in post-Reversion Okinawa, as he travels with the reader through the exploration of Uechi-ryu, Shorin-ryu & Okinawan te; also of a vast spectrum of connected Ryukyuan cultural entities. His attention to...

Like the phases of the moon, fortunes wax & wane. From humble beginnings in Lacock; from hard-working agricultural labourer stock in Avon, to mining and engineering, the Fortune family flourished as it spread throughout the globe. From gold digging in NZ, to administration in Hong Kong, the Fortunes worked far & wide. The inevitability of war sorted the men from the boys & the Fortunes were there; but sometimes at a terrible price. Not only did great-grandfather, John Alfred Fortune, lose cousins though; his own mother was to disappear in very mysterious circumstances. Was it murder? Did she...

An ancestral trail through two English counties inhabited by everyday, church-going country folk. Great-grandmother Mary Brewer Andrew was to grow up in a sheltered Cornish village founded by a Welsh saint, but fate found her transported across the country to Suffolk, where she was to find the man of her dreams and start an idyllic family. Life was good and prosperous as a butcher's wife, the only real tragedy being in WWII with the loss of her youngest child. Yet her own childhood and ancestry tell a tale of death and hardship. Pealing back the pages of the lives of her immediate parents'...

Ancestry is a dual aspect entity, both private and public. It is private because it is personal. It is public because the stories of the ancestors need to be told. This work deals with both these aspects, while recording the facts for the family researcher and putting across the stories and lives that shaped the ancestors and how they saw and understood the world around them. One should never be ashamed of one's ancestors, for we have no more a right to judge them than they have to judge us. Yes, they really do live among us and they really do affect us from beyond the grave, not only with...

Following on from Ancestral Chains DNA Part I, this work takes the reader a step further along the intrigue of the Family Tree. Viewing Victorian life through the mind-set of great-grandmother, Kate, the stage is set in a posh Georgian terrace in Lewes that serves as the Sussex Probate Office. Money matters are inevitable, but madness and attempted murder play out the scenes of life, as a large family adapt to the sudden incarceration of their father. Clockmakers, the Tolkiens and the creator of Lorna Doone in Teddington, all play their roles in the Battersby family saga. There is mischief...

Fanciful stories of rags-to-riches are fascinating. Yet, when such is part & parcel of one's ancestry, it becomes real. Having known physical hardship in the back-to-backs of Birmingham, great-grandfather Allden determined never to be poor again. An inherent ability in mental arithmetic was to play a major role in the family Commission Agent business; but did the gamble pay off? The Industrial Revolution is never far away in Birmingham & the Black Country, where the Alldens played their part in firing up and arming the nation. Jockeying around was also a major pastime and a money earner for...