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Writing Challenge: Choose Your Own Adventure Genealogy Style

First crossroads. Heaven, hell or purgatory. Your choice. Second crossroad. Which ancestor will you choose? Third quest. You will have 20 minutes to come up with a list of questions to ask your chosen ancestor. This may be a brick wall ancestor and your first question is where were you born? Or who were your […]

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KENT The Garden of England Day Three Part Two: Faversham & Whitstable

We left Leed’s Castle for Whitstable a seaside town and the setting for the British TV detective series ‘Whitstable Pearl’ which I ended up watching after I returned home. First up is tour bus and our driver Tony. Whitstable is full of shops, art galleries and places to eat oysters. This was the site of […]

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KENT The Garden of England Day Two Part Two & Day Three Part One: Leeds Castle

We arrived at Leed’s Castle in the afternoon for a two night stay. I had written a bit about Leed’s Castle in an earlier blog post here. Leed’s Castle is confusing for many a tourist, as it is not located in Leeds, Yorkshire, but rather near Maidstone in Kent. About the year 857, Leeds Castle […]

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Bluebells and Dandelion Wishes

Some of you who follow my blog posts will note a bit of a long pause in my posts about my trip to England. Perhaps a bit of an explanation is in order. This post is dedicated to the memory of my dear friend Jean WHEATON. Her children have written to me how much she […]

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KENT The Garden of England Day Two Part One: Canterbury

About my process. When I start out to write a blog post I often have a general idea of what I intend to cover. However, as I start writing I follow various threads. Sometimes what I intend as one post becomes more than one as I travel down various gopher holes. These travelogues are not […]

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KENT The Garden of England Day One Part Three: Canterbury : On the trail of Robert Cushman

When we finished up at Hever castle we made our way to Canterbury. It was Canterbury that led us to the KENT The Garden of England tour through Blue Roads/Backroads Touring. My friend Denise and I met in kindergarten and she is a direct descendant of Robert CUSHMAN 1577-1625 who was responsible for organizing and […]

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KENT The Garden of England Day One Part Two: Hever Castle

The morning was spent at Chartwell and for the afternoon we traveled the 5 miles to Hever Castle, childhood home of Anne BOLEYN, 2nd wife of King Henry VIII of England. In previous visits to London I visited the memorial at the Tower of London that commemorates the many who were beheaded here, including Anne […]

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What you are Missing if you Aren’t Using Family Search for your Genealogy

This is written for my Genealogy class and most of it is a repetition of resources found on FamilySearch.org however it is a curated list and aimed at beginners that do not know where to start at Family Search or those more advanced who have not mined all the great resources that are available there. […]

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KENT The Garden of England Day One Part One: Chartwell

When we were planning a trip to England, Denise’s first desire, was to go to Canterbury and I had always wanted to see Sissinghurst Gardens. Before Covid-19 there was a 3 day tour out of London that did just that but when I was looking last year it was no longer available. So after lots […]

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LONDON Day Four: Tower Hill

I slept in to 6:30 AM. I had mostly packed the night before. I suppose it is a bit of compulsive anxiety that causes that organizing and packing before being able to sleep. It allows me a more restful sleep knowing I am almost ready to go. Showered, dried my hair and went down to […]

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