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Clare Kirk

@digupyourancestors

#FamilyHistory researcher Trustee @cotswoldarch.bsky.social Editor @friendlesschurches.bsky.social OFHS advisor Singer, baker, occasional mudlarker Blogging at digupyourancestors.com

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Latest posts by Clare Kirk @digupyourancestors

Thank you, Marian! It’s been lovely to reminisce today.

13.03.2026 21:34 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Thank you, Jane πŸ₯°

13.03.2026 21:34 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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25 years ago today I got married in a little wedding chapel at South Lake Tahoe, California.

13.03.2026 17:40 πŸ‘ 11 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 0
HALF-BRED FRENCH PUP - β€˜perfectly harmless and entirely useless’

HALF-BRED FRENCH PUP - β€˜perfectly harmless and entirely useless’

LARGE FRENCH CAT with a remarkably bushy tail

LARGE FRENCH CAT with a remarkably bushy tail

The Learned Cats - see them grind rice in the Italian manner! And don’t miss the PERFORMING AND TALKING FISH, which possesses a sagacity bordering upon the dominions of reason.

The Learned Cats - see them grind rice in the Italian manner! And don’t miss the PERFORMING AND TALKING FISH, which possesses a sagacity bordering upon the dominions of reason.

I really enjoyed the new #Pets&TheirPeople exhibition at the Bodleian Weston Library. Here are a few old newspaper notices that made me chuckle. I would absolutely pay to see the performing, talking fish.
If you go, don’t miss the animatronic therapy cat!
visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/pets-a...

13.03.2026 15:59 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Certified burial certificate for William Long at Stratton on the Fosse. [Former ref. DD\SF/468]

Has anyone come across a 'certified burial certificate' from the 18th century, and know what details might be included? I have found one for someone I'm researching, who died in Somerset in 1738. It's within the papers of another family (relationship unknown), at Somerset Archives.

11.03.2026 15:46 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Not sure having a humbug-shaped gravestone is restoring his dignity!!

09.03.2026 15:20 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I’ve definitely come across that one too. It must have been strange for people to have a surname that was also used for a social stigma.

06.03.2026 11:54 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Ahh! I had a bunny called Benjamin when I was a child.

06.03.2026 08:17 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Gorgeous!

06.03.2026 08:04 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I’ve never come across any Rabbits in records. Love it!

06.03.2026 07:54 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

It’s lovely and makes me wonder if jokes were made about it at the time. #GenHour (didn’t realise it was Gen Hour as I’m in Spain and confused about the time!)

05.03.2026 20:46 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
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The main subject of my blog was Fanny Evill’s son, D’Arcy de Ferrars, who acted as Lord of Misrule at many Victorian-era β€˜Elizabethan Revels’ around Britain.
digupyourancestors.com/2021/09/28/m...

05.03.2026 20:31 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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ALT:

Yesterday I was looking at an old blog of mine and came across some family names that made me laugh all over again.
The subject of my blog was the son of schoolmistress FANNY EVILL.
And Fanny was the daughter of Baptist Minister REVEREND EVILL. Staying on theme, his mother was a DAGGER. πŸ˜†

05.03.2026 20:24 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0
A 10-year-old girl dressed all in red with a crown and sceptre and hearts on her tights

A 10-year-old girl dressed all in red with a crown and sceptre and hearts on her tights

Today is #WorldBookDay and my niece has dressed as the Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland). The character is often mixed up with the Red Queen (Through the Looking Glass) - a β€˜thorny’ character inspired by the Liddell children’s governess, Mary Prickett (β€œPricks”). Mary was my husband’s ancestor.

05.03.2026 10:21 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Story of Kylie Minogue ancestor, hanged in 1816, sells at auction Dinah Riddiford, 69, is believed to be the oldest woman ever hanged in England.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

05.03.2026 10:14 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Infuriating that we interned people who had come here to escape persecution by the regime we were at war with.

03.03.2026 23:59 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Abandoned wine cellar discovered after sinkhole opens up on Manchester golf course Around 100 wine and port bottles were found in the hidden cellar

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

03.03.2026 23:41 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Cool!

I was going to suggest Microfiche Mode, New Document Order, or Michael George (actually wait, no that last one was just a mistranscription)

28.02.2026 17:57 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

That's a positive way of looking at this. I just see so much of the same rhetoric today used against various groups. But we have to trust that even if we take some steps backwards, the overall arc of progress keeps moving us forwards.

28.02.2026 17:30 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Singer? Guitar?
We could have some fun coming up with genealogy-inspired band names. ...

28.02.2026 17:27 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Bastardy examination from 1768 signed by R Sneyd

Bastardy examination from 1768 signed by R Sneyd

Payments made to bastards, 1819, including 'Sneyd William'

Payments made to bastards, 1819, including 'Sneyd William'

I use Google Docs for almost all my work and for filing digitised genealogical records. I noticed today that the search function now works with hand-written documents in my folders. A search for 'Sneyd' (a name I knew I had come across but couldn't place) found the name in these 2 records. V. handy!

28.02.2026 17:25 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

You look like an 80s popstar!

28.02.2026 17:18 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0

Coincidentally, one of my clients is related to Labouchere on his mother’s side and Lady Sandhurst on his father’s side!

27.02.2026 22:23 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I know! Unbelievable! And yet 135 years later we still have a very long way to go

27.02.2026 22:22 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

The three elected women were social reformers & suffragists Jane Cobden (a campaigner for the abolition of slavery, Irish home rule, and indigenous rights), Lady Sandhurst (a passionate spiritualist who ran a home for sick children) and Emma Cons (founder of the Old Vic, who was voted Alderman).

27.02.2026 20:30 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Labouchere was also renowned for the β€˜Labouchere amendment’ which criminalised all male homosexual acts. Oscar Wilde and Alan Turing were prosecuted under that act.

27.02.2026 19:14 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
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In 1891 MPs in Parliament debated whether the 3 women who’d been elected to London’s City Council had a right to remain in their posts. Mr Henry Labouchere (MP, Northampton) aired his views on the matter …
(Alt text would be v long so here’s the link to Hansard: api.parliament.uk/historic-han...)

27.02.2026 19:14 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
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The Beeches, East Hendred

22.02.2026 14:25 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Webpage of the Society of Antiquaries of London with text describing the society with image of old text and a drawing of Stonehenge.

Webpage of the Society of Antiquaries of London with text describing the society with image of old text and a drawing of Stonehenge.

Antiquarianism, by Joe Saunders. Antiquarians have served an important part in the study of history over the last few hundred years, and their work has helped the development of the modern historical sciences. how-to-history.com/2026/01/28/a...

28.01.2026 07:53 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 6 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

Use it all the time! But I don’t contribute - so I should probably do that too.

21.02.2026 17:19 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0