Dan Billington, Ancestry Central's Blog – April 2011 Archive (10)

The Ancestral Homes of Kingston Upon Hull

These recent images capture the essence of a thriving City centre in Victorian Britain. Each one represents the life and livelihood of our past ancestors and the City’s history from William Gill the shoe maker who operated at 34 Bishop Lane to the now infamous Brown family of High Street.…

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Added by Dan Billington, Ancestry Central on April 28, 2011 at 9:00am — No Comments

Unidentified Images of People and Places

Do you recognise any of the people , places or things highlighted in this series of images ?

If so please contact us and share what you know ?

Hull , about 1930.

Walter and…

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Added by Dan Billington, Ancestry Central on April 26, 2011 at 6:30am — No Comments

US Airbase RAF Goxhill, Lincolnshire 1942-1945 ( USAAF Station 345)

Or Goat-Hill as the American Airmen unofficially named it.

Captain Cable in…

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Added by Dan Billington, Ancestry Central on April 25, 2011 at 5:14am — No Comments

The Railway Children of Goole

The Caukill and Taylor family that grew up in Parliament Street and Fourth Avenue, Goole, East Yorkshire were as close as any family living in the terraced streets of a northern town in Victorian Britain but more than that, both had been driven to the town by the decline in the farming industry in the…

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Added by Dan Billington, Ancestry Central on April 19, 2011 at 8:06am — No Comments

Sun Stroke at Boot Hill !

The Toll of Time….and Council’s

Still on the theme of local cemeteries. Following a visit to Eastern Cemetery in Kingston, I was astonished to witness in such a well kept cemetery that an eagerness to protect the visitors, the stones themselves were being damaged.

It looks to me as though the…

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Added by Dan Billington, Ancestry Central on April 18, 2011 at 5:47am — No Comments

Bringing the past to life.

In life we associate cemeteries with our own losses and they are often regarded as gloomy and miserable places to be. Yet in my capacity as a Family History Researcher, I see these places in an entirely different light, not just associated to death. In fact they help bring the past to life and my…

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Added by Dan Billington, Ancestry Central on April 18, 2011 at 5:40am — No Comments

The Cemeteries of Hull

A selection of my photographs from a recent exploration of cemeteries in Hull. Dating back to the early 1800’s, there is certainly much evidence of death, decay and disease. Many of the surviving stones had in fact been relocated from previous locations as the City expanded.

One of the most interesting finds…

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Added by Dan Billington, Ancestry Central on April 13, 2011 at 12:36pm — No Comments

The Hangmen and the Hanged man – what’s in a name?

Being of the surname Billington, my family, though in Yorkshire for over 100 years, is often asked about its Lancashire origins and in particular I am often asked by historians if I have any connections to the Hangmen of Bolton. In the south of England the question is quite different and I am asked of my…

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Added by Dan Billington, Ancestry Central on April 12, 2011 at 5:08am — No Comments

Sam Cooke’s Wonderful World

When Sam Cooke wrote the lyrics to the award winning hit ‘What a Wonderful World’ in 1959, he was telling us that he ‘did not know much about Genealogy’. You might now be humming the tune to yourself , frantically searching for the word ‘genealogy’ and you would be correct in confirming, it is not… Continue

Added by Dan Billington, Ancestry Central on April 12, 2011 at 3:43am — 2 Comments

From Death is Life

This week, I will be spending some time researching the Cemeteries of Kingston upon Hull, in East Yorkshire. Between 1880 and 1910, the Cemeteries grew at a rate only equalled by the continued growth of the City. From a tiny medieval town surrounded by green fields, Henry VIII’s favourite stop over expanded to more…