Posts by HLB

Cap Badge Glider Pilot Regiment 1950 – 57

The Glider Pilot Regiment Cap Badge
This entry is part 7 of 13 in the series Military Cap badges

The cap badge of the Glider Pilot Regiment is one of a large collection of cap badges that we have had the privilege of curating at Intriguing History. If you would like to see more or contribute information we would be delighted to here from you.

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Phrenology- a Victorian obsession?

In 1824, George Combe’s ‘Elements of Phrenology’ was published. Phrenology was the identification of an individual’s faculties by feeling the shape of the skull. It was argued by Franz Joseph Gall, an Austrian physician, along with Johann Spurzheim that mind and brain were connected, in a way that, different characteristics of mind, would give different…

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Durham Mining Maps

Many of us have miners in our family trees but with so many mining areas closing down it is not always easy to find out exactly where the mines were. A project called Miner Mapping, undertaken in Durham has listed place names in County Durham and by clicking on a place name you can search…

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Herefordshire Wills

If you have any family history links with Hereford then this will interest you. It’s a great site, put together by volunteers and contributions from others with Herefordshire wills to share. Wills can prove such a little goldmine, offering up new connections between hitherto unknown clusters of family, establishing family relationships, as well as adding…

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Tailors and Family History

A plethora of tailors and dressmakers in our own family trees made us stop and think about the role of the tailor in the community and how they went about their everyday work and we will get to that but first Many in our families were tailors in Hampshire between Portsmouth and Hambledon. It just…

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‘Lunatics’ and the Poor Law Act 1834

This entry is part 4 of 9 in the series Statutes of Law

Asylums had been operating in Britain for hundreds of years, the first recorded was the Bethlem Royal Hospital established in the C15th and were run  as private charitable institutions. The whole business was a haphazard affair until the Madhouse Act of 1774 which established licensing and yearly inspections of asylums. Still little provision was made…

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Birth Marriage Death Registration Act 1836

This entry is part 5 of 9 in the series Statutes of Law

The Birth, Marriage and Death Registration Act of 1836, introduced registration of these life events but contained no penalties for refusal to register. It established the General Register Office and divided the country into registration districts. It became effective from 1st July 1837   Find the earliest registration of a life event in your tree…

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Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps New Hampshire

A super mapping resource from Dartmouth Library is the digital map project of the Sanborn fire insurance maps for many towns in New Hampshire. If you have any family history connections to New Hampshire then these maps are a real treat To explore other intriguing snippets and see how they can be used to explore…

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