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
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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.
Ahh! I had a bunny called Benjamin when I was a child.
Gorgeous!
I’ve never come across any Rabbits in records. Love it!
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!)
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 ‘Elizabethan Revels’ around Britain.
digupyourancestors.com/2021/09/28/m...
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. 😆
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 ‘thorny’ character inspired by the Liddell children’s governess, Mary Prickett (“Pricks”). Mary was my husband’s ancestor.
Infuriating that we interned people who had come here to escape persecution by the regime we were at war with.
Cool!
I was going to suggest Microfiche Mode, New Document Order, or Michael George (actually wait, no that last one was just a mistranscription)
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.
Singer? Guitar?
We could have some fun coming up with genealogy-inspired band names. ...
Bastardy examination from 1768 signed by R Sneyd
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!
You look like an 80s popstar!
Coincidentally, one of my clients is related to Labouchere on his mother’s side and Lady Sandhurst on his father’s side!
I know! Unbelievable! And yet 135 years later we still have a very long way to go
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).
Labouchere was also renowned for the ‘Labouchere amendment’ which criminalised all male homosexual acts. Oscar Wilde and Alan Turing were prosecuted under that act.
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...)
The Beeches, East Hendred
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...
Use it all the time! But I don’t contribute - so I should probably do that too.
Lots of interesting topics here. Something for everyone!
Thanks, Rowena. It’s very sad because he had recently got married and had a 6 mth old. I guess you can know you have a ‘weak heart’ but have no idea when something might go wrong.
Opinions please: If a 29-year-old man's cause of death in 1889 was 'Heart-disease years Certified' do you think that he would have known he had heart problems? Or could it have been a sudden and unexpected death, but the certifying doctor deducted that it had been a long-term issue?
![The photo shows four images of the same Roman iron stylus (pen) one below the other, with knib to the left. This stylus is octagonal in shape, with an inscription dot-punched along its length on four alternate sides. The stylus is 132 mm long and 5 mm thick, and the letters are circa 2 mm high. The four images of the pen show the four lines of inscribed text (highlighted) which read:
‘ab urbe v[e]n[i] munus tibi gratum adf(e)ro
acul[eat]um ut habe[a]s memor[ia]m nostra(m)
rogo si fortuna dar[e]t quo possem
largius ut longa via ceu sacculus est (v)acuus’
Translated as
‘I have come from the City. I bring you a welcome gift
with a sharp point that you may remember me.
I ask, if fortune allowed, that I might be able (to give)
as generously as the way is long (and) as my purse is empty.’
This inscription is generally interpreted by scholars as a humorous, tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment by the giver of the cheapness of the gift.
The pen was used to write on wax-filled wooden writing tablets. Found in London (Roman ‘Londinium’) by MOLA, during excavations for Bloomberg’s European Headquarters in 2010–2014 . Photo by Juan Jose Fuldain for MOLA](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:j56ydp325adovobhwpkzc6sp/bafkreifnagf7o3c3tsvpawfj2o5exyqsg52vwrovvapsjrhwtzd6tv5bf4@jpeg)
The photo shows four images of the same Roman iron stylus (pen) one below the other, with knib to the left. This stylus is octagonal in shape, with an inscription dot-punched along its length on four alternate sides. The stylus is 132 mm long and 5 mm thick, and the letters are circa 2 mm high. The four images of the pen show the four lines of inscribed text (highlighted) which read: ‘ab urbe v[e]n[i] munus tibi gratum adf(e)ro acul[eat]um ut habe[a]s memor[ia]m nostra(m) rogo si fortuna dar[e]t quo possem largius ut longa via ceu sacculus est (v)acuus’ Translated as ‘I have come from the City. I bring you a welcome gift with a sharp point that you may remember me. I ask, if fortune allowed, that I might be able (to give) as generously as the way is long (and) as my purse is empty.’ This inscription is generally interpreted by scholars as a humorous, tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment by the giver of the cheapness of the gift. The pen was used to write on wax-filled wooden writing tablets. Found in London (Roman ‘Londinium’) by MOLA, during excavations for Bloomberg’s European Headquarters in 2010–2014 . Photo by Juan Jose Fuldain for MOLA
Timeless humour!
A 2,000 year-old Roman souvenir pen with a joke inscription roughly equivalent to:
“I went to Rome and all I got you was this cheap pen!" 😂
Dated circa 70 AD, this iron stylus pen was recovered in London during excavations by MOLA. 📷 Juan Jose Fuldain/MOLA
#Archaeology
Thanks, Marion. I do like to think these were the actual colours of his clothes!
@richard-holt.bsky.social in case you’re not aware …
