On 21 July 1813 at the garrison parish of San Fernando (then known as Isla de León) near the city of Cádiz, a girl named María Rosa Dolores was baptised. Born on the 2nd of that month, she was stated to be the daughter of Doña María Josefa Vitini, native of Cádiz; and of George…
Life after combat has never been easy for the wounded warrior and is not today either, as some of the stories of young men returning from Iraq or Helmand Province show us only too well. But next Remembrance Day (or Veterans Day, if you’re in the US) spare a thought for Captain Juan Meyer. On…
One may wonder if there are any heraldic consequences to Sir Fred Goodwin’s loss of his knighthood, a matter receiving a great deal of media attention today. I’ve not been able to find any reference to his having received a grant of arms and it may simply be that the great man was so busy…
On January 12th 1749 a Madrid notary recorded the last will of a bedridden English Catholic whose name he wrote as Ricardo Semson. The spelling of the surname suspect and may perhaps correctly be Simson, Simpson, Samson or something else; unfortunately, Ricardo – or Richard – was unable to sign his will and dispel our…
Finding intriguing people in unexpected places is one of the joys of genealogical research. If nothing else, it helps take away the sting of not finding exactly what one was looking for. While searching the official record of the prosecution of a colonial governor of Puerto Rico by his successor, among the witness statements I…
Gascoigne of Parlington Hall The records of the Spanish city of Cádiz are a veritable treasure trove for a wide-ranging swathe of genealogists. The city’s pre-eminent commercial position in the 18th century attracted individuals from all over Europe, and the records left by its vibrant population of Irish ‘Wild Geese’ are well known to –…
A few years ago I had occasion to visit an art exhibit of some sort in the crypt gallery of London’s church of St Pancras. Quite what the exhibit was eludes me; it proved less memorable than the variety of broken armorial funeral monuments spread rather haphazardly around the crypt. I don’t know whether these…