Category Archives: History

Season of Remembrance

An anniversary post for this season of remembrance. John Edgar Hardy was born to my great-great-grandparents, John, a fishmonger, and Mary Ann, in 1883 in Halifax, one of several siblings. They lived at 5 Briar Court. (I say ‘several’ rather … Continue reading

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Tracks and traces

Just another inconsequential but somehow satisfying and serendipitous little find from my genealogy meanderings. You have been warned. I was doing some transcription work for a family history society and while checking records in the 1939 register, came across Arthur … Continue reading

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On the Brink

I was transcribing some school log information for a family history society and needed to check an address in Hebden Bridge. I hadn’t been sure if it was Brink or Bank but a quick search turned up Buttress Brink in … Continue reading

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Little Discoveries, Bigger Picture…

I dabble in genealogy and suddenly remembered tonight that Find My Past had offered free access to their newspaper archives over the long weekend. There wasn’t time left for any major research, so I contented myself with a slightly manic … Continue reading

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Not bad…

…for a lad from the back streets of Halifax who spent half his childhood (as did his sister) in a children’s home/orphanage, as I’ve touched on elsewhere. Their mum was a seamstress and in the Depression years work was hard … Continue reading

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Remembering mum

My lovely mum on what would have been her 95th birthday. I have a couple of treasured pictures taken of our family (in best bib and tucker in the garden at Maru, Northern Nigeria) by Gavin Carr, colleague of my … Continue reading

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Connections and digressions

I posted these two pictures in a Facebook Group, Calderdale Then and Now, as I had spotted someone else’s similar post about the bad winter of 1962-3. We had returned from Nigeria for good (or so my parents thought) in … Continue reading

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Easter 1953 – A Visit to Toro

This gallery contains 10 photos.

David Dobson was PEO (Provincial Education Officer) based in Jos but with responsibilities around the Plateau region. From the next pages in the family album, it seems those duties included visiting Toro, where there was a school and a Teacher … Continue reading

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10/9/1952 – 3/6/1953 – First posting to Jos

This gallery contains 14 photos.

10 St. Patrick’s Avenue, Jos. PEO’s House My mother and father, Jean and David Dobson, went to Nigeria a couple of years after they married in 1950; quite a contrast from industrial West Yorkshire. They lived with David’s mother, Flossie, … Continue reading

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Moonrise

I had totally forgotten this feeble attempt to transcribe (in an early look at Noteflight) the chorus of a song my paternal grandma used to sing to me as a small child. I only rediscovered it when I clicked on … Continue reading

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