Most of you who are reading this will know that I am part of a team who aim to tell the stories of women of the past, who might otherwise be forgotten, on the A Few Forgotten Women website. As a family historian, I believe that all those on the family tree deserve their place in history, even if their lives encompass some challenging issues. If we just tell the success stories, the stories of the heroic, the popular and the blameless, what an inaccurate portrait we are painting and what unrealistic expectations we are setting up for those who come afterwards, who can only feel inadequate in the face of all those ‘perfect’ ancestors.

My fascination for aspects of the past that are not exactly filled with sweetness and light, led me to give talks on Forgotten Ancestors, or Ancestors on the Margins, those who are often discriminated against or stigmatised by society and forgotten by history. This led to me being asked to write an article for Family Tree Magazine and subsequently, I was approached by Pen and Sword to write a book, helping others to trace their ancestors on the margins. This all seems like a very long time ago now but I had great fun writing about how to trace the criminals, the illegitimate, the poor, the prostitutes, the witches and many more on you family tree. I tried to provide plenty of social historical context and each chapter finishes with a case study. Finally, the book is now in the late stages of gestation. Publication date is 29 February but pre-orders, at a reduced price, are already available here.

Of course, women have often been marginalised by history and I am excited that my final presentation of 2023 will be a Maternal Line workshop for the Society of Genealogists, when I will be encouraging participants to investigate their female ancestors in more detail. Bookings for this are still open.

What about moving house? I hear you barely dare to whisper. Well some slight bumps in the road but we are at least still on the road. I will reveal the whole ‘you couldn’t make it up’ story when it is all over. As an aside, I am, for reasons that will be explained in future posts, currently living like my ancestors with no central heating as the snow flurries descend – thank goodness for the woodburner. I am not convinced said ancestors also lived with half empty cupboards and shelves and a obstacle course created from boxes in every room but there you go.

Some years I have provided an advent calendar of blogs on historical or book related subjects but I am a bit pushed for blogging time at the moment – maybe next year when the chaos has (I hope) abated. You can always look back on calendars from previous years.

The alphabetical Christmas advent posts start here December 2012.

Historical Novelists starts here December 2016.

Social History books advent starts here December 2017.

In December 2018, each day I blogged about a different source that I used in the writing of Barefoot on the Cobbles.

There wasn’t a complete calendar in 2019 but there was a series of posts about favourite family history websites starting here December 2019.

Looks like I have had a few years off! Good intentions for 2024.