The Family Histories Podcast

... following on immediately from our previous episode - 'The Glassworker', we find host Andrew Martin and guest Lene D. Kottal in the garage, where they've been interrupted by Andrew's old friend Santa. When Santa starts to act strangely, they find themselves fleeing for their lives...

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Episode Credits
Andrew Martin - Host and Producer
Lene D. Kottal - Guest
Peter Baker - Santa
John Spike - Sándor Petőfi
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In this seventh and final full episode of Season Ten of The Family Histories Podcast, host Andrew Martin meets Danish professional genealogist Lene D. Kottal. She explains how she got hooked on family history, why she turned professional, and how skills in researching patronymics can help researchers of Danish ancestry.
THE LIFE STORY - ANNA MARIA SÖDERLUND 
Lene has decided to tell the life story of her Great Grandmother Anna Maria Söderlund - someone that she has seen smiling in photographs but has since discovered led a hard life.
When Anna's father is fired for supporting a strike, the family fall upon harder times. Lene finds that Anna also worked in a glass factory too, but not within the glass blowing, but in the lesser skilled (and lower paid) jobs - much like her father had been forced into after being fired from his skilled job. 
The hardship continues as Anna marries and grows older, and with her husband, she ends up living in a convent. Lene likes to imagine that she lived here peacefully and in some comfort.
THE BRICK WALL - FREDERIK DRÆBY 
Lene is trying to find evidence that proves or disproves the paternity of her 2x Gt Grandfather Frederik Dræby, born in 1849 as the reputed son of customs official Frederik Dræby of Silkeborg, Denmark. 
However, Lene is struggling to find documented evidence, or genetic evidence that either confirms this, or points to a different paternity.
Frederik Dræby senior has plenty of other children, and Lene has traced their descendants but has not found them in her matches with MyHeritage. She has yet to take an Ancestry test, but hopes that a paternal match for this branch will prove it was Dræby or will point elsewhere instead.
Can you help Lene find evidence of Frederik Dræby, or do you have that name in your tree?
If you think you can help her with a research clue or idea, then you can send her a message via her website, join her Dræby Facebook group, or alternatively you can send us a message and we'll pass it along to her.
In the meantime, Lene is happy to accept Andrew's offer of help, but they're interrupted by an old friend... or are they?

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Episode Credits:
Andrew Martin - Host and Producer
Lene D. Kottal - Guest
Peter Baker - Santa

Support the show
Thank you for listening!
You can sign up to our email newsletter for the latest and behind the scenes news.

You can find us on Twitter @FamilyHistPod, Facebook, Instagram, and BlueSky.
If you liked this episode please subscribe for free, or leave a rating or review, or consider giving us a 'tip' to keep the show funded.

In this sixth episode of Season Ten, host Andrew Martin meets New Zealand-based genealogist, author, storyteller and 'story listener', Simon Young. He hears how Simon got hooked on family history after a brown envelop was handed to him, and his thoughts on where the genealogy community may go next.
THE LIFE STORY - DR. JAMES LIND
Simon has chosen to tell the Life Story of his 5x Great Grandfather, Dr. James Lind, who was born in 1736 in Gorgie, Edinburgh, Scotland.
By 1766, he'd joined the East India Company as a surgeon, and two years later earned his Doctorate after completing his dissertation in marsh fever (malaria). 
However, James was somewhat a polymath, and surrounded by other polymaths in Edinburgh at the time. He missed out on a voyage with Captain Cook after asking for too much money, and instead headed to Iceland to study the stars.
He also mentored Percy Bysshe Shelley, and this clearly left an impression on Percy who wrote James as characters in some of his work. James was also perhaps an inspiration for Percy's wife - author Mary Shelley - who it's said, was inspired by James when she wrote Frankenstein, after one of James' 'scientific' tricks was to electrocute dead frogs so that they would twitch and jump, as if brought back to life!
THE BRICK WALL - WILLIAM and HANNAH SMITH
Yes, that's right... Simon is asking you to help him find some ancestors bearing one of the most common surnames from Britain - Smith! 
Simon knows that his ancestor George Henry Smith was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1859, but he has no further information about his parents William Smith and Hannah Smith (née 'Dardin').  When George Smith marries in the 1880s, his father is named, but the marriage takes place in New Zealand. Simon doesn't know if George's parents were alive, went to New Zealand, or stayed in Australia.
Can you help him find the correct William and Hannah Smith, parents of George Henry Smith?
If you think that you can offer Simon a research clue or idea, then you can contact him via his website, or alternatively send us message and we'll pass it on.
In the meantime... Simon is happy to accept Andrew's offer of help, but has a few questions first....
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Episode Credits:
Andrew Martin - Host and Producer
Simon Young - Guest
John Spike - Sándor Petőfi
Support the show
Thank you for listening!
You can sign up to our email newsletter for the latest and behind the scenes news.

You can find us on Twitter @FamilyHistPod, Facebook, Instagram, and BlueSky.
If you liked this episode please subscribe for free, or leave a rating or review, or consider giving us a 'tip' to keep the show funded.

In this fifth episode of Season Ten, host Andrew is joined by professional genealogist, adoption research specialist - Kathy Wilshaw. She tells Andrew about how she got hooked on family history, the challenges of researching as an adoptee, and her work to mediate for other adoptees and their birth parents.
THE LIFE STORY - IVY COLLISON 
Kathy has chosen to tell the story of her... shhhh.... Great Aunt, Ivy Collison who was born in Northamptonshire, UK in 1893. The problem for Kathy in researching Ivy, is that no-one was supposed to talk about her. Obviously, Kathy had to go rummaging as soon as she could...
What Kathy found was, at face value, a woman living a somewhat uneventful life, but then a turn of events leads Kathy to the newspapers... and suddenly Ivy's extravagant and criminal lifestyle began to appear.
Ivy was a con artist, a fraudster, and she managed to take large amounts of money from unsuspecting hopeful men, and from those who fell for her schemes. Of course, this landed her in trouble many times and this led her to prison sentences and a host of pseudonyms too.
Amongst Ivy's story, Kathy has found what is perhaps a woman who was unwell, or desperately sad and lonely, leaving her wondering who the real Ivy was. 
THE BRICK WALL - JOHN WILSHAW
One of Kathy's longest-running brick walls is in her husband's family - with his 3x Great Grandfather John Wilshaw born circa 1804.
Whilst Wilshaw is an unusual surname, it isn't unusual in Staffordshire, England, and Kathy wants to know where her husband's ancestor John Wilshaw was from. Sources seem to point to a birth circa 1804, and there's references to Cheddleton too, but despite there being John Wilshaw in the Cheddleton parish register, they don't appear to be him.
Can you help her find the correct John Wilshaw, son of John Wilshaw? 
If you think that you can help Kathy to break down this brick wall with a research idea or clue, then you can message her via her website or via the email address she gives in the episode. Alternatively, you can send us a message and we'll pass it on to her.
In the meantime, Andrew offers Kathy help to break that brick wall... but she chooses a different adventure...
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Episode Credits:
Andrew Martin - Host and Producer
Kathy Wilshaw - Guest
Support the show
Thank you for listening!
You can sign up to our email newsletter for the latest and behind the scenes news.

You can find us on Twitter @FamilyHistPod, Facebook, Instagram, and BlueSky.
If you liked this episode please subscribe for free, or leave a rating or review, or consider giving us a 'tip' to keep the show funded.

In this fourth episode of Season Ten, Andrew once again has two guests… and they’re siblings! Joining him are brothers who as Parra Genealogía, focus on researching family history in Mexico - it’s Roberto and Ramón Parra! 
THE LIFE STORY - FLORENCIO PÉREZ COMOTO 
Ramón and Roberto have chosen to tell the life story of Florencio Pérez Comoto - the son-in-law of their 5x Great Grandfather.
Florencio was born around 1775 in Cádiz in Andalucía, Spain, and when he graduated from medical training, he headed over to Nueva España (part of which is now modern Mexico) and settled in Veracruz. He worked as a military medical doctor and after arriving he found himself deep in epidemiology. After Edward Jenner's discovery of using cowpox to vaccinate against smallpox, Florencio ended up leading the efforts of vaccination against the spread of a deadly smallpox epidemic in Mexico, and encouraging people to get vaccinated.
Florencio's work is a success, but when Mexico gains Independence in 1821, he and his family flee back to Spain.
THE BRICK WALL - FLORENCIO PÉREZ COMOTO
It's a research brick wall that also surrounds their Life Story choice Florencio Pérez Comoto, that has Roberto and Ramón asking for help.
Whilst Florencio and some of his sons were writers, translators, and poets, Roberto and Ramón have yet to find anything biographical about his life during the smallpox epidemic and his family's fleeing back to Spain after the Declaration of Mexico's Independence in 1821.
If you think that you can help with a research idea or a clue to help bring their brick wall down, then you can contact them via their Parra Genealogía website, or alternatively, you can send us a message and we'll pass it along.
In the meantime, Roberto and Ramón are keen to accept Andrew's offer of help, but it's all a matter of timing...
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Episode Credits:
Andrew Martin - Host and Producer
Roberto Parra - Guest
Ramón Parra - Guest
Support the show
Thank you for listening!
You can sign up to our email newsletter for the latest and behind the scenes news.

You can find us on Twitter @FamilyHistPod, Facebook, Instagram, and BlueSky.
If you liked this episode please subscribe for free, or leave a rating or review, or consider giving us a 'tip' to keep the show funded.