There’s something very special about touching artefacts rather than seeing them on a computer screen. These little scraps of used paper were Georgiana’s embroidery patterns, drawn onto the backs of old letters. (The photograph was taken using a tablecloth crocheted by my own great-grandmother as the background. She made it for her wedding, about thirty […]
On the subject of the highs and lows of research… It’s exciting when you find the grave you’ve been looking for after a five year search. Not so exciting when you see that the family chose sandstone for the headstone, a very common choice in the Carlisle area during the 18th and 19th centuries. It’s […]
This recipe for Lemon Custards is tucked inside Georgiana’s diary. The double ‘S’ that looks like an ‘f’ and her typical backward loop on the letter ‘d’ in some word endings (as in ‘scald’ in the last line) suggest its date as contemporary with the 1828/1829 diaries. I’ve always wondered if this very rich ‘8 […]
Ten years ago I had no idea what the note on this envelope might have meant but when I saw it again recently I had learned enough about Georgiana’s mother to understand the abbreviations she used. It’s the same with handwriting. Documents can be difficult to transcribe until you become familiar with an individual hand. […]
Researching the early life of Georgiana’s husband, John Molloy, turned out to be a huge project in its own right. I originally intended to write two complementary biographies because I’ve collected so much interesting material about Molloy’s life but that proved to be an unrealistic ambition if I wanted to complete the project within the […]
Sometimes an old document can give a strong feeling of connection with the original writer. Thinking not just about the factual evidence in the words on the paper, but also about the person who wrote those words, can create vivid pictures of an individual who lived long ago. It’s hard to believe now, but in […]
Research can be an exciting experience especially when working with primary sources. You sometimes feel as if you’re touching fingertips with the original writers of the documents in your hands. But it can also be a long, frustrating process. These are some of the precious documents in Georgiana’s family archive, dating back to 1567. Many […]
Removing the 1829 portrait of Georgiana Molloy from its velvet-lined gilt frame reveals the artist’s individual brushstrokes and the colours he used to create the background. Shown here as it was when attached to an easel on backing paper, the portrait shows that its painter knew the shape and dimensions of the oval frame to […]
Georgiana kept a diary of her boat journey around the Western Isles. It’s one of the first glimpses of her skill in using words to describe places and emotions. In this extract she conveys the beauty of the scenery but her mind keeps returning to ‘painful circumstances’ in Rugby. Holders of a research ticket at […]
A reader very kindly sent an astrological chart reading for Georgiana Molloy, given her place, date and time of birth. It has remarkably close and accurate parallels with the person and her life. This extract seems particularly relevant to the life she lived. The background image shows hand-made 19th century bricks in the stable wall […]