St Mary's Church, Marlingford

Henry and I had to be up at 8ish to get him to school for a History revision class at 9. Back home I spent the morning with Manda. We watched a bit of the commonwealth games and looked at our family history research. I've been doing the research for nearly 30 years but just for fun, and looking back I don't have evidence of where I got the data from. I want to go over some of it as Manda has now taken it up as a hobby, and is doing it more seriously than I did.

So Manda and I agreed we have some specific research to do before we head out again in our search for more historical family sites. We did still drive down to two villages this afternoon, where we know our nana grew up. One was the laundry in Barford that I blipped a few weeks ago, although I want to research exactly what dates she lived there. We also visited Marlingford, which is where nana's parents ran the village shop in the late 1920's through to the 40's. It was difficult to park, as the village has become quite an exclusive place to live, with beautiful cottages and a close knit community. We chatted to a lady at the church who was walking her dog. She said it was like The Archers living there! She has been there 30 years, and lived in High Barnet before. What are the chances of that - as our nan married and moved from Marlingford to Barnet in 1927. We parked near the church and took photos. I took one inside with the children standing by the font. Our dad was christened in this church in 1930 and I guess would have been christened in that same font! We took this selfie outside. We parted company from there, Manda driving back home to Ware. Henry and I got home at 5.30.

I'm back to work tomorrow but my long weekend has been really enjoyable, and it has reignited my love for history and family history in particular. It is so much more than just dates and names. When you can put buildings, homes and stories to those names it bring the past to life. I'll probably spend this evening trawling online for yet more dates, and gathering evidence for the dates I already have.

More numbers. They rule my life!!