Welcome to Debbies Discoveries blog site, all about my family history research over the years. All my ancestors so far originate from the British Isles to at least the mid-18th century as you will see from my map of the counties highlighted. My research has involved learning more about the social history of the times, particularly in relation to the industrial revolution, how they travelled along with the many interesting occupations that they were involved in.
My paternal side comes from the counties of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire part in the West Midlands area of England. Click on the link below to find out more about my paternal ancestors along with their surnames and occupations researched so far.
My maternal relations have been discovered in the West Midlands of England as well as Northern parts Scotland. Click on the link below to find out more about my maternal line along with their surnames and occupations under research so far.
Go forth and check out About Me and a few of the blogs so far…
Carpet Weaver James Silk
James Silk (1851 – 1929) Introduction First blog of my Kidderminster family connection and about another of my 2 times great grandfathers but from my maternal line. This is a story about the personal life of a 3rd generation carpet weaver, the locations where he lived in England, UK and a little bit of travel…
Victorian Police Constable Thomas Challoner
Thomas Challoner (1833 – 1881) Finding out about the career of my police officer ancestor during the Victorian period has been fascinating to say the least. I already knew from my dad’s research that my Great Great Grandfather was a county policeman. My research journey has taken me a few years, from searching police records…
George Ritchie (1819-1904)
This is the first of many blogs to come about my Scottish ancestral line. Researching this ancestor has been rather fascinating, as was able to explore exact geographical locations of where he lived and where his descendants ended up. Also I discovered that there are some brick walls to break down with more research. Here…
Introducing Debbie’s Discoveries blog
What made me decide to start a blog? Well over the years of I have made many discoveries on my family history and thought sharing them would make my ancestors become more alive. For the past couple of years I had shared some on Facebook family history groups, but not all family members are on…
Worldwide
My discoveries have found that many of the ancestors emigrated to other parts of the world, like USA, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Check out some of my blogs that include emigrations.
Elizabeth Challoner (1840-1817) and Charles Rhodes Bowmar (1838-1816)
Researching my three times great aunt Elizabeth Challoner and her husband Charles Rhodes Bowmar led me to make some fascinating and rather startling discoveries. Reasons for blogging about them together will become apparent. I knew from my Dad’s research from the 1960s, that Elizabeth ended up overseas and whom she had married but my research…
Stanley Bowmar (1881-1965)
Having researched his parents and his inventor brother, I came across many links to records and the newspapers which mentioned my cousin Stanley Bowmar (first cousin to my great grandfather Francis Thomas Challoner). It was very interesting to discover all about his travels and his working life, when he moved from his homeland of New…
Debbie's Discoveries blog 