Woods For The Trees House & Family Histories

22/06/2022

Hello guys! My new website has gone Live! 😊 I am still adding Case Studies, examples of what I do best. I 💜 doing this work. I 💙 telling people's true stories. I 🧡 creating historical or biographical storybooks, full of images, cuttings, maps, old documents etc. I 💚 to bring remembered and forgotten lives back to life. Whose life or lives would you like to be honoured in this way?

Home Case Studies Case Study – Biography Case Study – House History Case Study – Family History About Steph Testimonials Contact Blog Home Welcome to Woods for the Trees House & Family History Service! Hello, I’m Steph Woods and I want to help you dig deeper into your history, whether that.....

13/01/2022

There has never been a better time to commission your family history. The 1921 census, now available online: https://www.findmypast.co.uk/1921-census, tells you who your ancestor worked for, and where.

I specialise in doing the meticulous research then telling your family's stories, pulling it all together in an illustrated heirloom portfolio. Biographies also a speciality. What hidden treasure of old documents and photos do you have in your box room or attic? They can form part of a wonderful legacy document that honours those who have passed and will be treasured by your grandchildren.

05/09/2020

Wonderful old building and great story about 90-year-old Frank.

The long read: Frank Fisher, now 90, was a traditional high street butcher his whole working life – as were three generations of his family before him. How does a man dedicated to serving his community decide when it’s time to hang up his white coat?

30/08/2020

I remember a fab outdoor pool on Llandaff Road when I was a student at Cardiff! 💦👍

Nothing quite so refreshing in summer as swimming, especially outside! Was there an outdoor pool or lido you used to visit?

26/06/2020

I want to honour this forgotten rugby hero

At one time considered the best centre-threequarter in “the four countries” (England, Ireland, France and Wales), Donald William Burland played rugby for Bristol from 1926 to 1934. He &…

27/05/2020

Here's a cat photo as a change from a cat video...

Can you spot the cat?

This picture is captioned 'Terrace of 'Suburban Italianate' houses' and dates to 1962. It was taken as part of a series of images to show slum housing, and the poor conditions within them, but we don't really know much else about it - which street it's on, which area, or the houses sand school building in the background still exist? Perhaps you can tell us!
..but can you spot the cat?

As usual, you can zoom in to get a better view on Collage: The London Picture Archive >
http://ow.ly/nLbJ50zQ3tD

We'd love to hear back from you, but f you can see it, don't say where it is, or others won't be able to join in!

We'll post the location next week for those who can't see it!

15/05/2020

This might be a nice way in to discovering more about your family's origins. And for the next week, it's free!

Online tool drops paywall for a week and people invited to share photos relating to their names

27/12/2019

Have a look at my latest blog about The East Close Hotel at Hinton St. Michael (on the A35) as it was eighty years ago. I love finding out about the residents and their stories!

Described in the 1930s and 40s as a “Luxurious Country House Hotel”, the East Close Hotel was thought by hotel reviewer Ashley Courtenay to be “particularly well-furnished and run…

07/11/2019

A Little Bird Just Told Me...
From 12pm (GMT) Friday November 8th, until 12pm Monday November 11th, all records on Findmypast excluding newspapers, electoral rolls and the Periodical Source Index, will be completely free to search and explore.

22/09/2019

Every time the so-called "facts" of history are examined or considered, new puzzles arise.
I would say history is a puzzle box.

As her novel Wolf Hall is named the best of the century so far, the author looks back on the ‘long walk’ she has taken with Thomas Cromwell

14/06/2019

During a recent family history project, I discovered the "Fur Pullers" of Maypole Alley, Southwark. Fur pullers were women who worked at home on a piece rate preparing skins for the fur trade by removing the outer fur. Fur pulling work was seriously unhealthy and this was probably the worst job for a woman in Victorian London.

When Charles Booth’s team were carrying out a poverty survey of London’s streets in 1899, they saw, in May Pole Alley, a “middle-aged woman pulling fur at her open window: air full of fluff, herself covered with it, spoke in a shaky husky voice: “Must do it to live, you know”.