23/04/2026
I spent an interesting few hours at The London Archives yesterday examining 17th and 18th century records related to the London Parish of St Mary-at-Hill.
As I came away, I thought about some of the reminders this sort of research offers us:
📝 Not all research yields earth-shattering results, but even a single mention of an individual can increase the amount we know about them.
📝 Sometimes we have to order up documents on speculation, because it’s not always clear in the catalogue what they contain - you never know what you might find.
📝 Every document is a piece in a much bigger jigsaw puzzle - we rarely answer a research question with a single piece, but the pieces add up, and help us to understand the bigger picture.
📝 Sometimes, knowing that an individual was listed in certain a place on a particular date can be the missing piece in the puzzle.
📝 Occasionally we come away and wish we’d forked out the £7 for the photography licence!
📝 It’s easy to get distracted by all the dates and information on either side of our search range.
📝 I will never cease to be awed by the idea that an ancestor whose DNA is part of me, took pen to paper hundreds of years ago, and signed their name. True connection.
I wonder if some of these resonate with you?
