By Michele Leggott, with research support from Catherine Field-Dodgson Families keep the strangest things. For years now we have been looking at what we take to be the oldest document in Sarah Harris’s family history, a tattered and yellowing piece of paper pasted into the notebook that is full of intriguing items from the English Read More…
Tag: Plymouth
Harris & Sons of Plymouth, Devon
By Nigel Overton Harris & Sons of Plymouth, Devon: From House Painters & Glaziers to Decorators, Furnishers, Picture Frame Makers, Gallery Owners and sometime suppliers of Artists’ Materials, Fancy Goods and Stationery. Having by chance recently come across an advertisement for Harris & Sons in a circa 1930 Plymouth guidebook, I was prompted to Read More…
Shedding some light on the Plymouth Paddons
Contributed by Nigel Overton, City Heritage Curator, The Box, Plymouth Museums Galleries Archives Further word from Plymouth confirms that Henry John Paddon (1803-1874) and Francis William Paddon (c.1804?-1860) were indeed two individuals, but they were two men who had much in common. Both are mentioned in the Harris family correspondence, and both appear to have Read More…
Pinning down Edwin’s St Andrew’s
Men and women of the library, conduits to knowledge that lies beyond the easy touch of a button, are the true heroes of research. They know where to go and seem endlessly patient in the retrieval of lost components and the closing of puzzling gaps. Once started on a trail, they do not give up, Read More…
Emily’s Plymouth, 1840
Can we reconstruct Emily Harris’s Plymouth from traces in family letters and what the city archivists can show us now? Nigel Overton takes us on a tour of central Plymouth based on material compiled by Graham Naylor from the addresses we forwarded a couple of weeks ago. It’s a magic experience that suddenly makes vivid Read More…
Edwin Harris, Interior of St Andrew’s Church, 1825
The year is 1896. Edwin Harris and his youngest daughter Ellen are dead, and Emily is living alone at 34 Nile St in Nelson. On black-edged notepaper she writes to her sister Mary Weyergang with some important news from England. A letter has come from cousin Bessie Harris in Plymouth, thanking Emily for the condolences Read More…