H is for History
I started out focussing on the family element of family history, but have now progressed to considering the history aspect too. With the exception of Romans and Vikings I was never particularly interested in history as a subject at school, so my knowledge of the history of the past two or three centuries is seriously lacking. As I have added new people to my tree I have tried to find out more about the historical context in which they lived their lives. This has given me much more insight into the transition from an agricultural society to the industrial age and also the timeline of events in the first World War. One of the most interesting pieces of historical research has been looking into where the Northumberland Fusiliers served in 1915 and 1916 to track the path of my great uncle Edmund Webb from enlistment at Amble to his death in battle at Flers-Courcelette.
Moving on from history to genealogy I can claim four H-names in my pedigree. All four come from my mother’s half of the tree.
H is for Hall
First in the alphabet comes Hall. My Hall ancestors lived at Elsdon in Northumberland and I have been lucky enough to find good sources of information about them.
H is for Hedley
Another of my pedigree H lines is Hedley. I have not found quite so many of them. They too have lived in the Elsdon area and I found them by following up the Hall line.
H is for Henderson
The closest of my H pedigree lines is Henderson, to be found in Amble and Cullercoats. My maternal grandmother was a Henderson.
H is for Hunter
My final pedigree H is Hunter. Yet another Elsdon connection found by tracking back up the Hall line.
If you would like to know more about this alphabet challenge or read other bloggers’ H-contributions take a look at Family history through the alphabet.
Digging up the ancients 
What a lovely list of H names!
I totally relate to your “History” post. It was a History project at school that initiated my interest in family history but I have no recollection of anything else we studied except Egyptian history. History and Geography were my least favourite subjects at school but now I am enjoying learning a lot about them through my family history research.
Same here Sharon. It puts both history and geography in a totally new perspective.
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Genealogy and social history do go hand-in-hand even though you don’t normally know it when starting out. But during your research your sure get to find out a whole lot about the areas and times that your ancestors lived in, which of course makes it so much more interesting and ‘alive’.
Very true. I have come across places and events that I initially had no idea my family were involved with.