Genealogy Blog 

A unique leisure attraction on approximately 10 acres of land. Harperley POW Camp known as working camp 93 was established in 1943 initially to house Italian P.O.W.s. In 1944 the Italians were dispersed to make way for German POWs deemed to be of low security risk. The camp ceased to function by summer 1948.

The camp consists of 49 purpose built huts which include 2 exceptional buildings,the first is a theatre which has a purpose built stage,orchestra pit and auditorium rising up in broad steps with the remains of decorated interior panels still surviving. The second building is a canteen, a building set aside for relaxation and social activity which includes a series of painted wall panels showing typical German scenes, the Rhine Valley, animals, woodland and lakeland scenes.In 2002 english heritage gave the camp ancient Monument status making Harperley the only one of its kind in England.

Auction: £900,000.00 / $1,450,000.00 / 1,000,000.00 €

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When Denis Cox wrote an urgent letter to the scientists at the Woomera Rocket Range as a child, he implored them to write back.

It never happened, and at some point, he forgot all about the letter.

Imagine his surprise then when another man tracked him down after finding the letter on the National Archives website, 52 years later.

Now it seems he may even receive a letter back from rocket scientists.

When Mr Cox wrote the letter as a child, he thought it was too important to go to just any old bod in a white lab coat.

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File this under odd symbolism. Lonnie Holloway, of Saluda, S.C., was buried in the front seat of his 1973 Pontiac Catalina on Tuesday. Both were lowered into the grave by a crane.

Watching The Associated Press video of the funeral and the emerald green Pontiac being lowered into the earth, it almost seemed like a funeral for the brand, which General Motors killed off in June.

Mr. Holloway, who died last week at age 90, outlived Pontiac by only a few months.

"He said, 'They’re going to have me with my hat on, driving down the road,' and I said I’m going to be there. That’s what he wanted. I know that sounds crazy," Malcom Jones, a friend of Mr. Holloway, told WLTX.com.

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Personal Urns are a new and exciting way to memorialize your loved one.

Now we can create a custom urn in the image of your loved one or favorite Celebrity.

New advances in facial reconstruction and 3D printing have made it possible to have an urn made in the image of anyone from just a photograph.

Never forget a face. Personal Urns combine art and technology to create a family heirloom that will be cherished for generations.

From mourning cards to shrunken heads, eight pastimes people no longer pursue.

In Victorian times, for example, women wove human hair into brooches, hair ornaments, picture frames and chatelaines (a key chain that hooks onto a belt), to commemorate dead people or loved ones away at war. The practice was especially popular in the South during the Civil War, says Scott Reynolds Nelson, a history professor at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. Especially prized were bits of hair clipped from the locks of celebrities of the time, like Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis.

The mother of all morbid hobbies may be collecting shrunken heads. From the late 1800s until the 1930s, Europeans traded muskets for heads shrunk by the Shuar people of the Ecuadoran and Peruvian jungle, says William Jamieson, an ancient and tribal art dealer in Toronto.

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A mass for William and John Higgins, whose father drowned them in a quarry near Winchburgh, was held in Edinburgh University's Catholic chaplaincy.

When the bodies were found, two scientists took some body parts for research without telling the family.

Sir Sidney Smith and Harvey Littlejohn removed limbs and organs before sealing up the remains in coffins for burial.

Parts of the boys' bodies were held by Edinburgh University until Wednesday's service.

The boys were murdered in 1911 but it was not until their bodies were found 18 months later in 1913 that some of the body parts were taken by the scientists during the post-mortem examinations.

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A retired ice cream seller is celebrating today after living in the same flat for a century.

The 107-year-old moved from Italy to the flat above the ice cream parlour his father ran when he was seven and has remained there for 100 years.

Alfonso De Marco was born near the southern Italian city of Cassino in 1902 before joining his father Guiseppe in 1909 in Eastbourne, East Sussex.

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A 138-year-old slice of cake thought to be the only surviving item from the wedding of one of Queen Victoria's daughters has gone on sale.

The cake was made for the marriage of Princess Louise and the Marquis of Lorne and is on sale at an antiques fair in Birmingham.

The one-inch cake is wrapped in antique parchment dating back to 1871.

The princess's wedding to a commoner was controversial and is said to have outraged the Prince of Wales.

Antique dealer John Shepherd, who bought the cake from a private seller, is asking for £145.

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As a prospective princess, Kate Middleton's character has stood up to the closest scrutiny. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for her ancestors.

A biography of Prince William's girlfriend reveals that her great great great grandfather was a jailbird.

According to the 1881 census, 55-year-old Edward Thomas Glassborow was doing hard labour in London's Holloway Prison at the time.

Unfortunately prison records have not survived from that era, so it is impossible to know why the father of seven, who worked as a messenger for an insurance company, was behind bars.

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