Since I finished my little Ancestry project I have been enjoying some family history research with the pressure off. I’ve been back to researching people for fun and made some good discoveries:
I did a little research into Sir Edward Bradford Medleycott, who married one of my Mansel triplets, Maria Emma Mansel (2nd cousin 3x removed). Before they were married he travelled whilst in the Army and produced at least two sketchbooks which I found for sale online.
I found a letter written by Captain Thomas Mansel (my third great-grandfather) who wrote to The Duke of Wellington in 1830 seeking a position in the Coastguard. He mentions his ‘melancholy bereavement of losing an amiable wife in premature labour at the age of 22’. I found this letter by searching his name and the letter popped up in the collection of the University of Southampton.
I discovered that Thomas Mansel had another sister I had not previously discovered. A while ago I went through the parish register for St Ishmael where I believe most of the children of Sir William Mansel has been baptised. I must have missed Francis Henrietta Mansel somehow. I only discovered her as she was mentioned in the will of her brother in law, William Owen Brigstocke who died in 1859 and left her £2000. William Brigstocke had been married to her sister, Harriet Mansel.
A reminder to myself that there is a wealth of information outside of Ancestry!
