Holyland-one-name-study blog

This month’s topic is “discovery” – so what better to write about than what I found on the Discovery section of the National Archives website? Many years ago, when I first started exploring family history, my mother told me about a solicitor’s letter that she possessed amongst old family papers. This letter, addressed to Mr J W Holyland (JWH) of 186, Charnwood St, Leicester, and posted in 1911, referred to a claim against the estate of Thomas Bale, deceased. In short, the legal outcome was that JWH and Mrs Rawlings were “the persons entitled to the residue”. John William Holyland was the older brother of my great grandmother Eveline Holyland; he seems to have been something of a reprobate and had spent his life in poverty. You can read his story (and see his photo!) in a separate post (1). I knew the Bale surname as well; it was the maiden name of John William Holyland’s paternal grandmother. As a newbie to family history research, I had no idea how to take this further. Imagi