Haggbridge.com – Never let truth get in the way of a good family story!

Ford Mustang Versus Shuttle Atlantis!

We had never experienced a rocket launch. It was the summer of 2011 and purely by coincidence we had flown from England to visit family in Florida in the same week STS-135 was scheduled to launch. This was the 135th and final mission for NASA’s Space Shuttle program. The NASA shuttle program had been the space program of my life....

Clark/MarchettiComments: 2

De732f643a25702e9d4bafb06da277aa1ffecd28 Edited

Storwood & The Popplewells

In the mid 2000s I clearly remember a telephone call from my mother when she shared with pride and incredulity that a neighbour, Peter Popplewell, had introduced her as ‘local.’ It had only taken thirty years. Hagg Bridge House, Storwood, York, was our home from the mid 1970’s onwards. My parents had returned to England from South Africa with one...

BainbridgeComments: 0

Dick Hudson & Guinness World Record

Guinness World Record for Longest Place Kick, Rugby Union. Our great uncle, Richard “Dick” Hudson, was born and raised in Bridlington, a coastal town in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Attending Bridlington Grammar School from 1938-1944, Dick excelled at Latin and rugby. By the time we visited the Hudson family, they had settled in Newton Ferrers, Devon, where Dick was...

HudsonComments: 0

463604519 10159898945900047 7772470015290122268 N

Brenda, James, & The Giant Quake

Loma Prieta Earthquake October 17, 1989 – Where were you? On this day 35 years years ago I was 8 years old. My little brother James and I were at our babysitter’s house with a few other kids. We were watching the “Battle of the Bay” baseball game. Oakland A’s vs. San Francisco Giants. They had a big oak table...

MarchettiComments: 0

Diamond Wedding Timothy McDonald Elizabeth Edgar

Lizzie Edgar & The Bottle Stopperers

Our Great Grand Aunt, Elizabeth Edgar (1870-1956), was born in Newcastle Upon Tyne, Northumberland, the third of twelve children. Aunt Lizzie relocated to York with her parents, Ann LUMSDOM and John Thomas EDGAR, who worked as an engine fitter on the railways, until she entered domestic service for a family on Coney Street. At the age of 21 she married...

Bainbridge/EdgarComment: 1

Clark’s of Darlington

The Clark family of Cumberland worked for generations as agricultural labourers before the industrial revolution brought mining and iron foundries to the Lake District. We can trace our family back to our 4th Great Grandparents, John CLARK & Jane CHICKEN, residents of the rural village of Kirkbride, Cumberland, in the late 18th century! Their son Joseph CLARK (1820-1895) became an...

Bowness/Clark/Drewery/WandlessComments: 0

Hudson’s of Bridlington

The Hudson family have been traced back as far as the mid-18th century and the towns of Bradford & Bingley in the West Riding of Yorkshire. However at least four generations called Bridlington home, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, where the family were carpenters and building contractors. Our 2nd great grandfather, Joseph Henry HUDSON, expanded the construction business to...

Barlow/Fussey/Hardacre/HudsonComments: 0

Captain Luther Little’s Tall Tales

Our 4th Great Grandfather, Luther LITTLE, from the Bacon family line was a New England sailor, naval officer, and privateer. Hailing from Marshfield, Plymouth, Massachusetts, Luther’s career at sea spanned the Revolutionary War from 1771-1799 but represented only the first half of his life. In his 85th year, Luther sat down with his granddaughter and recounted the tales of his...

LittleComment: 1

Bethel Thompson Elizabeth Sigsworth Kirkbymoorside

Thompson’s of Kirkbymoorside

The Thompson family were farming Kirkbymoorside, aka Kirkby Moorside, for generations before our 3rd Great Grandparents, Bethel THOMPSON (1800-1872) married Elizabeth SIGSWORTH (1803-1867) in Kirkbymoorside, 1828. The adorable couple are portrayed in their later years in the above photographs from the 1860s. As freehold farmers the couple employed two men to work their 55 acres as agricultural labourers, in addition...

ThompsonComments: 3

Mayflower In Plymouth Harbor By William Halsall

Richard Warren & The Mayflower

Our 9th Great Grandfather was our first European ancestor to arrive in North America on the Mayflower! Richard WARREN (1585-1628), most likely heralding from Therfield, Hertfordshire, was one of the few Merchant Venture financial backers who signed on to make the Mayflower voyage as a member of the Leiden contingent of Pilgrims. The Pilgrims sailed from their self imposed exile...

LittleComments: 2

Marchetti & Gracia Family Tree

The Marchetti & Togliatti families from Balangero, Northern Italy, immigrated to Utah at the end of silver boom in the early 20th Century before relocating to the Santa Clara Valley in California. The Italian vineyardists married into more Italian vineyardist families, Casella & Bossa, just in time for Prohibition. Safe to say the Tijuana business boomed and the entrepreneurial ambition...

Gracia/MarchettiComments: 0