This book, recently published by GypsyGenealogy.org., was inspired by all the family stories told to the author, Vivien Cooper, by her relatives over many years. A direct descendant of the famous Matty Cooper, the ‘Royal Ratcatcher,’ whose family appear in Queen Victoria’s notebooks, Vivien recounts tales both amusing and tragic … Continue reading →

‘Death of a Gypsy,’ proclaimed the Cheltenham Mercury of 29th May 1875, reporting: On Saturday afternoon an inquest was held . . . at the Plough Inn, Staverton, on the body of Hercules Holland, a travelling tinker and grinder, who died in a field near there on Thursday. Deceased, who … Continue reading →

Siberetta, the wife of Charles Brinkley, had been named after her grandmother. Formerly a Welch, she was born in Suffolk in 1852, and registered as a Ceberetta Welch in the June quarter of that year, in the district of Risbridge. Siberetta was the daughter of James Welch, tinker, and his … Continue reading →

When Thomas Oliver, otherwise Stanley, was removed from Downton, Wiltshire to Landford, in the same county, on 14th December 1784, it identified him exactly, and indicated his mother’s maiden name, too. He had been baptised at Landford, Wiltshire, on 28th November 1762, the son of Richard and Elizabeth Stanley. Richard … Continue reading →

At Teynsham in Kent two Gypsies, Elgani and Frederick Lover (sic), baptised their daughter with her mother’s name on 15th July 1759. In fact they were Lovells, and given the mother’s unusual first name, she may have been a Stanley before her union, since the name Algenny was popular amongst … Continue reading →