Visit to where my ancestors lived in 1778

by Glynn Burrows
(Norfolk, England)

I am so lucky living in the same area where my ancestors have lived for centuries and, one of my most special finds was when I located the actual cottage where my five times great grandparents were living in 1778. The map that showed the village, was an estate map which detailed the main occupiers of the cottages owned by the estate.

Although the actual cottage has since been demolished, I am able to go and stand on that actual spot and know that my ancestors lived there all that time ago. The best thing about it is that I lived just 250 yards from that spot when I was growing up and my parents still live there. My Mother's family has lived in the village since at least 1620, but 1778 is the earliest date that I have the exact spot in the village where my ancestors lived.

To think that my ancestors knew the house I grew up in, they knew the people who lived there and they probably walked by our house on the way to work on the farm, that is what family history is to me.