PART 1 If you live in a house older than, say, a hundred years, rest assured someone will have been born in it. In the first half of the 20th century, most people were born at home not hospital. We are, however, less comfortable with people dying in their bedroom so perhaps discovering someone died in our home makes us queasy. At least three former residents died in my current home but where? My bedroom? Mm. How do I feel about that? Fortunately, death certificates
What about the descendants?
reveal loved ones were with them at the time so my ‘ghosts’ didn’t pass away alone. My grandad b1884 died at home and we were with him at the end; he’d never haunt me so I eventually moved into his bedroom but I’m aware later residents may not be so blasé. The same grandad volubly expressed reservations about my researching our family tree and it took until 2017 to understand why (Family Tree Christmas 2017). After being missing for six months, his adoptive father’s body was discovered in the local river. A baker, Fred Mapley had had financial problems and the coroner was clearly reluctant to record suicide on the death certificate. Why was my grandfather so reticent about my discovering this? Suicide was a terrible disgrace; a
