52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

🖼️ Circus Street, Brighton Some discoveries arrive with a quiet click of a mouse, but their emotional impact lands like a thunderclap. This week’s theme, Unexpected , brought to mind one of the most surprising—and moving—finds of my entire research journey: a painting of generations of my Wadey ancestors’ home in Circus Street, Brighton. For decades, Circus Street has existed in my mind only as a name on certificates, census returns, and directories. The physical street itself vanished long before I was born, swept away in the 1930s with the "slum clearance" and to make room for the new fruit and vegetable market. Every time I tried to visualise the place where my ancestors lived, worked, and raised their children, I hit the same brick wall: no photographs seemed to exist . So when, in 2019, a post appeared on the Brighton Past Facebook group showing a painting of Circus Street dated 1933 , I almost couldn’t believe what I was seeing. There it was—my ancestors’ home—capture...