52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Thomas Wood of Midley and Romney Marsh Church ruins at Midley, Romney Marsh Some ancestors announce themselves with drama: court cases, scandals, migrations, or military service. Others leave only the faintest trace, their lives measured not in headlines but in a steady quiet life. Thomas Wood (my paternal great great grandfather), born in the lonely hamlet of Midley in 1826, belongs firmly to the latter group. Yet his story, rooted in the windswept expanse of Romney Marsh , is no less compelling for its quietness. Born Into the Marsh Midley is barely a place at all, it suffered very badly from the Black Death plague in 1346-53 which almost certainly led to the demise of the village.  By 1801, just 23 people still lived there, by the time Thomas was a teenager in 1841 the census shows a increase to a total of 53, 23 aged over 16 and 30 children. Today it is little more than a name on a map, a scattering of dwellings between Lydd and Old Romney , surrounded by miles of open sky a...