I spend a lot of my time snuffling around the damp undergrowth of the internet, like a pig looking for truffles. Sometimes you find them and sometimes you don’t. And sometimes you can pick up a faint scent. Often it is fascinating stuff but it doesn’t lead anywhere. You know there is a story there, but there isn’t quite enough.
As I have said before, a gravestone is really important too. There is no point having a story but having no headstone. That has been the central part of the project since we started . I have been known to cheat when I have found a really good story. I did this with Martha Nash from Swansea. We know where she was buried but the grave itself has disappeared. It was such a sad story I wanted to publish anyway. But generally there isn’t much point if I haven’t got a headstone or a substantial story. But, as I say, sometimes…
I came across this little story some months ago. It comes from 1607, which means that a grave is almost an impossibility. It might have survived if it was that of a nobleman, but the grave of an ordinary person? No chance.