Category: archive

1976 When Santorini was remote, welcoming, and cheap

(long read) There was at time, not long ago, at least in the six thousand years of human settlement on the Greek island of Santorini, that I and my roommate were the only two people sitting on a stone bench in the town of Fira watching the sun set over the Aegean Sea. I can’t […]

The archives from Bahia

While researching the work of  my fourth great grandfather , William Pennell,  while British consul in Bahia, and his vice consul, his nephew, William Follett, the question is what is the Brazilian side of the story? I did find an academic reference that showed the correspondence between the British Consul and the then government of […]

Captain’s log 1819108

  I’ve just completed five days of research for my Pennell Projects at the British National Archives at Kew. (And a couple of weeks earlier I spent the afternoon at the British  Library in London). William Pennell was a diplomat and a spy under diplomatic cover from 1814 to 1832.  That meant I had a […]