Latest Posts
Reclaiming the Narrative (Part 10 of 10)
This final post reclaims the power of identity, challenging the historical suppression encoded in parish registers and urging personal agency through modern tools.
The Actons of Lichfield: Bloodline or Brand? (Part 3 of 10)
Dozens of Actons appear in Lichfield parish records, but few can be reliably linked. Is this a family — or a brand assigned to pauper children by the system?
Surplus by Design (Part 4 of 10)
Lichfield’s pauper children weren’t accidental. They were surplus by design — managed through the Poor Law as labor, ledger entries, and institutional throughput.
From Ledger to Lockup (Part 5 of 10)
When pauper children grew up, they became problems. Lichfield’s Actons show how names assigned for throughput ended in prison, asylum, or oblivion.
Ghosts in the Tree (Part 6 of 10)
The Actons of Lichfield may never have existed as a family. Their name was reused across pauper children. Genealogy meets identity fraud — by design.
The Throughput Machine (Part 7 of 10)
The poor weren’t cared for. They were processed. Church, Crown, and economy fed on pauper children. Lichfield’s Actons reveal a machine, not a family.
The Names That Weren’t Theirs (Part 8 of 10)
The surname Acton in Lichfield wasn’t inherited — it was assigned. Poor children were given names by clerks, not kin. Genealogy meets systemic labeling.
Citizen Erased (Part 9 of 10)
The Actons weren’t a family. They were a function. This is what happens when identity is assigned, not inherited — and you are documented only to be forgotten.
The Paper People of Lichfield (Part 1 of 10)
Were the Actons of Lichfield a real family—or administrative aliases for pauper children processed by the Church? We begin uncovering the paper people.
Throughput by Design (Part 2 of 10)
Bastardy bonds and illegitimacy shaped the Lichfield Actons. Were they a family — or simply a surname assigned to pauper children for recordkeeping ease?