We’re very fond of Polly Hickling, who Discover Your Roots founder Alvin Hickling uncovered whilst researching his own family tree.

Polly left home in South Yorkshire at about 16 years of age and moved to North Yorkshire appearing on the census as a pupil teacher. From there she moved to Cheshire and then back to South Yorkshire where she held several teaching roles but eventually ended up back in her home town as Headmistress at a small school. After 13 years in the post Polly returned to North Yorkshire when the school closed down. 

While Alvin was researching this part of the family, coincidentally a Local Heritage Day was held at an old church next to the school where Polly taught. He attended the event Heritage Day and was rewarded by discovering a display board upon which Polly was mentioned several times.

Amazingly it was revealed that they also had the original school log book which covered all 13 years that Polly was in charge. The book had been discovered just a few weeks previously at the back of a storeroom in the new school which had replaced the original that Polly taught at.

The find was an absolute gem, and we were fortunate to be allowed  to photograph the full book….all 230 pages of it ….before it was deposited with the local archives. The contents now have pride of place in the Hickling family history.

Further research led to the discovery of  living relatives previously unknown to Alvin. After visiting them in Derbyshire he is now in possession of several photos of Polly and her family, of which our favourite appears on our homepage as an inspiration for our work.