Do my Lucas family origins stretch all the way back to pre-Roman Italy? There is a theory that the surname Lucas originates from Lucania, a Greek colony occupying land between the heel and toes of southern Italy from about 500-001BC, before it was beaten up by the Romans and suffered a diaspora across the Mediterranean? The occurrence of Lucas - in differing forms in many European tongues - suggests…
My family laughs at my interest in the TV series ‘Ancient Aliens’, shown regularly on the History Channel in my area. It has national US and some European distribution. A recent episode included a segment on Gobekli Tepe, an archeological site in eastern Turkey, which I found quite fascinating, so I hope this will explain and excuse a diversion from my normal range of subjects in this blog. Part…
My family has an early connection to Oz in the person of Nathaniel Lucas, a cousin many generations removed who arrived at Botany Bay in January 1788 on the First Fleet. The continent had been discovered and claimed by Captain Cook during his circumnavigation, but was completely unexplored when the British Government decided, on the basis of zero knowledge of suitability, to appoint Captain Philip as Governor in charge…
Soon after I was born my father decided to move his family from Warnham Court, my Grandfather’s house in Sussex, to London where he rented the house at 32 Walton Street. He had resumed his career as a stockbroker when the war ended and had been obliged to spend part of each week staying at the Bath Club, but he no longer wanted constant separations from his family. My…