Publications
Shocking Affair in Islingword Street, by Dennis Plank, published December 1999 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 13 no. 8, article, pp.268-276) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14880] & The Keep [LIB/501178] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.
Preview:Albert Edward Plank died on 9th February 1912 of coal gas poisoning at the age of 24. This was less than 2 months after marrying Ellen Body. The article covers the initial reporting of the death in the Brighton Gazette, the inquest, the funeral and the subsequent inquiry.
Death Certificates: Ignore these at your peril, by Dennis Plank, published March 2004 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 16 no. 1, article, pp.44-45) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15860] & The Keep [LIB/508834] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.
Preview:The importance of death certificates in the author's Plank and Barton ancestry
Do you believe in coincidence?, by Denns Plank, published September 2005 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 16 no. 7, article, pp.308-309) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15860] & The Keep [LIB/508840] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.
Preview:Plank and Lintott coincidences
A life cut short, by Dennis Plank, published September 2009 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 18 no. 7, article, pp.376-377) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15860] & The Keep [LIB/508974] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.
Preview:What is the connection between the poet, Gerard Manley HOPKINS. and my great-great-uncle, William PLANK? Read on to get the answer.
A note from the past, by Dennis Plank, published December 2010 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 19 no. 4, article, pp.188-189) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15860] & The Keep [LIB/508845] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.
Preview:When going through my father's effects after his death in 1982 1 came across a handwritten note from 1875. Whilst it did mention someone with my Surname it concerned a lady I had not come across who had a very common name. As this was during my genealogical 'youth' I put it to one side. Twenty-five years later I looked at the note again.
Here is the text, as written:
"I Mary Ann BROWN who is about leaving England for Canada Wishes to leave in care of my Mother Mary PESCODD any Furniture and Effects and every thing belonging to me that I leave behind me in England and at her decease to be left in the care of my Niece Mary Ann PLANK until I returned back to England. Witness my hand this 23rd day of August One Thousand Eight Hundred And Seventy Five.
Signed Mary Ann BROWN x her cross
Witnesses William Owen WILLSON, George ANDERSON"
This proved to be an interesting (yet frustrating) piece of research. Mary Ann PLANK (nee CLARK) was my great-grandmother who had married John PLANK just five months earlier on 22 March 1875 at St Peter's Church in Brighton.
Here is the text, as written:
"I Mary Ann BROWN who is about leaving England for Canada Wishes to leave in care of my Mother Mary PESCODD any Furniture and Effects and every thing belonging to me that I leave behind me in England and at her decease to be left in the care of my Niece Mary Ann PLANK until I returned back to England. Witness my hand this 23rd day of August One Thousand Eight Hundred And Seventy Five.
Signed Mary Ann BROWN x her cross
Witnesses William Owen WILLSON, George ANDERSON"
This proved to be an interesting (yet frustrating) piece of research. Mary Ann PLANK (nee CLARK) was my great-grandmother who had married John PLANK just five months earlier on 22 March 1875 at St Peter's Church in Brighton.
A railway worker, a steamer, the RNVR & WWI, by Dennis Plank, published December 2011 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 19 no. 8, article, pp.365-367) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15860] & The Keep [LIB/508849] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.
Preview:My grandfather, George PLANK, died at Brighton in 1965 aged 79. I was 13 at the time and my memories of him were as an old man. The word 'genealogy' was not in my vocabulary and I knew nothing of his life. Even by the time my father died in 1982 (after the genealogical bug had bitten me) I only knew that George had worked as a railway goods porter at Brighton all his life.