Casacolori – The Colourful Past

“The poetry of history lies in the quasi-miraculous fact that once on this earth, on this familiar spot of ground, walked other men and women, as actual as we are today, thinking their own thoughts, swayed by their own passions, but now all gone, one generation vanishing into another…”

GM Trevelyan (1876-1962)

Historical Research; Data Analysis; Digital Storytelling

Casacolori combines two areas of interest: a business background in data analysis and report writing, and a curiosity for discovering forgotten, true-life stories from local history, particularly in the Early Modern 1500-1700 period. Together, these have turned into a focus on research, analysis and storytelling for the reader who wants to learn, in an engaging and relevant way, about the people who once lived in their locality centuries ago, and is looking for more than just lists of events and dates.

The objective is finding fascinating stories and connections, ideally where individuals or groups came into contact with famous faces or were caught up in key events, which broadens the appeal. This involves researching primary sources — including antique books, original manuscripts, letters, diaries, pamphlets, eyewitness accounts, old county histories, parish records, legal deeds, or court records — to uncover little-known details or new facts and viewpoints. On occasion, stories emerge from a more quantitative analysis, such as from records of household expenses or building construction, where the identities and lives of the shopkeepers and suppliers, tradesmen or craftworkers can be reconstructed.

Casacolori offers the following services, using Open Source tools where relevant:

• Historical research using primary sources
• Geneaology / family history research
• Capturing of data from original texts and conversion into XML or Excel spreadsheets
• Transcription from handwritten or printed documents (e.g. using Transkribus)
• Historical data cleansing, transformation and dataset creation (e.g. using OpenRefine; Microsoft Power BI)
• Geotagging and digital maps
• Text analysis (e.g. using Voyant)
• Digital Storytelling (writing narratives, articles, blog posts, video scripts, AI imagery etc.)
• Online publication (e.g. in WordPress; on YouTube)

For further information please email: chris.dawson@casacolori.co.uk

To read short version: The Museum of Melancholy Article (Community Life Magazine)

To read as a Flipbook: The Museum of Melancholy: The Divine Case of Mrs Drake 1615-1647

To download A5 Pamphlet as pdf: The Museum of Melancholy: The Divine Case of Mrs Drake 1615-1647