{"id":3739,"date":"2017-08-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-19T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wotif.com\/vc\/blog\/?p=3739"},"modified":"2020-04-02T05:34:17","modified_gmt":"2020-04-01T19:34:17","slug":"travel-for-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wotif.com\/vc\/blog\/real-travel-stories\/family\/travel-for-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I travel for family\u2026 and MURDER"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi! My name is Cassie and I\u2019m Wotif\u2019s copy and content writer. You may remember me (or my puns) from scandalous blog posts like ‘10 reasons NSW is better than QLD<\/a>‘ or that awesome Wotif email<\/a> you got the other day. Unless it had a typo. That was someone else.<\/p>\n

Someone who doesn\u2019t make typos, waiting for the Tube. London, 2007.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What you don\u2019t know about me \u2013 probably because we\u2019ve never met \u2013 is that I don\u2019t just write about travel. I\u2019m also working on my first book \u2013 a true crime novel about my ancestor, Mary Ann Britland.<\/p>\n

Mary Ann Britland was the first woman executed at Strangeways Prison in Manchester, England. In 1886, she was convicted of the poisoning murder of her best friend, Mary Dixon, and strongly suspected of havingalso<\/span> poisoned her daughter, Elizabeth Hannah Britland, and husband, Thomas Britland. I\u2019m related to Mary Ann Britland through her marriage to Thomas Britland \u2013 he was my fifth cousin, six times removed.<\/p>\n

Manchester, 2007.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a writer, true crime fan, and history nut, it\u2019s not surprising that I\u2019d want to write about Mary Ann Britland. It\u2019s an excuse for me look at old death certificates and learn how different poisons work (Wotif team, be warned: I know too much). But what may surprise you is how much researching and writing about my family inspires me to travel.<\/p>\n

London, 2007.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By the time you read this, I\u2019ll be in the UK, hopefully enjoying my third or fourth snakebite and black. I\u2019m going on a three-week combined holiday and research trip, which I\u2019m calling a researchiday (that\u2019s trademarked, by the way. It\u2019s going to be bigger than bleisure). I\u2019m spending a bit over a week in London<\/a>, a week in Manchester<\/a>, and a few days in Edinburgh<\/a>, and my itinerary is split 50-50 between Very Important Research and Very Important Fun. Although it\u2019s all fun to me. And how could it not be when the itinerary includes:<\/p>\n