Old Leake postmaster, Tom Dracass, published several local postcards in the early 1900s,

including this one of Leake Parish Church, Lincs., published by 'T. Dracass'.

The Dracas(s) families of the Boston area of Lincolnshire, including Old Leake, Leverton, Stickney and Hagworthingham, are descendants of a family from Old Clee, near Grimsby, Lincs. Most of the Canadian Dracas(s) families are descendants of this same Old Clee family. The Wolds 'Drakes' family were also originally Dracas in the 17th and early 18th centuries, but I have been unable to link the Old Clee line to them. The Wolds family are no very far from Grimsby and road transport from Grimsby to Lincoln would have passed through the area where they lived. The Industrial Revolution caused a great need for food in the fast-growing new industrial communities such as Sheffield. The fishing industry at Grimsby was also growing fast as a result and would have needed a great deal of new labour to support it; maybe the Dracas(s) family moved there from the Wolds for work, since farm-labouring work was in the decline due to new machines.

Hagworthingham village view, published by T. Dracass.

Old Leake Railway Station, published by Dracass of Old Leake about 1925.

The children of Hagg School, in May 1917, published by Dracass, Hagworthingham, Lincs.

More postcards published by Dracass of Hagworthingham & Old Leake, Lincolnshire

31st July 1903 to Miss G. Dracas, Hagnaby Lock, Stickney, Boston (Lincolnshire)

No 8. Kirton - Willington Road published by Geo. Dickinson: the message on the reverse of this postcard reads, "The postcards here are not very nice, but will send you some pretty ones when I go back to Hull. Shured like to have seen you on Thursday, fondest love Daisy."

William Dracass (1849-1926) memorial headstone at Leverton, Lincs.

William Dracas (1824-1877) memorial headstone at Stickney, Lincs.

There is one other Dracass family in the UK and they are from Sheffield, Yorkshire; I have been unable to link them to any other trees and suspect that they came from Lincolnshire during the Industrial Revolution as part of the influx of migrants via the canal and river system supplying Sheffield with goods and food. Maybe the progenitor of the Sheffield lines met his future wife whilst delivering goods and subsequently married and settled there. The problems encountered when trying to link progenitors into others trees has normally been caused by an assumption that someone had married aged 20-25, whereas most of those eventually identified have proven to be on their second or third marriages and were thus much older; perhaps this is also the case with this Sheffield line.

The 2001 Eurovision Song Contestant, Lindsay Dracass, is a member of the Sheffield line: lindsaydracass.co.uk