2022 - 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Weeks 3 and 4 (Incorporating #MyGenealogyStory)

 Week 3 (Jan. 18-24): Favorite Photo and Week 4 (Jan. 25-31): Curious - incorporating  #MyGenealogyStory 

When I first saw the final two week topics for January, I wasn’t completely sure what I was going to write about; did I even have a favourite photograph? But then I saw another prompt suggesting writing about #MyGenealogyStory on Twitter (courtesy of Daniel Loftus @DanielGenealogy) and after reading Paul Chiddicks blog post about how and why he got started (here) I decided to try and combine the three.

If you read my Week 2 post about finding a Family Bible, you will already have some insight into why I decided to begin to research my family tree.  For me it was all about being curious about who I was/am and where my roots where from (especially on my paternal side).

Cover of  the Family Bible

Writer's own

Having spent over three years from the age of 6 moving house copious times in a strange foreign country, the Communist Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic, having only limited contact with family back home, and then losing my dad at a young age (10), meant I felt a step apart from most of my family.  My dad was an only child of elderly parents, his father had died when I was 6 months old and my grandma didn’t really like to talk too much about that side of the family, saying only “there had been a second marriage” that made it difficult.  I now know that my Great-Grandmother had died when her children were very young and her husband, my Great-Grandfather remarried and had three more children, following his death his widow took her three children across to the US, but my paternal grandfather and his siblings remained in England.  Combined with the fact that Grandma's side of the family were a typical rural Lincolnshire family, with a “life happens just get on with it” point of view it meant that I didn’t really experience any sharing on family stories from my paternal line at all.  On my maternal side, I was at least blessed with a bit more knowledge of the family history, my maternal grandmother’s family were descended from residents of the Yorkshire village of Duggleby, (there is a family tree tracing that line back to the time of the Domesday book - here) but again there is less information about my maternal grandfather’s side of the family.  I have an uncle and aunt that I can ask questions of, and I was very lucky that my aunt recently passed me some paperwork, including a small address book that belonged to my maternal great-grandfather.  All that aside, I have found that there is still some inconsistency and mistruth, woven into the few stories I have been given.

Therefore the motto of the #Curious part to the #Foundations of my journey into my family history is, as I’m sure it is for many “Who am I and where do I come from?”

Royalty free image via depositphotos.com

I think my research into the family tree truly began not long after the break-up of my first marriage; sitting by myself once the children were settled, the question of ‘Who am I’ was quite large in my mind and so I tried to piece together what I could jotting down notes here and there and asking my mum, who was still with us at that time about her family and grandparents.  She made notes for me of what she could remember, notes which incidentally I’ve recently come across again, and it’s worth noting how family stories and what we think of as factual information can actually be incorrect.  My mum told me that her grandfather had been married twice (true), that his first wife had died (false) so he was free to remarry; this was important as they were from a strict Catholic background. I’ve since found that he actually divorced his first wife on the grounds of her adultery, which would perhaps explain his subsequent move to a new area with his second wife. I’m not convinced it would explain the 3 year reduction in his recorded age though, which was even carried through to his funeral notice, perhaps he just mis-remembered? That 3 year difference, combined with the fact his surname had been incorrectly spelt, Cairns instead of Kerrin, made finding his Glasgow birth record difficult, but I did manage to track it down eventually.  The fact that the Scottish records have additional information such as parents marriage made me certain I had got the correct record.

Bundle showing some of my mother's notes and the 2006 printouts of my previous research

Once my children had both started school, and with the advent of online records becoming more available I started researching with more earnest.  Alongside my mother’s notes mentioned above, I’ve also come across a lot of printed searches and small family tree entries I made in 2006.  Again, I can see the lessons I have learned since.  On some of my early forays into online research, I made the basic, but easy, mistake of taking a suggested tree at face value; if their details for the members I knew were correct tallied, I would often add the details for the extended family members. I know, I know, rookie error!! But we live and learn, and I have managed to tweak and correct the errors as I have come across them in my recent research foray which began when I turned 50. My current aim is to write up the lives and details of my grandparents and great-grandparents.  I decided that once and for all I wanted to produce the best researched family tree I could for my, now adult, children. They may not presently be that interested, but as I am the last person who can at least give some personal context to the family stories, I want to make sure that if they do develop an interest, they have something meaningful to refer to.

I’m returning to the prompt of Curious again here, as part of the next stage of my genealogy journey. My desire to bring meaningful, realistic and valid stories to my ancestors lives led me to join the wonderful Curious Descendants Club, the brain child of the equally wonderful NataliePithers. Within the club’s pages lie a vibrant, supportive forum of other family historians, and a whole range of workshops and challenges. There is a wealth of information amongst the members of the club, which includes people from across the globe, who are able to provide suggestions for locating records in areas we may not be used to. For example, until it was mentioned by one of the members, Jenny, I was unaware of Trove, an amazing body of Australian online papers, gazettes and magazines, and surprisingly it’s free.  I took a look, and have managed to use the site to locate funeral notices, court reports and some articles giving a small insight into some of the social life for an Australian great-uncle. The main focus of the club is to help us to hone our skills in writing about the various individuals on our family trees, and there is always someone to offer valuable feedback on a piece of writing.

 

 

Sample of records downloaded from Trove (https://trove.nla.gov.au/)

Due to a frustratingly long flare up of the costochondritis and intercostal neuralgia that I experience as part of my fibromyalgia, I have been experiencing, what even for me, is a prolonged period of inactivity over the last few weeks. However, my wonderful husband, who has been watching my renewed enjoyment of genealogy research, bought me a belated Christmas/early birthday present of a photograph scanner, he then brought down the boxes of old photographs that have been living in the attic for far too long, putting them in front of me with a smile.  Incidentally it was within these boxes that I also found mine and my mother’s notes referred to above.  He knew that this would help me take the next step in reaching the level of research I need to in order to produce a comprehensive family record.

Some of the photos brought down from the attic

As I began working through them it was incredibly hard to work out who a lot of the people were and which side of the family they belonged to, I had for the most part kept any from my maternal and paternal sides separate but there were some that had slipped into the wrong pile. Cue many distracting moments trying to expand on faces without making them too blurry and flicking between one photo and the next to see if I could recognise any similarities! I believe that I have now correctly ordered them into the right family groups, but I still have many more to scan.  

Whilst going through this process I was also trying to see if I could decide on what would be my favourite photograph for the purpose of the #52Ancestorsin52Weeks prompt.  I lost count of how many times I changed my mind!!  

Would it be the one of my dad in his early RAF days when he took part on an inland waterways canoeing challenge with some colleagues?  

Newspaper clipping from Yorkshire Post and Photograph showing my Dad stepping into his canoe (1962)

From Writer's Private Collection

A beautiful photograph of a young lady dated approximately 1910-15 which I believe to be my paternal Grandma?

From Writer's Private Collection

Or even a delightful photograph of a young boy (a 1^st cousin 2x removed) sitting in a pedal car in 1920s America?  

"Cyril in Omaha"

From Writer's Private Collection

Decisions decisions!! In the end the photo(s) I’ve chosen to be my favourite, are a completely unexpected choice.  Amongst all the photographs were several wedding pictures of couples where I had no idea who I was looking at. One of these though was embossed with the details of the photography studio which was located in Sunderland, and there was another, old picture of a young girl also marked with a (different) Sunderland photographic studio.  I knew that my paternal grandfather was from Sunderland, but didn’t have any information about his siblings also from that area.  I decided, although I knew it was a long shot, to put those photos on the Sunderland Antiquarian Facebook page, in the hope that someone might recognise the people in the pictures.  

Three photos shared on Facebook

From Writer's Private Collection

Amazingly, just two days later I was in touch with Jen, the daughter of the young girl in the photo who was also the bride in the other photos.  Jen explained that her maternal grandmother was the sister of my grandfather, my great aunt Sarah, making Jen my 2nd cousin!! So far we have exchanged brief information, and I’m hoping that at some point over the next year I can meet her and her brothers face to face.  Jen, sent me copies of two photos, one of which shows our great-grandparents and their 5 children, it’s just amazing, and has totally stolen the title of my favourite photograph!!

Photograph showing L-R William, Sarah (Jen's Grandma), Eveline, John (my Gt-Grandfather), Ann, Mary (my Gr-Grandmother) and Richard (my Grandfather)

Private Collection - shared with Jen's kind permission.

So, where am I now? Where has my curiosity brought my genealogy story?  My initial careless meanderings through family history is evolving into more thorough genealogical research, into which I am beginning to incorporate real context using additional record sources. I have a new-found favourite photograph together with some newly found relations; and I have a proper goal of what it is I am wanting to create, and why.

I am excited to see where my journey takes me next!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2022 – 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 1 – Foundations

When I saw the prompt list I thought I knew what I was going to write about for this prompt, it was to be about the family bible that piqued my interest in discovering more about my roots, who I was and where I came from. But that unexpectedly changed today, 3^rd January 2022, following an impromptu visit to my step-father. The ensuing conversation reminded me of my real reasons for wanting to research and write about my heritage, the desire to add context and meaning to my forebears, to breathe life back into the lives they lived.

For background, my father (an only child) died when I was 10 and my mother met my step father when I was around 13 years old. She would spend evenings and weekends with him but other than odd occasions, like Christmas, I only lived in the same house as him for around 6 months when I was aged around 17, as my mother maintained a separate house for much of their early relationship. I write this just to illustrate that although he is a very important member of my family, whom I love dearly, his own family history normally feels very separate to mine.

However, since my mother passed in 2008, I have found our conversations have run along different lines with much talk of his early years growing up in Belfast in the 40s and 50s.

Today was one such conversation. I had asked after his sister and he launched into a series of tales about her and his 4 brothers. As he described his childhood home near the Grease Works, his words reminded me of descriptions I had read about the houses my paternal Gt-grandparents will have lived in, at the newly developing Hetton-le-Hole colliery, but hearing him talking from memory gave true context to the words I had read. Likewise, when he told me of the lack of coal for the fire and cooking range, the lack of electricity and the outside toilet, it made it all the more real. And how do you understand from mere words on a page the truly cramped conditions of these two-up two-down houses? Certainly nothing made me feel it more than my step-father telling me how he as the eldest shared a bed with his next two brothers whilst the 4^th shared with their younger sister and the last born was in with their parents, but when the youngest needed to ‘graduate’ to the siblings’ bed, my step-father decided to join the RAF in order to have a bed all to himself. That said, whenever he was on leave that resulted in him sharing a bed with three brothers rather than the two when he had left.

As he talked about his parents and his maternal grandfather, he told me one of his nephews was researching their family tree and had already made some new discoveries. I smiled to myself, knowing that his nephew would already have a wealth of stories handed down to him coming from such a large family and would surely have no difficulty in creating context around all the discoveries he is yet to make.

However the smile was also for me and my own discovery today, in the way in which someone from a completely different area to my ancestors, someone who never knew them, can still give very real and vibrant context to their lives, and for that I am truly grateful.

Therefore my #52Ancestors Foundation has to be storytelling and conversation.

Hetton-le-Hole miner's cottage 

Inside typical miners cottage 

Photographs courtesy of Hetton Local and Natural History Society http://www.hettonlocalhistory.org.uk/teachers/teacherpage.html 

Write a Life Challenge

Back at the end of November/early December Natalie Pithers set us a 10 day challenge over in the #CuriousDescendantsClub.

The aim was to select an ancestor and a particular challenge they may have faced in their lives, then to focus in on that aspect and write about it. We could look at the wider aspect of their life, the times they lived in alongside the social and family setting to give some background and context to the decisions they may have had to make. Obviously, although we would be able to ascertain the definitive facts we had to use a bit of creative license to help us put life into the situation. 

I chose to write about my Gt-gt-grandmother Mary and my Great-Grandfather John who was born out of wedlock. 

I'm sharing a small extract of my writing below : 

4th September 1871

Mary raised her long skirt as she squatted down in front of the fireplace to face her young son John, not wanting it to trail in the ash she had just been about to sweep up, and telling herself it was the smell of soot in the air that was making her eyes sting. She smiled sadly as she reached out gently to brush one of his dark curls away from his bright blue eyes, recognising how much like his long gone father’s they were. Her mind briefly thought back to the last time she had seen him, the night before he had left. He had seemed so true, those same eyes sparkling with excitement as they spoke of the future they would have together; he was going ahead, initially to lodge with family, a cousin, but told her he would bring her to him when he had been able to secure a cottage for them. It made sense at the time she recalled, they had been meeting in secret and Ann’s marriage to William Hawkey was already set for the following year, and Mary needed to stay and keep house for her still grieving father who had lost his eldest son John, his wife Mary and daughter Catherine in the space of a twelve-month.

She’d understood of course that it would take time for him to establish himself, and she didn’t see him for two months, when he attended the Methodist Chapel in Hetton-le-Hole with his parents, he smiled at her and winked, but she didn’t get chance to speak with him. She was kept busy in any case, cooking and cleaning, fetching water, and helping her sister Ann with her dress, and time soon passed, before she knew it her betrothed had been gone five months and she had only seen him once from a distance. She didn’t notice at first, but one day Ann was complaining of a belly ache and asked her if she had any spare cotton, the realisation came to her.

Firstly she had managed to speak to the father’s mother, asking matter of factly, as they were both fetching water, how he was getting on, over in East Rainton. His mother beamed a broad, proud smile, ‘He’s getting wed, met a right bonny young lass. It’ll be in the spring just as his bond’s due again as he’s hoping to get them a house.’

Mary nodded weakly, wishing that they hadn’t kept their courting secret, ‘how lovely, our Ann’s getting wed then too’ whilst inwardly she thought ‘oh yes, I know all about the house plans. ‘

She had been so afraid when she needed to speak to her Da, had waited a few more days to be certain, but as she raised her eyes to his that night in front of the fire, where she had expected to see anger, she saw sadness and acceptance.

‘We’ll fetch Mrs Daniels round and let her have a look at you, I wish yer Ma was still here.’

And that was it, no more was said. The neighbours obviously knew, some looked at her and shook their heads, but Mrs Daniels let it be widely known that the father had gone to East Rainton for work but had died shortly afterwards, which although only partly true, seemed to appease most of them.

Now, two and a half years later, most of them that knew had moved away too, and things at home had developed in their own way. John had taken to calling his grandfather Da, as the rest did, and called her Maw-maw, not quite being able to say Mary. She had loved him, fed and cared for him of course, but could see the sense in her father’s words when John was just six months old, ‘You still need to make your own life, and not be stuck here with me. It’s like my John’s come back to me, and he’ll be with family so you won’t need to worry. You will know when the time is right.’ And now, it seemed the time was right. Ann was long gone, with bairns of her own, young William was soon to go down the pit himself to work alongside Da, and Mrs Garret (a childless widow) had agreed to move in in her place and keep the house while both men worked.

And so Mary found herself on the eve of her wedding, having to bid her young son farewell....