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