2022 – 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 2 - Favorite Find

 This week I’m turning my attention back to what I was going to write about in Week 1, and as the overarching theme for January is still Foundations it is still very much on topic. Hopefully you will allow me the indulgence of the first three paragraphs giving a bit of personal background before I move on to the find itself.

Growing up I had always had a sense of not fully knowing where I belonged. I spent three years from the age of 6 living in first Prague, Czechoslovakia (as it was then, now the Czech Republic) and then The Hague, Netherlands due to my father’s work, during that time we lived in 7 different houses, never knowing exactly when we would be moving again due to the regulations preventing Czech nationals renting out their homes. When we did return to England, a few months before my 10th birthday, it was sadly due to my father, an only child, having terminal cancer. We returned to the Lincolnshire bungalow that his parents had lived in since it was built, the place where he was born an where my paternal Grandma still lived. Sadly, a month after my birthday he passed away. Understandably, my mother, still not 40 and with two young children, crumbled and we were mostly left to fend for ourselves with the help of Grandma (then aged 80) who was also mourning the loss of her only child. Other than my paternal Grandma, who was my rock, I didn’t have any ‘elders’ to really look to, and without dwelling too much on the difficulties, I learnt very soon that I had to fend for myself, and so I always considered myself an outsider.

As for other relatives my paternal Granddad had died when I was 6 months old, my maternal Grandmother passed shortly before I was born, and my maternal Grandfather died when I was aged 7. My paternal Grandma did have a sister, my Great Aunt Ivy (aged 75 when my dad died) but she lived around 20 miles away and no-one in the family drove so we seldom saw her. My mum’s brother and sister, although both lovely, and thankfully still in my life now, were a lot younger than my mum, both lived a long way away, and obviously had lives of their own too. Grandma sadly passed when I was 23 and had never wanted to speak much about family history, I think the grief she felt from losing her husband and then my dad was still very raw with her.

So, against this background, I just tried to ‘get on’ with living my life, as many people do, trying not to think too much about the bigger picture of ‘Who am I? Where do I come from?’ I got married, perhaps in haste, and had my two children, both now adults, and then divorced from their father. Unfortunately, we had to sell the family home, but it as a result of that, that I made my favourite find, and the one that set me off on the voyage of discovery that is genealogy and family history.

When my paternal Grandma passed away, and we had to clear her things I ended up with an old cardboard suitcase in my attic, I only had a quick glance inside and saw a few books and what-nots, but didn’t really have a lot of time to think much more about it then. However, once the house was sold and I was living in my new, rented home with my two kids (then aged 2 and 4) I had a little more time to myself so one evening once they were asleep I turned my attention to the case.

Wow! It was actually so much more than a humble cardboard suitcase; it was a virtual treasure chest of family information that I had previously been unaware of. Firstly, were some certificates, my paternal Granddad’s for passing a St John’s Ambulance course in 1917 when he was still living in Sunderland and working for North Eastern Railway, and another to show he was a Special Constable in 1939, there was also a photograph of him in a football team at Durham University, it felt unreal seeing him as a young man. Also in the case were some old books that had been given as school prizes, but I didn’t recognise any of the recipients’ names, other than the surname of Marshall which was my Grandma’s maiden name.

Then, best of all, was an unimposing looking black book, tattered and missing its spine. At first I thought it was something like a dictionary, but then I ran my fingers over the worn cover and read the words ‘Sold by the British and Foreign Bible Society for use in Sunday Schools Exclusively’ I opened the front cover and found a list of names and dates. I realised it was a family bible, dating back to the time of my 3 x Gt-Grandma, Naomi Wells (1814-1846) and showing the dates and times of each of her 6 children’s births from 1835 to 1844, sadly her passing is also recorded inside the front cover. Turning to the back I then found details of her widowed husband’s second wife, Martha Colton (1829-1867) and all 10 her children with my 3 x Gt-Grandfather Edward Winter (1810-1880) sadly her death is recorded the day following the birth of her last child, a son Peter, who is shown to be ‘In Trouble’, although I can currently find no records within GRO relating to his birth or death. Other than the recognition that Naomi was a family name that had been passed down to the eldest daughter in each generation for as long as my Grandma, also Naomi, was aware, I knew nothing of this branch of the family, and that realisation made me realise just how little I did know about the history of my family on either side. I’ve since found my 4 x Gt-Grandmother was a Naomi too, but not been able to go back to the previous generation to discover whether she was the first.

At the time of the discovery, money was very thin on the ground for me, and the internet was in its infancy, this combined with looking after my two young children I didn’t have much time to do any research, let alone have much of an idea of where I could look anyway. I was very lucky however, that my Great Aunt Ivy was still alive, and despite being in her 90s incredibly lucid, she explained who the family in the bible were and how we were related. She was also able to tell me that the school books belonged to two of her other sisters and one brother, whom I had never met or heard of, but she didn’t tell me much more about them, it seeming just a fact of life to her that they had died young, but obviously in hindsight I can see that it was just that she had lived with that knowledge a long time, and it was nothing new to her. My Great Aunt Ivy actually lived until just a month before her 102nd birthday and I feel very blessed that my children got to meet her many times.

Great Aunt Ivy on her 98th Birthday (still in her own home) with my two children (my private collection)

The bible now sits above my mantelpiece, with an angel on top, on what I call my Ancestor Shelf, which holds photographs of both mine and my husband's departed family members.

This bible then was the very beginning of my genealogy journey; I think (hope!!) that I have come a long way since then. At first I started by mimicking the format of the details recorded there, dates of births and names, and collated a very long list, but a list without true context. It is this lack of life and substance in my records that I am currently working to correct, with the aid of the many resources now available, and the marvellous examples of people such as Natalie Pithers (Curious Descendants Club) and Amy Johnson Crow (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks) and all the other genealogists I am meeting along the way.