After a long morning's work at the computer, the first draft of the family history is done. At the moment all that has been covered is direct ancestors, going back as far as the middle of the 18th century in some lines, and from Sussex, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, London, Oxfordshire, Argyllshire, Derry, Donegal, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire, and other stopping places.
Now it needs some more illustrations, maps and photos if there are any, and then perhaps on to another section, dealing with the wider families.
And of course, straight away, I've found some more information online about two of the Chester families, and that will mean some amendment, but I guess that will always be the case, at least until I decide it has gone far enough.
Strangely, the part of the family I know least about is my father's more immediate family; he was never very close to them and there was not much said about them when I was small, and by the time I got interested in the family history, he was dead, and although there are lots of photos, naturally they are not labelled except with notes like "Jessie's husband" , or "Aunt Edie", or "Canvey 1927".
When I was a child, occasionally we went to visit Dad's sisters, who both lived 40 or so miles away, but in the 1950s that was quite a journey. Grandma lived near one of the aunts, and she was a bit frightening, being small, sharp and leathery, with a cigarette always lit. The cigarette made a yellowish streak in her otherwise white hair, and her Yorkshire pud was reputed to be enhanced by the fag ash that dropped into it as she whisked it up!
I have now discovered that, as well as being a committed Socialist and Labour party worker all her life, during WW1 she belonged to the Women's Volunteer Reserve, which seems to have been a bit of a feminist outfit. I wish I had known her better.
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Back in the present, we've had a small shower of rain - nothing like the downpour which was forecast, but hey, the forecast has been wrong before!
And the ice cream van has been mostly playing "I'm forever blowing bubbles".
1 comment:
The aim is to make copies available for the family, but the illustrations might be difficult. Anyway it's only the first 2 parts of however many, and only the first draft - there are already several alterations queuing up!
And the great grannies will have moved on long ago, and will now be doing something quite different.
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