Over a period of many years in the pre-internet days, my Mum patiently attempted to pull together the various strands of our family tree. It was a difficult and longwinded task back then. She visited graveyards, examined ancient registers, scoured censuses and drafted letters to organisations around the country and beyond in an effort to connect the dots between seemingly unconnected names, faces and dates. Whenever I'd go home for a weekend, she'd excitedly tell me of her latest discovery - who was related to who, in what way, where they were born and when they died. I, of course, nodded and smiled, absorbing next to none of her laboriously gleaned discoveries, while probably stuffing a sandwich down my neck before heading off to the pub to meet my chums. Years later, I'm left with Mum's research. Scraps of paper, scribbled notes, birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates and fading photos. The dots she painstakingly tried to connect now fill several dusty carrier bags. I'm gradually transferring it all onto Ancestry, but I wish I'd taken more notice at the time. It meant as much to Mum then as it does to me now.
This is Alice, my maternal great-Grandmother. She was born in 1856 and died in August 1927, five years before Mum was born. Her husband Charles, my maternal great-Grandfather, pre-deceased her in November 1924 aged 67. They are both interred at Bow cemetery in the East End of London
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Today's tune is an absolute beauty from Tom Waits and contains one of my favourite couplets of his: '...arithmetic arithmetock, turn the hands back on the clock...'
5 comments:
Bow Cemeteryis just down the road from me and a regular walking spot. I'll pay my respects to them both when I'm next passing through.
Great to have a photo isn't it. I rediscovered a long-lost cousin in Australia a couple of years ago who has put together a complete family tree for the paternal side of my family. An incredible piece of work so if you can keep at it you will have something quite impressive at the end of the day. I was able to add 'the stories' about many of the people in the tree he had lost touch with when he went abroad in the 1970s. I also seem to have all the grandparents photos so they were added too - Really brings the people to life. Good luck with it.
That is a marvellous photo. The pose, the clothes! Wonderful. And whenever I see old sepia images such as this one, I love to imagine them in colour too, and as current day characters, to really feel that link to them (as in those amazing examples of WWI footage - and others - which have been painstakingly colourised). I can imagine that here.
Great that your mum collected all those bits and I'm sure she'd be proud that you were doing something with them.
Thanks all. I'll keep you posted with any progress or interesting discoveries I make.
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