Week 2: Favourite Photo #52Ancestors2023

I have been deliberating about photos for two weeks now, trying to pick one.

There aren’t truckloads of photos in our family. Not “old” ones. There are plenty of more recent holidays and adventures as a family as my parents took lots of photos and slides when were kids and to a certain extent that love of photography has been passed on - at least to some. A lot of digital images though, stored in the cloud somewhere or on phones and other devices. Not as easy to pick up and reminisce about.

This one, then, made the cut.

It is taken at Sumner Beach near Christchurch, New Zealand about 1908-1909, I am guessing, based on the ages of the children. Only one person looking at the camera, or at least in the general direction, and the others with faces turned or obscured by hats. Cave Rock and the pier are in the background.

The gentleman standing is my great grandfather, John Fuller. Every photo we have of this man, he is wearing a hat that shades his face. EVERY one! John was born in Christchurch in 1866, the second son of Julius Fuller and Maria, nee Horskins. He worked for the railways and for most of his employment was based at Middleton Station.

The children are his three eldest. Edith (Edie) the eldest born 1902, at the back looking at her father or toward Cave Rock, Frank (facing the camera) born 1904 and Albert (Bert) my grandfather born 1906, bending over studying the sand perhaps.

Who took the photo? Maybe my great grandmother?

The family lived in Upper Riccarton, in the Wharenui Hamlet. To travel from there to Sumner would have been a relatively long, bumpy, probably cramped tram ride. Possibly requiring a change of tram in central Christchurch to continue on the way.

Its hard to tell which season it is from their attire. No bare feet on the sand for those kids! But there is someone in the water down the beach a bit further.

Climbing Cave Rock was a popular pastime for those who made the journey to Sumner. There had been a Yard and Mast Arm on the rock since 1865 alerting ship’s captains to the conditions when crossing the bar to dock at Ferrymead or sailing around the heads to dock at Lyttelton. I imagine climbing the rock dressed in petticoats and long dresses, carrying a parasol might not have been easy.

The pier in the background is crowded with people strolling along its length, taking in the sea air. Toward the end of the pier you can see the roof of the Sumner Lifeboat Institution, along with a slipway. The building was built in 1898, but there had been life savers and lifeboats stationed there since the 1870s.

There would most likely have been tea rooms serving refreshments, a band rotunda and possibly swings and roundabouts near to the tram stop or in the small seaside village. There were definitely donkey rides. You can read more about them here.  I had never thought about them as being an Edwardian family until reading this, but they were, and I think from now on I will try to remind myself of that.

cropped and enlarged from original photo

#52Ancestors, Week 10, Strong Woman

We don’t all have a well known inspirational woman in our family trees. We can’t all lay claim to Florence Nightingale, Maya Angelou, Mother Teresa, Marie Curie, Emmeline Pankhurst or Joan of Arc. But within all our trees there are some pretty amazing ladies, I’m sure.

Who do I choose to write about this week ?

One of my pioneer great great grandmothers who came with their husband and children to take a chance on a new life; a better life, in a country so far away from England it was hard to comprehend ? They had no idea what the land was like, whether the earth was arable and whether they would be able to grow the crops they had always grown. Many of them had not seen the sea or lived near to it; yet they were prepared to travel over it on a cramped, leaky sailing ship for about three months – and give it a go. Not like now, when we plan our holidays and escape through colour brochures and online.

Or my great great grandmother who left her apparently unhappy marriage in New Zealand and took her youngest three children to start a new life in Australia ? Not just leaving behind her husband, but ten other children, her mother, brothers and sisters. Why not just move away to another district ?

Perhaps my great grandmother’s cousin, whose family had joined the Mormon Church and emigrated from Wiltshire to Utah ? She married at eighteen to a church elder thirty five years her senior; becoming his fourth wife. Did she know that two of those wives were still alive, that one had left him, but the other was still married to him ? She stayed. When he died, and the laws of the church had changed and disinherited her for not being his legal wife, she contested his will. Argued for her share AGAINST her children – and WON.

Or my great grandmother, born in Marlborough and raised in the Horowhenua, who left school when she was about 14 to help at home with younger siblings or with her older, married sister's new families. Then married four years later and began her own family, passing on all her domestic skills to her daughters.

What about my grandmother whose childhood family life was not so dissimilar to some we see on the news today ? She still took a chance, married and made a successful family for her children with values and traditions which have been passed on to her children and grandchildren.

Then in my daughter’s paternal family; what about her 8xgreat grandmother, daughter of the Ewen (Dubh) Cameron 5^th Lochiel and 17^th chieftain, from his 3^rd marriage. Married aged about 15 to a Campbell. The two families did not always get along. How did she feel as a pawn in her father’s powerplay ? One of her sons was Colin, the Red Fox of the Appin Murders ‘fame’.

Or her 5xgreat grandmother who came to Australia with her family as shepherds and never spoke a word of English in her life. Gaelic, through and through. She endured the dry heat of what is now the ACT and likely pined for the cooler climes of the Highlands. Who brought with her five sons and six daughters, but not one son married to carry on the name.

Or her 3x great grandmother who gave birth to twins in the workhouse when she was nineteen. Named their father on the bastardy bond and returned to work as a domestic servant until she was able to remove the surviving child from the workhouse and provide a home with her new husband five years later.

So you see, it is too hard to pick one. If not for these women though, the wives of bakers, farmers, millers, shepherds and labourers, we would not be here. 

It is time to remind women everywhere that we HAVE a voice, that we ARE strong. All of us, in our own way. That we CAN do anything.

But also, remember that not all our problems are the fault of men. There ARE good men in the world, there always have been. Men who want better for their children, who are willing to take on the child of another man and raise it as their own, who are gentle and caring. We should NOT let society and the media tell us otherwise. We should have some faith in humanity as we stand up for each other.

You don't need to be a tall poppy, and an inspiration to the whole human race, you just need to be the best YOU that you can be. Who knows, maybe someday someone will look back and say "I just want to be like her."

Here’s to STRONG women

May we KNOW them

May we BE them

May we RAISE them.

-Unknown

We are the grand daughters

Of all the WITCHES

You were never able to burn.

-Unknown

I am strong

I am invincible

I am woman.

-Helen Reddy

#52Ancestors, Week 9, Where There's a Will

So, a Will, or a fiercely determined (where there is a will there’s a way) person, or just someone named William.

I have decided to go with a Will this week, and discovering it took a fair bit of determination as well.

Susanna(h) Davies was born about 1774 in or near Wellington, Shropshire, England. Her parents, Thomas and Sarah, had her baptised at All Saints, Wellington on 8 April 1774. I don’t know anything more about her until she married Thomas Hulett at the same church on 15 April 1793. Did she have siblings ? What was her father’s occupation ? Where did they live exactly ? Those are questions to solve another time.

Susanna was my 4 x great grandmother. She and her husband Thomas raised a family of seven children who were all baptised at All Saints Wellington. They may have lived all the time in Lawley, as that is the place where Susanna is recorded as living on the 1841 and 1851 UK census’. Lawley is a small village between Wellington and Malinslee, now almost on the outskirts of Telford.

Their second daughter Sarah, was my 3 x great grandmother. Until recently I had focused more on her and her descendants than on her siblings, or on discovering more about her parents.  That was until a close match popped up in my DNA results which led me back to this family and one of Susanna’s sons. That find spurred me on to find as much as I could about all of Thomas and Susanna’s children.

I have managed to track them all through census’, bdm’s and probate indexes now. Only three married and had children. In my searching though I realised when Susanna had died and purchased a pdf of her death record from www.gro.gov.uk in their current trial. Thomas had died before 1841 as Susanna is widowed on the 1841 census.

I had always thought of my Shropshire ancestors as Ag labs, workers – as opposed to landowners or tradespeople. Nothing wrong with that; the majority of us come from simple, hardworking beginnings. On the 1851 census though, Susanna was recorded as being the “Occupier of a farm 90 acres, employing 2 men.” So not the owner of the land it would seem, but financially able to employ people to work the land for her. When I came across a copy of her will on Ancestry and deciphered it with much help from 4^th cousins and my Dad, it seemed they definitely were not “just” Ag Labs.

Susanna’s will named all her children apart from Sarah, who was already married at the time of her death in May 1856, and indeed at the time that Susanna wrote her will in December 1846. Did she feel that Sarah was already well taken care of ? Or perhaps she did not approve of Sarah’s marriage. (As an aside Sarah and her husband, an Ag Lab, had married at St Peter’s Wolverhampton in July 1836 when Sarah would have been at least 3 months pregnant, their first child was baptised in January 1837.)

This is the transcription of the will (with still a few odd words to decipher)

Lawley

IN THE NAME OF GOD AMEN

I Susanna Hulett being of sound state of mind do hereby ordain this to be my last will and testament renouncing and revoking all others. First I nominate and appoint as my executor and executrix my son John Hulett and my daughter Mary Ann Hulett. Secondly I give and bequeath to my son Thomas Hulett my daughters Mary Ann Elizabeth Hulett Elizabeth Hulett and Martha Hulett the whole of my property consisting of the household furniture live and the food stock on the Farm. Also my interest in One Hundred Pounds xxxx in the Long Annuities to be equally divided share and share alike after all my just debts and funeral expenses are paid. Thirdly it is my request that as my son John Hulett has received considerably more than his share of my property that he will afford every assistance in his power to my son William Hulett. This done and executed on the eleventh day of December one thousand eight hundred and forty six. In the testimony whereof? I hereby to submit my case in the presence of the following witnesses. Susanna Hulett

Witnesses – Robert Howden Heston – W Taylor

And an image of the original copy which was made when the will was proven and probate granted

The will itself follows the prescribed pattern that is still common today. Beginning by stating the place and name of the person making the will, and that they are lucid and aware of the details they are writing, or dictating to someone to write if they are unable to write themselves. After this the first action is to name the people chosen to be the executors. They are the ones who will give statements after the death to verify who they are and that they knew the person. They may have to give affidavits to the court as well.

The second action is to name the beneficiaries and the instruction. It was here where the surprise came. Susanna may have not owned the land she was farming, but she did own the livestock, bequeathing them along with all her household furniture and food which likely included crops being grown to her unmarried daughters and her son Thomas. In addition to this she directed that they share in her interest from some annuities. Now I’m not sure what those annuities were, but £100 is a fair amount of money to have in her own right in 1856, not at all what I was expecting to read.

Then thirdly a separate instruction regarding to her son John. She states that since he has already received more than his share of her property that he takes care to assist William, the eldest child of the family. At this point I am still not sure why she made this instruction and did not include William with her other unmarried children. Perhaps he had a disability. In the 1841 and 1851 census’ William had been living with his mother and working on the farm. In 1861 he was working on Lawley Farm, employed as a Cow Man.

Then to close the will is signed and dated, and witnessed.

The timing of the writing of the will could be significant. 11 December 1846. John was married in January 1846 and his first child born later that year. John was a publican, he had been a butcher when he married. Perhaps his mother gave him some financial assistance to change career and secure a lease on a hotel. I have spied some documents in county archives that may help answer that question, but first I need to save some money so that I can make a trip there.

To add to this change in my understanding of Susanna’s social standing. John’s eldest daughter can be found attending a school in Shifnal on the 1861 census, where the teachers included French and German. One of his sons became a Mining & Civil Engineer. Investigating all that can wait for another time though.

#52Ancestors, Week 8, Heirloom

When I think about heirlooms, I often think we don’t really have any. But actually there are quite a few to choose from, now that I have thought about it a lot more.

Choosing one which I have a photo of, on hand, was the determining fact. So I have gone with this one. It isn’t actually MY heirloom. It is in the possession of my daughter.

This piece of furniture came from my maternal grandmother’s home. I remember it was always in the dining room, but I can’t remember where it was in her earlier home. Maybe the living room ? Although I don’t have many memories of being in that room as children. Before “Hi-Fi” and stereos many homes had a Radiogram. Nana and Grandad’s was a Bell. I’m not sure what year it was made but I would guess somewhere in the 1950s-early 1960s.

We kids only ever listened to one “record” over and over. It was a 45, in a yellow paper dust cover with a picture of a merry old soul on the front. That’s right “Old King Cole” ! and some other nursery rhymes, “Little Boy Blue”…I can’t remember the others; maybe “Mary had a little lamb” ? I still have it, but it is packed in a box with a whole lot of other 45s so I can’t check right now who sang, and who played the instruments, or what the other nursery rhymes were.

You put the record (or Nana did, I don’t remember that we were allowed) at the top of the spindle, then moved the arm across from the left and turned it on. By magic the record would drop from the top of the spindle to the turntable and rotate, the arm with the stylus would move across lower itself and begin to play. Magic.

If you zoomed in you might have noticed the speeds on the turntable – 15, 45, 33 and 78. There used to be a collection of 78s too, but they are long gone now. Some with bagpipe music, I have heard tell. My aunt also had a collection of Elvis records which Grandad used to tease her about, objecting to having THAT played on his radiogram – so I have been told.

Storage is built in; two cupboards to house all the vinyl. It has preset Australian and New Zealand radio stations for shortwave (megacycles) and AM (kilocycles) – long before transistor radios and the switch to kilohertz and way before FM.

Sadly it is not in working order right now, and some of the oak veneer on the exterior is looking a bit worse for the wear. It had been languishing in my uncle’s garage when my daughter discovered it and put in her claim. Always a lover of music and a trendsetter before her time the radiogram was the perfect heirloom for her, from her great grandmother.

The intention has always been to have it repaired, but so far it hasn’t happened. It has moved house with her every time since it came into her possession and sits in pride of place, storing her small but growing collection of vinyl as well as my own. Currently a small portable turntable sits atop the radiogram and plays music on lazy Sunday mornings. Buffalo Springfield, Bob Seger, Three Dog Night, Janis Joplin, Cream, The Eagles, BB King, Fleetwood Mac, Hello Sailor – sometimes I sneak in Linda Ronstadt, Boomtown Rats, John Hanlon.

The good news – I have just found a repairer who has been in business for a good length of time. I just need to get it there.

#52Ancestors, Week 7, Valentine

Valentine’s Day as a celebration hasn’t been a big thing in New Zealand and Australia until probably the last 30-40 years. It definitely wasn’t a “thing” when I was growing up, like it appeared to be on US television programmes we saw. A bit like Halloween, it was one of those odd American celebrations that I used to wonder at, in letters from my penfriends. It is definitely a “thing” now though – very commercial and over the top.

So, where to start for this topic? I looked in my tree for events which had occurred on February 14. There were a few, but they were all for very distant relatives, and mostly long ago.

I did come across someone for whom I don’t know a lot, and I have spent most of the day trying to discover more, to no avail.

Valentine Becker was born in Rüdesheim-am-Rhein, Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis, Hesse, Germany in 1846. He was the first child to Friedrich and Elisabetha Becker. I wonder if he was born on February 14? He soon became an older brother to Emelia and Gertrude and possibly to Friedrich who was born in October 1850. I can’t be sure though until I can locate those records as Valentine died aged 4 sometime in 1850. Two short years later his parents and siblings left their home on the banks of the Rhine and emigrated to Sydney Australia. In all my searching there doesn’t appear to be another Valentine in the tree perpetuating his memory or existence.

But here is another Valentine’s story.

My parents became engaged on Valentine’s Day 1957. My Nana, born in England where Valentine’s Day had been celebrated by the exchange of small tokens of affection or handwritten notes between friends or lovers since the mid eighteenth century, thought it was very apt they had chosen that date. Mum and Dad though were completely unaware of the significance – at the time. It is one of those little facts that is stuck in the recesses of my mind, and just happened to pop into the forefront when I was pondering what to write about this week.

©

#52Ancestors, Week 6, Favourite Name

So, I have said it before – I’m a bit of a name nerd. This topic “Favourite name” is hard for me. How do I choose?

Names are one of the things that attracted me to genealogy in the beginning.

Why did some families just use the same names over and over again? Why did some families give their children two names, or three names or more? Let’s face it more than three is a bit over the top, but there are some which do sound great, have a pleasing meter.

Why did some families give their children names and then call them something completely different? Why did some children get one name and others two – did the ones with only one name feel gypped? Why did some get much used names, then one sibling a really out there name?

So, which name to choose?

Alianore Mary Christina Cameron-Ramsay-Fairfax-Lucy – love the sound of that one;

Minnie Mildred – there are a bunch of girls with this moniker. But I have mentioned them before.

I am eternally grateful to my forbears that they did give some thought to the “sound” of the names they bestowed on their children and the pairing of names with each other and the surname.

Emma Louisa, my great grandmother and her siblings all had names which sounded great. My grandmother Elsie Lilian did too.

Any name that is a little different gets bonus points for me. Kerenhappuch, Roxillana, Vergetta, Zenobia, Balthasar, Julius, Mowbray, Cornelius. They make research a little easier than just searching for Ann and James. Then there are the ones with clues to the past where a surname has been added as a helpful hint for researchers.

But, the name for today is Peternell, sometimes recorded as Peternall/Peternel/ Petronel or Petronella.

Peternell Eastment was my 5xgreat grandmother. She was born in East Chinnock, Somerset about 1733. Her parents were married there, in Blessed Virgin St Mary, eleven years earlier and there are 3 daughters and 1 son appearing in the baptisms for them in the years before Peternell’s baptism on 5 November 1733.[1]

Peternell lived her whole life in East Chinnock, marrying Richard Bartlett on 7 April 1760 in the same village church.[2] She and Richard had a family of seven, all but one reaching adulthood. Two of her sons included her name in their choices for their own daughters, and at least one grandson followed suit.

Many of her grandchildren left East Chinnock. Some moved to other counties in England, others emigrated to Australia and New Zealand – and quite likely to other colonies; America, Canada and South Africa. Although she did not live to see them leave, dying in March 1816, I wonder how she would have felt.[3] Would she have understood their curiosity to explore new lands and seek new opportunities far away from the only place she had ever called home?

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^[1] FreeReg, 'FreeReg', https://www.freereg.org.uk/search_queries/, Accessed 12 February 2018.

[2] FreeReg, 'FreeReg'.

[3] FreeReg, 'FreeReg'.

#52Ancestors, Week 5, In the Census

Searching for connections and reconnecting

Back in the early 1990’s when the 1881 UK census was the only census available freely to researchers with roots in the United Kingdom, (and only on CD or microfiche) many researchers spent hour upon hour trawling through fiche after fiche in darkened Family History Centre rooms and libraries.

We had only begun piecing together information in my maternal grandmother’s family from the little information she had given away to us over the years. My Dad and I spent hours in the evenings at the Family History Centre reading church records hoping to find something concrete. Sometimes we went alone.

We knew from Nana that her mother’s family was from the “Black Country” and that she had a brother. We also knew that Nana’s grandfather married three times and that she also had two half siblings. Her mother’s brother and a half-brother (although I don’t think that Nana referred to him as such) had emigrated to the US. We knew their names and the names of their wives. We also knew an elderly aunt had emigrated to the US.

Between 1989 and 1991 some certificates were purchased from the GRO and we discovered that my great grandmother had been born in Wolverhampton on 17 July 1878[1], and that her parents were married in Dudley in a Primitive Methodist Chapel on 23 August 1875[2] (a WHAT !!?? – researching Primitive Methodism soon became another obsession). We also learned that her mother died in Wolverhampton on 5 May 1879[3]. What became of the children ?

I remember Dad’s jubilation when he returned home one day from the library with a piece of paper detailing the residents of one household in Dudley.

Residence: Paradise, Dudley (Worcs), Staffordshire, England[4]
Henry James	Head	Male	62	Leintwardine, Herefordshire, England
Elizabeth James	Daughter	Female	34	Leintwardine, Herefordshire, England
Albert Kelsey	Grand Son	Male	4	Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England
Laura Kelsey	Grand Daughter	Female	2	Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England
Amnie H Richards	Niece	Female	15	Mold, Flintshire, Wales

So, here she was, living with her grandfather and aunt…and a cousin ? To be fair, we didn’t make much more progress until the arrival of that wonderful phenomenon – the internet. I dabbled, I joined Ancestry in 2002.

One day (5 March 2003) while dabbling, I came across a post on a bulletin board -remember those ? Someone in the US had come across that same census entry. She was looking for more information about the Henry James family, last known living in Dudley with a daughter, niece and two grandchildren. I posted a reply, from work. Could it be ?

On returning to work the next morning there was a reply email. Needless to say, not much work was done that day. I couldn’t wait to get home. I replied, I sent the email to my Mum and Dad, I rang them to make sure they checked and read their email. I was dancing on air. The poster, was the great granddaughter of my great grandmother’s brother Albert who had emigrated to the US. We are 3^rd cousins. We knew they existed somewhere in the US – they had no idea we were down here in New Zealand searching the same tree.

Since then we have filled out the family so much more, broken some brickwalls down and reconnected with other members of the extended Kelsey family all over the planet. There are still some brickwalls to smash, but to think this all began with people on opposite sides of the Pacific, reading microfiche in Family History Centres and libraries.

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[1] Certified Copy of an Entry of Birth, Laura Ellen Kelsey, General Register Office, England.

[2] Certified Copy of an Entry of Marriage, Thomas Kelsey and Mary James, General Register Office, England.

[3] Certified Copy of an Entry of Death, Mary Kelsey nee James, General Register Office, England.

[4] "England and Wales Census, 1881," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q27F-JV6M : 13 December 2017), Henry James in household of Henry James, Dudley (Worcs), Staffordshire, England; from "1881 England, Scotland and Wales Census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing p. 2, Piece/Folio 2881/23, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey; FHL microfilm 101,774,821., accessed 4 February 2018.

#52Ancestors, Week 4, Invite to Dinner

The prompt for this week “Which ancestor would you most like to invite to dinner?”

Well ! There are a few contenders to choose from.

All of my grandparents – to be able to ask all the questions we didn’t ask and to share what we have already found. They’d be amazed, I think.

A couple of great-great-grandparents, the ones we know a little less about. Maybe a few even further back. But I think the obvious one to choose would be one of my maternal great-great-grandparents.

Julius Fuller.

He has been a brick wall since forever, at least 40-50 years. There were all sorts of stories about him, most have turned out to be just that. Stories. Warped with time and telling. All my other brick walls have been slowly broken down. But Julius just refuses to give anything up !

What do we know ?

·         His father was William, a miller. (source: marriage certificate & death certificate)

·         His mother Elizabeth. (source: 1851 UK census)

·         He was born in Essex (source: 1851 UK census and death certificate)

·         He, himself was a journeyman miller and later a miller in his own right. (source: 1851 UK census & NZ electoral rolls and newspapers)

·         His wife was the daughter of a baker & confectioner. (source: marriage certificate, baptismal records and 1841 & 1851 UK census’)

·         They married between census’ and then left for New Zealand in 1860 leaving no further clues in England (apart from a niece and nephew who were named for them both, shortly after they left).

·         They had only two children.

·         He had several mills in Canterbury, New Zealand

·         His wife died when the children were relatively young

·         He may have remarried.

·         He died at his son’s residence a few months after his youngest sons marriage.

The stories

·         His wife died, or left him (and went to Australia) and he needed to find a wet-nurse. WRONG, the children were eighteen and twelve when their mother died.

·         He married again, and this wife ran off with all his money (source: letter from Auntie Hilda to Mum & Dad, Intentions to Marry & church records Christchurch Library)

·         His son John lived with the Turner family down the road from his future wife. WRONG (I think) he lived with his elder brother in the house that later became the Turner’s – and Julius lived there too until his death.

So, please come to dinner Great-great-grandpapa Julius, I’ve got so many questions for you.

·         Where you really born in Rayne, Essex ? I’ve been there you know, no sign of you anywhere.

·         When were you born ?

·         Were you baptised ? Where ?

·         What was your mother’s maiden name ?

·         Do you have any siblings ? specifically one named Henry who might have gone to Australia ?

·         Was that your sister Mary Ann who married your future brother-in-law Thomas Horskins ?

·         Where were your parents from ? When did they die ?

·         Did you know your grandparents ?

·         Were you gypsies ?( your great-great-great-granddaughter’s question – not mine)

·         Where did you learn your trade ? Did you serve as an apprentice somewhere ?

·         Did you meet your nephew Julius when he toured New Zealand in his role with the Salvation Army ?

·         Did you really marry Ellen Morris ?

·         Was she the woman who went to prison in Wellington for attempting to defraud an insurance company after a fire at her millinery business ?

·         What happened at Pleasant Point to put you in arrears ? Was that Ellen taking your money ?

·         What happened to her ?

It would be great to know a little more about you.

#52Ancestors, Week 3, Longevity

Back in 1987 when we gathered, four generations of us, to celebrate Nana’s 80^th birthday she announced after she blew out the candles that

“I’m the oldest in my family. No-one has got as far as eighty before.”

Quite a logical statement, all things considered.

Nana’s parents had died aged fifty-seven & sixty-one and she never knew any of her grandparents. They had, all four of them died before her parents married. Her grandmothers both left young children at thirty-one & thirty-six and her grandfathers were still relatively young (by today’s standards) at forty-seven & sixty-five.

By the time of our celebration in 1987, both of her sisters had already died, leaving only her younger brother to potentially reach and exceed this grand age. Sadly though, he too predeceased Nana by just 6 months, the following year.

She did often talk about her Aunt Lizzie (who turned out the be Aunt Bessie, but that is another story). She would say she was a “remarkable woman who went to America on her own when she was SEVENTY!” So maybe? Turns out Aunt Lizzie was closer to fifty when she emigrated, but at seventy-four she did get a little closer to the elusive eighty.

Oh Nana, the things we have learnt in the years since you left us, as we have researched further. You would be so amazed.

Three out of eight of her great grandparents were in their eighties – not bad for people born in the early 19^th century. Even more surprisingly six out of sixteen of her great grandparents passed eighty – two even going further and into their nineties! People born in the mid-18^th century!

So, when I put these ancestors together with those from other branches of Mum’s family and from Dad’s, things are looking promising. A sister of my great great grandfather was just two months short of her 102^nd birthday…in 1895! Living in the country can’t have been all bad back then.

In a lecture this week, life expectancy was discussed. Since then, there has been a fair amount of googling too, on my part.

When we see statements to the effect that life expectancy at birth was 33-40 in the 18^th century and 40 in the early 19^th century, it is easy to forget that that average age for adults was being driven down by the high infant mortality rate. It wasn’t that everyone would only make it to forty, there would always be exceptions. It was just that there were less people dying in the 40-100-year range than there were between 0-2 and 2-10 years of age. Reaching your tenth birthday improved your life expectancy dramatically.

I think I must have realised this before – because it sounds so logical now. But I don’t think I had considered it fully. How fortuitous that it was this week, coinciding with this blog topic.

How lucky we are today to have access to immunisation and improved health care for older persons.

#52Ancestors, Week 2, Favourite Photo

This is a family photograph of my grandmother’s family. It was taken about 1912. I am not sure where it was taken either. (The questions I should have asked will haunt me forever.)

George Timms 1877-1939 was born in Milverton, Royal Leamington Spa and lived his entire life within 2 miles of his birthplace. He began his working life as a groom, then a coachman and motor car driver. His father had been a carman too. Later in life George became a taxi cab driver.

Laura Ellen, nee Kelsey 1878-1935 was born in Wolverhampton and raised in Dudley by her grandfather and aunt until her father remarried when she was eight years old. Before her marriage to George she was a housemaid employed by the Holt family who lived at Oaklands, a large house on Kenilworth Road, Lillington.

They married 1 July 1901 at St James the Great, Old Milverton. George was the coachman at Cranford House which is located at the other end of Kenilworth Road. I’m not sure how they met, but location and social standing offers a few clues. For about seven years they lived above the stables in the coachman’s house at the rear of Cranford House.

In 1909 George left his job as coachman and moved his family into the village of Milverton where he became a motor car driver. By this time they had three daughters. By the time of the census in 1911 they had moved 32 Milverton Crescent West, off Rugby Road. It was here a few months later that their son was born. This could be the location of the photograph, the family group gathered outside their home. The alternative location is 6 Stamford Court – which no longer exists – but is the address my grandmother remembered from her childhood. George and most of his siblings had started their lives at 6 Stamford Place too.

But what of the occasion ? Who knows ?

My grandmother’s recollection of the photograph was that the grimace on her mother’s face was because her baby brother had “wet her knee” – no waterproof outer layer to diapers back then.

What you cannot tell from the sepia photograph is that the MC1R gene is very strong in this family. Laura and their three daughters were all redheads. Research tells me that to have red hair you need to have two copies of the gene, but that that might mean only one in four children would have red hair. That theory blown, I wonder if George and his son were also redheads ? It looks that way with the colouring of the photograph.

Laura May, Elsie Lilian, Violet Georgina and baby George Albert James. Named for his two uncles who had gone to America, my grandmother said. George and Albert James Kelsey. Though it could be debated that George was for his father and that Albert James was for just one of his uncles. I like this photo because it shows them as a family group, clean and well dressed. A few short years later family life would be much different.

The photo was in the possession of George after his elder sisters had all grown, married and emigrated, while he remained in England. It seems though that when visiting some fifty years after they had left England, one of those sisters took the photo with her. Oops. Thank goodness for good cameras, photographic reproduction and digital technology - now we are able to share it with as many of their descendants as would like to have a copy.

#52Ancestors, Week 1, Start

This is the beginning. A start. My new blog challenge for 2018.

Hope I can stick at it. There is a lot of writing going on in my life right now.

Assignments, job applications, emails, blog posts (in no particular order).

Some prompts for this topic included focussing on me, or the person/s who got me hooked on genealogy, someone who started a business…

So, this might be my only chance to be an ANCESTOR.

I have only one direct descendant and I think the branch stops there. Life takes many turns though, so one day I might need to revise that.

Maybe I will be the aunt, grand aunt, great grand aunt, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, 6^thor 7^th cousin who people will refer to in the future as they begin their genealogical research.

Who Am I ?

2^nd, 4^th,5^th generation New Zealander – depending which grandparent you focus on.

First child

Big Sister

Educated

Mum

Friend

Aunt (great grand aunt even !)

Born in Hamilton, New Zealand. A city since 1945, with a river delineating it into Hamilton East and Hamilton West, and a lake. An Inland city, the centre of commerce serving a large rural community. A city surrounded by wide open spaces. Less than an hour to the West Coast and 90 minutes to the East.

Went to school, joined Brownies, competed in figure roller skating competitions, did gymnastics, learnt piano…

Moved to Wellington. Capital city since 1865. A coastal city, a little bit shaky, and a tad breezy. But with one of the prettiest harbours in the world and stunning on a good day (no-one ever remembers them though). Coolest little Capital in the world.

Went to College. First job. First overseas holiday.

Alternated living on both sides of the Tasman for ten years or so. Then a much longer time back in Aotearoa before relocating recently back to Australia for study.

Genealogy ? When did that start ?

Probably with that question in Social Studies 

“How many generations New Zealander are you ?” 

And then it just grew. Dad had always had an interest in family history. He told me recently he used to make lists of who all his cousins were (he has a lot). I just tagged along.

Names have always been a fascination for me. I used to make lists and marvel at the few which were exceptions to the norm. What inspired parents to step away from the Mary/Ann/Sarah and James/William/John lists and choose names like Kerenhappuch, Violet and Peternel or Theophilus, Julius and Balthasar. Some of them will have been biblical choices, others linked to the fashions and trends of the time.

Stories piqued my curiosity – the great great grandmother rumoured to have left her family; great great grandfathers who had more than one wife. Incomprehensible to a nine year old from a “normal” nuclear family. Then came the internet and the whole thing exploded. So many late nights hooked in cyber space.

And then along came genetic genealogy - learning how to interpret DNA results and use them as another secondary source to verify the researched paper tree. (I'm getting there.)

I hope you are ready to learn about 51 of the people in my tree - I hope I can find enough to write about 51 of them !

 Think like them. 

Put yourself in their place. 

Be a detective. 

Never leave any stone unturned.