Saturday, March 08, 2008
8th March Great Aunts Uncles Nieces Nephews
I have been talking about generations lately.
The generations can seem to slip apart very quickly.
Yesterday Bill's brother brought us a couple of photos of a great niece of ours, Kayleigh. She is the second child of our niece Michelle.
It led me to thinking about great aunts and uncles.
When I was a child I was aware that I had quite a lot of them and I was accustomed to hearing my parents and grandparents passing on bits of news about them. I rarely actually met them (well, not that I can remember) and would have regarded them as old people far removed from my own world.
But the names were interesting to me and I felt them to be a secure part of my roots.
I suppose we met Great Aunt Mercy reasonably often, for she and Great Uncle Ern lived in Crawley in a little house at County Oak, which has long gone. Great Aunts were always busy and glad to chat and gossip with the other adults. I would have talked more with blind Great Uncle Ern who knitted dishcloths on big wooden needles and a thick cotton yarn. Soon, I was doing it too.
And Great Aunt Nellie lived close to the point where our family set up camp each summer, so we saw her often too. I was more interested in her grandson, Cyril, who was dark eyed and had a motor bike.
Gr aunts and uncles were mysterious - especially the 2 sisters Mary and Ruth who went to Australia in the 1920s. There were letters from them. How wonderful that through the powers of the internet we are in touch with some of Mary's family now.
I was also fascinated by the strange notion that my mother had an aunt who was about the same age as her. Great Aunt Marge is living still. I have met in adulthood, but not as much I would like really, for Marge would have memories of Mother.
Bill knew almost none of his great aunts and uncles. Many had passed on before he was born.
The one he did know was Great Aunt May (nee Brand) who for some reason agreed to look after him during one summer at her home in Manchester. Bill was not comfortable with Great Aunt May. He felt as brow beaten and hen pecked as her little husband who spent as much time as possible in his workshop in the cellar.
There was Great Aunt Jane of course - Bill's father had told us so little about her. But it was enough to know that an internet contact was Jane's grand daughter, now in Canada. Now thanks to Joyce we feel we know Jane quite well. His Great Uncle Jack lived on in Charlwood, but there seems to have been no further contact once Bill's father's parents had died.
We both have a great Uncle who was killed during WW1. In fact I have 2. We have visited my Great Uncle Harry's grave and also seen Bill's great uncle Alfred's name on the Menin Gate in Ypres. We have yet to pay a call at the resting place of my own Uncle Alfred - next time we cross the channel perhaps.
There are 2 great uncles on the 1901 census that nobody from the family (like Bill's Uncle Bill) had ever heard of. Where did they go?
And there were some poor babes who didn't survive for very long.
I suppose these impressions of our great aunts and uncles are how our own great nieces and nephews see us - if they were to ever think of us at all.
A count up says that we have 24 of them at the moment, some we have never met and mostly we have only met one or two times.
On my side of the family there are 4 who may or may not be in America - grown up children now of our nephew Cameron. Clayton did attend his father's funeral, but he has disappeared from our world again.
Robert, son of Michaela is much closer at hand, and we have met him I think 3 times now. He is about 2 and a half in age, so hopefully we will become known to him, as a couple of old great aunts and uncles.
We have met Bill's sister Julie's 2 grand daughters quite a few times - Emily and Gemma and I would at least recognise them. The others are just names on the birthday calendar.
I think that if I were to develop a project connected with family history it should not be, just now, to add names of truly unknown people, but get to grips with our own great uncles and aunts and to gather information about our great nieces and nephews.
A project for the summer maybe - certainly not today.
We both feel like curling up and hibernating today - both drained by the effects of the bug - cold, sinus infection - call it what you will.
Right, time for a cuppa - plenty of sport on TV.
The Welsh have won at rugby yet again - the Jones Boys have done well!
If there are family members reading this who would like as much information as we have or manage to find out, including any photographs then please get in touch to monkland@tiscali.co.uk.
The generations can seem to slip apart very quickly.
Yesterday Bill's brother brought us a couple of photos of a great niece of ours, Kayleigh. She is the second child of our niece Michelle.
It led me to thinking about great aunts and uncles.
When I was a child I was aware that I had quite a lot of them and I was accustomed to hearing my parents and grandparents passing on bits of news about them. I rarely actually met them (well, not that I can remember) and would have regarded them as old people far removed from my own world.
But the names were interesting to me and I felt them to be a secure part of my roots.
I suppose we met Great Aunt Mercy reasonably often, for she and Great Uncle Ern lived in Crawley in a little house at County Oak, which has long gone. Great Aunts were always busy and glad to chat and gossip with the other adults. I would have talked more with blind Great Uncle Ern who knitted dishcloths on big wooden needles and a thick cotton yarn. Soon, I was doing it too.
And Great Aunt Nellie lived close to the point where our family set up camp each summer, so we saw her often too. I was more interested in her grandson, Cyril, who was dark eyed and had a motor bike.
Gr aunts and uncles were mysterious - especially the 2 sisters Mary and Ruth who went to Australia in the 1920s. There were letters from them. How wonderful that through the powers of the internet we are in touch with some of Mary's family now.
I was also fascinated by the strange notion that my mother had an aunt who was about the same age as her. Great Aunt Marge is living still. I have met in adulthood, but not as much I would like really, for Marge would have memories of Mother.
Bill knew almost none of his great aunts and uncles. Many had passed on before he was born.
The one he did know was Great Aunt May (nee Brand) who for some reason agreed to look after him during one summer at her home in Manchester. Bill was not comfortable with Great Aunt May. He felt as brow beaten and hen pecked as her little husband who spent as much time as possible in his workshop in the cellar.
There was Great Aunt Jane of course - Bill's father had told us so little about her. But it was enough to know that an internet contact was Jane's grand daughter, now in Canada. Now thanks to Joyce we feel we know Jane quite well. His Great Uncle Jack lived on in Charlwood, but there seems to have been no further contact once Bill's father's parents had died.
We both have a great Uncle who was killed during WW1. In fact I have 2. We have visited my Great Uncle Harry's grave and also seen Bill's great uncle Alfred's name on the Menin Gate in Ypres. We have yet to pay a call at the resting place of my own Uncle Alfred - next time we cross the channel perhaps.
There are 2 great uncles on the 1901 census that nobody from the family (like Bill's Uncle Bill) had ever heard of. Where did they go?
And there were some poor babes who didn't survive for very long.
I suppose these impressions of our great aunts and uncles are how our own great nieces and nephews see us - if they were to ever think of us at all.
A count up says that we have 24 of them at the moment, some we have never met and mostly we have only met one or two times.
On my side of the family there are 4 who may or may not be in America - grown up children now of our nephew Cameron. Clayton did attend his father's funeral, but he has disappeared from our world again.
Robert, son of Michaela is much closer at hand, and we have met him I think 3 times now. He is about 2 and a half in age, so hopefully we will become known to him, as a couple of old great aunts and uncles.
We have met Bill's sister Julie's 2 grand daughters quite a few times - Emily and Gemma and I would at least recognise them. The others are just names on the birthday calendar.
I think that if I were to develop a project connected with family history it should not be, just now, to add names of truly unknown people, but get to grips with our own great uncles and aunts and to gather information about our great nieces and nephews.
A project for the summer maybe - certainly not today.
We both feel like curling up and hibernating today - both drained by the effects of the bug - cold, sinus infection - call it what you will.
Right, time for a cuppa - plenty of sport on TV.
The Welsh have won at rugby yet again - the Jones Boys have done well!
If there are family members reading this who would like as much information as we have or manage to find out, including any photographs then please get in touch to monkland@tiscali.co.uk.
