Wednesday, July 09, 2008
9th July Looking back at the family.
It was raining when we peered through the curtains and it seems like it will still be raining when we pull the curtains for the night.
Huh!
Summer - why have you forsaken me?
It was definitely a day to stay at home.
And at last I began to sort out some family history matters. A long time ago I had promised the family tree to Bill's cousin's daughter, Julie. When we saw her recently at her father's funeral all I could do was apologise that I had not sent anything.
So this morning I wrote an EMail and attached the Monk family tree.
I also attached one of the delightful letters which Bill had photographed which had been written by Louisa (her great grandmother) to her Grandmother Sophie.
This is Louisa nee Godfrey with William Monk - Bill's grandparents.
Louisa had a hard time. Her first husband, Abraham, died of cancer whilst she was pregnant with her 5th child (Sophie).
Two years later William, with regard to his promise to his brother, Abraham, took care of Louisa and married her, and 5 more children were born.
Some of the sons led her a merry dance and there seems never to have been enough money.
I enjoyed getting re-acquainted with the names and personalities on branches of the tree.
This afternoon I decided to look at Louisa's family - the Godfreys.
I couldn't even remember how much information that I had already.
I was pleased to find I had quite a good picture of the family back to about 1715, though there are lots of gaps still.
So I have written up the family history today.
I sometimes wish I could tell you tales of intrigue and skeletons in the cupboard.
But amongst the Monks and Godfreys the menfolk are mostly agricultural labourers. One or two Monks have laid claim to be "farmers".
They seem to have been mostly solid reliable country folk, struggling to make ends meet.
During the 20th century things have changed of course - wider opportunities for education have moved the family into different circles and to far flung parts of the world.
Louisa would know of people going to Canada and Australia of course, though this was something far outside her own experience. I wonder if she would have even heard of Thailand (or Siam as it was known). I wonder what her thoughts would be to discover she had great great grandchildren who are Thai.
And the generations before her would be amazed to know of their descendants with university degrees and owning their own houses.
But generally the family stays much the same - solid reliable people, quietly getting on with their lives.
Only occasionally do we hear tales of a few ne'er do wells - Uncle Fred, well he is another story!
Bless him - I am sure he was a bit wild for a time and he did fritter away some Monk inheritance in the 1930s.
Well, time for a drink and a catch up with Emmerdale.
We watched The Tour de France highlights earlier. Hey - news travels fast round the world these days - that would shock the earlier Monks I reckon.
Before we watched the highlights, news of the results of this race in France had reached Thailand, where Jamie reported the news back to us in England.
Today's news was exciting - a British young man won the stage and this is always one of the pinnacles of achievement in the cycling world. Well done Mark Cavendish!
I think the weather tomorrow will be a bit better.
Lets curl up in bed tonight and hope for better things tomorrow.
Goodnight.
