Fresh Links

I've been using Ancestry.co.uk for a couple of years now and I had started to become a little disheartened that nobody on there seemed to be researching any of my ancestors. Shared information and research is a real gift when looking into your family tree. So I slogged on alone.

A couple of weeks ago, however, I was contacted by an individual through Ancestry who is related to the Lockwood branch of my family. I now have names for certain unknown photographs and I've also managed to fill out the life story of one of the Lockwoods.

I've spoken of William Lockwood before on this blog. From census information, I found out that he and his sons worked as gardeners on the estate of a merchant called James Taylor. In the current day, the Lockwoods garden nurseries are located on the same site. From servant/tenants to land and business owners is a wonderful story of family progress.

Fingers crossed I can make more links through photographs and documents I have.

1911 Census again

You can now view summary books for the 1911 census in England and Wales on ancestry.co.uk. The summary includes the following information:

• head of each household
• how many people were recorded in that home, split into male and female
• address
• type of residence (e.g. house, shop)

and as with the full census reports, you can view the names of neighbours on the same page.

Apparently several women are missing from the Welsh census records for 1911 because of a suffragette boycott of the census - interesting but rather annoying if you're searching for Welsh relatives from 1911.

Dead end?

These are my paternal grandparents, Lydia and Charles Roberton at the door to the house that my father grew up in, just outside Balloch on Loch Lomond-side.

My father had always talked of his mother's great love for her church and the fact that she and her father, Robert Whittaker, had been instrumental in starting the church, St Mungo's Episcopal Church in Alexandria.

Last year I decided to see if I could find any further information on their involvement with the church. I had my grandmother's obituary and a service sheet from the church at the time of her death which talked of her devotion to the church, how she had travelled there on foot from Balloch, and how much she would be missed.

I wrote to the priest-in-charge, Reverend Sarah Gorton, telling her about my grandmother and her father and asked if there was any mention of them in church records. Reverend Gorton kindly wrote back to me with the bad news that the church records she held unfortunately did not go back that far. She suggested contacting the library in Alexandria which I did. Unfortunately they could find no records linking my grandmother and her father to the church either.

So at the moment, I'm a little stumped as to where else I could search for this information. I'm sure it's there, somewhere. I just don't know where that 'somewhere' could be. I suppose this is the problem when trying to fill in the gaps in the lives of ordinary people. There sometimes just aren't written records to draw from or if there are they take a lot of finding.

The other mystery I have regarding this side of the family is connected with this photograph (below).

I can clearly see my grandmother sat on the front row, left of centre, in the dark clothing. I think the man sat centrally and to her right is her father, Robert and that the woman sat to his right, is his wife, Jane, my great grandmother. I don't even know what this gathering of people signifies. Could it be to do with the church at Alexandria?

Some brain racking is in order while I work out what to do next.

One last thing to say this year

before it all gets too busy.

Happy new year! May it bring you what you want, but more importantly, what you need.

All the best for 2011.

Christmas memories

Some of my strongest childhood memories are of the festive holiday, Christmas and New Years Eve. That final week in the year would bring together family members who had not seen each other for a while, possibly all year round. There would be the usual gossip, banter, arguments but over it all would be a hefty helping of belonging. 

Wherever you are this year and whomever you spend the holiday with, may you have the best of times. 

Merry Christmas and the happiest of new years.

A Christmas offering

My children rush every morning (even on a school day) to open their advent calendars. Okay, I admit, it's the chocolate they're after. When I was a child, there were just pictures of Christmas related items like holly or an angel (how old do I sound?). Still, it was an exciting little offering each day in the countdown to the special day.

Ancestry.co.uk have put together an advent calendar of geneaology related hints, facts and other offerings. Even though it's now the fourth day of December, you can still open windows one, two and three.


Have a look.

What about you?

I've mentioned before about the living evidence that you can gather from your relatives and the usefulness of hoarding family documentation. I've also suggested a number of useful resources, both online and in the real world, that can assist you in your family history research. There is one other source, however, that I haven't written about yet - you. We often take it for granted that our family know all about us but this assumption can be wrong.

Monday was the birthday of my late father, Charlie. He would have been 88 years old. One of his great regrets, and frustrations, in researching his family tree was that he hadn't listened to the stories told by his father and the gossip and news that had been tossed around at family gatherings. I now find myself with the same frustration. I wish I had listened to my parents more. I wish I had asked them questions about the mountain of photographs, many of people unknown to me. All I have now are patchy, threadbare memories.

Will my children bear the same frustration when I am gone? They are happy to listen to my stories now but a lifetime is such an immense thing to track and more importantly remember. How can anyone retain it all, every second, every breath, every thought or heartbreak? Even the most romantic biographer must decide what should be included and what should not. But maybe that is the magic of memory, to filter out the unnecessary debris, retaining the gems of our past.

So I have a new project, to keep a record of my life, including the stories that I tell my children, as a keepsake for my family. At the least, it will be an interesting writing exercise. At the best, it may provide us all with some clarity.

Why not keep a record of your own life? It doesn't have to be a full-grown biography. It can simply be a record of where you lived, some brief stories that happened to you, details of the jobs you held or people you knew. Even writing down details to accompany photographs can help. Don't make the assumption that your family know it all. Fill in the gaps for them.