Y is for Yeoman, Youth and Yuletide.

My contribution on Y as we draw near the end of Aona's inspirational A-Z challenge at
http://www.gouldgenealogy.com/2012/05/take-the-family-history-through-the-alphabet-challenge/.


 

Y is for:

Yeoman - an English term meaning a man owning his own farm, such as my great great grandfather Henry Danson of Trap Farm, Carleton, Lancashire.   

 One definition:

 

A yeoman differed from landed gentry in one major way. They both owned land (though the yeoman often much less,  but the yeoman would cultivate the earth himself,  whereas the landed gentry usually employed servants to do this. 

 

A rather dilapidated Trap Farm, taken c.1998
13 people lived here in the 1851 census - the immediate family including an uncle plus two servants.


 

Youth - old photographs of children are always appealing.   On the other hand, one of the most striking, sad aspects of researching family history is the realisation that infancy  was  precarious, with many children succumbing to illness at an early age.

Below are two photographs (unfortunately unidentified)  from the large collection of my Great Aunt Jennie Danson of Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire.

 

 

Yuletide - the ancient winter festival, held in northern Europe.  It  came to be adopted as part of the  Christmas festivities - best remembered in the symbol of the Yule log

Here are two old seasonal cards in the collection of my cousin, Stuart.

t

 

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