"Comedy" is the theme of this week's "52 Ancestors Challenge. I cannot say I had wide choice of comic moments in my family history, but this story from my father we found amusing.
My father John Percy Weston (1912-2003) had written down for me the memories of his early life in Broseley, near Ironbridge, Shropshire.
One Saturday when I was working as an errand boy, two directors from Birmingham Football Club came to see Dad and Mum to sign me on for the junior team - they refused, saying I was too young to be away from home. I was not told about this until later and sulked for a month!
But a bit of glory followed, when my school team entered a cup competition. I was vice-captain and we got to the final - and won the cup, the first ever for Broseley.
One of the supporters took a carrier pigeon along with us and set it loose at the end to let Broseley know the result and to prepare a welcome, as we were bringing home the cup! And the pigeon did get there first"
The pigeon was obviously an ancestor of Twitter!
Apparently
a photograph was taken of the team's success, but no pictures of my
father's early life passed down the family. I have only two photograph of him prior to his meeting my mother in 1936. Family memorabilia
(including Dad's church choir and football team photographs) were
thrown out by a widowed relative. How sad!
Unfortunately I only had a broad indication of the year for the event, which made tracing it in local newspapers difficult. In an effort to find out more, I contacted Broseley Historical Society who put my enquiry on their online newsletter. I am delighted to say I heard from three members of the society with more personal memories - and even better I now have a photograph of the winning football team, with my father on the middle row right, identified as Perce Weston. I always thought he hated his middle name Percy, but he seemed to be known by that as a youngster.
Unfortunately I only had a broad indication of the year for the event, which made tracing it in local newspapers difficult. In an effort to find out more, I contacted Broseley Historical Society who put my enquiry on their online newsletter. I am delighted to say I heard from three members of the society with more personal memories - and even better I now have a photograph of the winning football team, with my father on the middle row right, identified as Perce Weston. I always thought he hated his middle name Percy, but he seemed to be known by that as a youngster.
This is the earliest photograph I have of my father and I am so grateful to the Society for filling this gap in my family history.
My
father retained his love of football all his life. He was a great
follower of Wolverhampton Wanderers and Aston Villa and was an avid watcher of matches on
television, right up to his death at the age of 91.
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to read
posts from other bloggers taking part in the
2019 "52
Ancestors" Challenges.
I love this type of story. It probably makes its rounds at every family reunion. I love that you've preserved it on your blog.
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