My Theme for the A-Z Challenge 2023
I am sure, that like other family history bloggers, we see ourselves in the role of KEEPER OF THE FAMILY ARCHIVES - discovering the past, preserving the present, recording for the future and keeping contact with relatives.
It started with a shoebox of old photographs and memorabilia in a cupboard at my widowed grandfather''s house. It was a grand treat to be allowed to look through them. I especially loved the postcards that Grandad has sent back from Flanders Field in the First World War. Grandad (William Danson of Poulton le Fylde, Lancashire) was one of eight brothers, five of whom had served in the army and whose photographs featured among the collection. Grandad, like many men, would never talk about the war, but my aunt related tales of her uncles.
I never knew my grandmother who died when I was a baby. Grandad was a taciturn countryman, who was working as a cattle man at the local auction mart when he was called up in 1916. He was not given to flowery language, so the emotions expressed through these cards seemed out of character, but revealed his closeness to Alice. In contrast the pencilled messages on the back were very prosaic.
Cards below sent to my mother and aunt in 1917 and 1918
My interest though was most inspired by this photograph below of my great grandmother Maria Danson, nee Rawcliffe, here with her eldest granddaughter Annie Maria Danson, my mother's cousin.
Maria looked a formidable figure and her Christian name had echoes of a Spanish flavour, whilst her surname Rawcliffe reflected typical Lancashifre grit. There was also an apocryphal story that "Granny's dark looks" came from Spanish sailors who settled in the fear after their ship wrecked off he coast.
Eventually
this collection came to me and formed the basis of my Family Archive
and contributed to many blog posts - which led to more exchanges of
memories and photographs from third cousins who discovered my blog.
Reconnecting with Relatives
Funerals
can be a time when families come together and such was the case when
I chatted to my mother's cousin A. who I had not seen since I was a
child. I told her of my family history hobby. She later kindly supplied
me with memories of her father - my great uncle Bob, a postman in
Blackpool, a 1928 press cutting of another cousin's wedding, and
importantly contact details for other cousins, including P. now living in the English Midlands
What a wonderful reception I got - P. outlined the family memorabilia she had up in the loft and wondered what to do with it, offered to come up to Scotland to visit us, and my husband I made a return visit the next year. The result of making contact, I received:
- Memories of my grandparents William and Alice Danson - my grandmother died when I was a baby. It was somehow funny in the nicest possible way to hear my grandparents referred to as Uncle Billy and Auntie Alice.
- Memories
of my great grandmother Maria Danson, nee Rawcliffe (1859-1919),
passed down through her daughter, Jennie to Jennie's two daughters.
- Photographs of Maria that I had not seen before.
- The only photograph I have of my great grandfather James Danson (1852-1906), sitting merryly in Poulton old stocks.
- Memorabilia
of the two brothers nearest to Jennie in age, including two poignant
letters written by her brother George, just weeks before he was killed
on the Somme in 1916.
- I
touched personal possessions (and photographed them) of my great grandmother - her tea-set, bought from collecting coupons in a "Daily Mail" offer; and her jewellery including items
brought back from Malta by her son Frank, who was hospitalized there in
the First World War.
- I was given a collection of some 50 postcard photographs of Jennie's friends and their families, with
many of the men in World War One uniform, so dated from c.1916. It
must have been the practice to exchange such cards between friends,
(the Facebook of the day!) and Jennie had thoughtfully written their names on the reverse.
Gertie Roskell - a popular surname in the Fylde region of Lancashire.
With one I received a friendly chat, a memory of me as a child in pigtails, a request to do research into a sideline of the family, but nothing more in terms of memorabilia. Sadly the contact with Australian relatives petered out after initial e-mails.
I had already persuader my father to write down his memories of his Boyhood and Beyond, and his War Time Experiences.
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A letter written by my father to my mother during the war - found after their deaths.  A telegram sent by my father to my mother. The frank on the reverse showed it was sent on December 31st 1941. Dad was then serving in the Codes and Cipher Branch of the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall, London and had witnessed the Battle of Britain over London earlier in the autumn of 1941. ************* As for my own contributions - I have written a series of articles and blog posts "I Remember When..... - Memories of my Childhood and Beyond. ************* Postscript: I have done my DNA, and although the results led to contact with distant cousins, they did not add much in terms of new material to add to my family archives. ****************** ONTO L for LONG-LIVING  |
This is such an encouraging post! I have also been contacted by cousins who shared research finds and photos -- and even non relatives who, through their own travels, have stumbled upon photos or artifacts related to my family and sent them along. And on my Irish line, a group of cousins and I share research discoveries. Kudos to you for being the archivist!
ReplyDeleteConnecting with kin who have stories can be amazing, and even better when they have photos or memorabilia. It can make all the difference to our family archives.I hope you have a delegated keeper of the repository for the future.
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