Grassy Settings for Family Fun - Sepia Saturday

This week’s prompt photograph from  Sepia Saturday features friends enjoying  a picnic.  I have only one match of a picnic, but take a look at other photos of family enjoying themselves on grass.  

 

A 1950s  family picnic  with my parents, aunt,  brother  &  myself.   

   

In the back garden -  left my first photograph with my father, and right with my mother  and our kitten.  A pity no one thought to move the dustbin from the shot!  Late 1940s.  

 

 

In the same back garden, with my father enjoying a smoke. 

 

 

 My first photograph with my brother.

   

 

        

 At my grandparent's house with my grandmother , the rather frail figure with her three daughters, peggy, edith and Kathleen (my mother).  c.1940. 

                

                       

      The same garden.  lLttle me with my aunt a

 

 My parents  looking very smart - the occasion my graduation from Edinburgh University,  in 1965.

 

The family photogaph I took with me,  as I  set out for a year in the USA on a library exchange scheme, 196.

 

 

 

 Enjoying the sun on a break on Nantucket Island, Mass. USA 

 

Onto more recent times:   

 

1981 and the back garden of our home in Hawick in the Scottish Borders.  It is summer and this is my first attempt (and virtually the last)  at cooking on a barbecue, but my efforts fell foul of the weather - hence the umbrella. Did I really need that watering can there as a health & safety measure?   

 

 

 

 

     

Playtime in the garden for daughter  1975

 

 

Granddaughter bright eyed for her first day at school, 2012

 

 

 

                        

Happy landing on grass for granddaughter  

 

          

         

Practicing handstands on our front lawn  

 

Our dog joins in the fun , enjoying a long chew on the grass of our back garden in Hawick.  

 

 

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 Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity

 to share their family history through photographs.

 

  

 

 

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Fun on Horseback - Sepia Saturday

A happy holiday snapshot is this week's Sepia Saturday  prompt photograph, with a baby boy perched at the seaside on the back of a donkey.

Not the real thing, but here is my family having fun on horseback. - a fitting link with the fact this post marks my my 1200th contribution to my Family History Fun blog.  

I wanted to convey the enjoyment  and enthusiasm  blogging has given me in sharing my stories of my ancestral trail, past and present.  

 

 My daughter celebrating her 1st birthday with  a present  from her Nana and Grandad  - this  present of "Donkey" remained a favourite.   

"Donkey"had an extended holiday up in the loft before coming  down again, with a new saddle cloth,  for granddaughter.   

 

 

I showed this on  my blog very recently but it is such a good link to the prompt image, so here it is again.  Daughter is the middle rider on an empty Blackpool beach, in Lancashire, taken on a October half term holiday.  

Daughter and granddaughter continued to have fun on horseback.

 

Daughter in the 1980s  

 

Granddaughter c. 2014  

 

Another little one perched this time on  a cart horse - my cousin Gloria at the the family business of carters & coalmen in Blackpool, Lancashire, c.1940

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Onto a bit of local history:    

We live in the Scottish Borders,  in the town of Hawick and later the village of Earlston -  a region often called "Scotland's Horse Country", where riding is in the blood.   

In the summer the towns celebrate their history and heritage with the annual Common Ridings - with  cavalcades of riders re-enacting  the age old ritual of  "riding the marches", made in the past to safeguard common land and burgh rights.

In Hawick the event is also a commemoration of the "callants", young lads of Hawick, who in 1514, raided a body of English troops  and captured their flag - the "banner blue".  This skirmish followed the  the ill-fated Battle of Flodden in 1513,  when  King James IV and much of the "Flower of Scotland" were killed.  

The 1514 Monument below, unveiled in June 1914 in the town centre  and known locally as "The Horse",  commemorates this event.  

  

Each year, a young man is chosen to be the the key figure, called a Cornet,   and leads his followers on ride outs.  

 In the main ceremony  on a local holiday,  the Cornet proudly carries the town's "banner blue".   

 It is a time for   local pride and passion,  when exiles return to their home town to renew friendships and join in the celebrations - in ceremonies and processions,  picnics and horse-racing, and  in ,usic, songs,and ballads  such as this one below - one of my favourites.

"Where Slitrig dances doon the dell

To join the Teviot Water

There dwells auld Hawick's honest men

and Hawick's bright-eyed daughters."

 The Slitrig and Teviot  are two rivers that meet in Hawick. 

 

 Photographs by Lesley Fraser, www.ilfimaging.co.uk 

 

Over the centuries all of the towns and villages  in the Borders have come to celebrate their own special week of events, but each one with its own unique community spirit and specific traditions.

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Sepia Saturday give bloggers an opportunity 

to share their family history

  

Hairstyles to the Fore: Sepia Saturday.

A head and shoulders portrait  of a young girl features in this week's Sepia Saturday  prompt photograph.  Cue for me to look at hairstyles of my family down the ages. 

 

         

My paternal grandmother  Mary Barbara Weston, nee Matthews (1876-1959) 

 

Nana Weston was born in Wolverhampton in the English Midlands, one of 10 children born to John Matthews and Matilda Such.    Her sister Fanny died tragically when her apron caught fire whilst she was carrying a candle, and she died from her burns.  Brother Arthur died in the First World War at Gallipoli,  leaving a young widow and 3 children. 

 

Her hairstyle is typical of the  1880s and 1890s.  

 

My other grandmother Alice Danson, nee English (1883-1945)

 

 

 

 

I never  knew Alice as she died when I was a baby. For many years she was my major brick wall, until last year I discovered  she had been born in a Liverpool Workhouse, though she  quoted another birthplace   in the 1911 and 1921 census returns. This photographs is part of a large family photogaph taken in 1916 as my grandfather was setting out to war.  

 

 Again her plain no nonsense hairstyle was typical of the times.

 
The impact on the First World War on the changing role of  women saw an abandonment of the  traditional long hair styles of the Victorian - Esdwardian  period to the new short styles of the bob, finger-wave, Marvel wave, shingle and Eton crop, with their popularity continuing well into the 1930's. 

                                          

My great aunt Jennie Danson (1897-1986)  who sacrificed her long plait for the new look, without telling her mother.  This is one of my favorite photographs in my family collection. Jennie by all accounts was a feisty woman  - she needed to be to hold her own, growing up with eight older brothers whose ages,  when she was born,  ranged from 3 to 20. 

 

  

 An elegant unidentified portrait in my husband's collection - thought to be a relation of his aunt Annette.   

 

 

My mother Kathleen Danson - Jennie's niece.

My mother again - with more waves this time

In the 1930''s and 1940's,   a  softer look crept in, with curls and waves all the rage, and during the war the "roll" was the defining style.  This was the age of trying to emulate  Hollywood glamour, despite the realities  of life during the  depression and war.  

My aunt Edith Danson

 

 

 

Another new look for my mother who seems to have adopted an Austrian style, with what looks like  plaits  over  her head.  She was always very proud of her distinctive widow's peak.  

Below some typical 1940s looks from my aunt Peggy Danson (in WAAF uniform), my mother and finally  my husband's elegant aunt Annette.

Pigtails to Pony Tails  to Perms characterised  my look from the  1950s onwards.

 

 Pigtails complete with kirby grips and ribbons.  

On village gala days and on special occasions, my hair was wound into rags overnight  to hopefully create ringlets - which soon fell out.  

By my early teens my hair was long and worn now in a pony tail. It was washed with a final rinse of  vinegar and rain water - my mother's idea of a beauty treatment -  and it took ages to dry in front of the fire as we had no hair dryer.

 

There is a pony tail hiding behind this Plain Jane look  What is it about moving from childhood to teenage years, as this is the only family photograph I could find.  No holiday snaps, no school photos - nothing.  

 

 I became a librarian, so had to work hard at counteracting the traditional dowdy image.  So here  is the young professional look for my first job - worn with a   mini length sweater dress  and long necklace  - all the rage then.  

 

By the late 1960's,    vanity prompted me to try contact lenses and they proved a great source of stories with friends as we recalled  tales of losing them.  I remember one occasion where I was scrambling around on the floor of a pew at church, (not praying) but  trying to find this miniscule lens. 

 

Pals Together : Sepia Saturday

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph fesatures four  happy lads  together,    Photographs below, largely from from my mother's Danson family,   fit the bill. 

 

My great uncle George Danson (1894-1916)  of Poulton le Fylde, Lancashire  is standing on the left with his  teacher and fellow pupils.  

The three photographs below were in my great aunt Jennie's collection.   Unfortunately only the first one  is identified - as "George's Friends in Manchester" where he worked on a W.H. Smith station bookstall.  George, is on the back row  on the right.   
It must be the hat, as here he looks older than his age.  He  could only be  20-21 years old, as in 1916 he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and served as a stretcher bearer in the field in the /First World War. WAr    He was killed on the Somme, on the  16th September,  a week after his 22nd birthday.

 

The photographs below were also George's  friends.  The group on the left seems very formal and serious.  Is that the same threesome in the second photograph having a bit of fun?  Two are wearing pocket watches which are not visible in the first photograph and I was also  trying to match the partings in the haircuts. I am not convinced they are the same group - what do  other bloggers think?  

All three photographs were taken at Gale's Studios who had branches in both Blackpool and Manchester. 

The photograph below looks like it is an informal occasion (out for a drink, perhaps?), but it still is the time to wear a formal suit,waistcoat, collar & tie. 

 My grandfather William Danson is in the middle of the group,  with his brother Robert (and dog) on the left  plus an unknown friend.  Robert was the third son of the family, and William  the fifth  out of ten sons (eight surviving infancy),  followed by the only daughter Jennie, to whom I owe a great debt for being "the keeper of the family archives".  

 

Friendship Through Service 

 

This photograph  below of my great uncle Frank Danson  identified in Jennie's writing,   seems to be some kind of celebration.  Frank is front row left,  dressed formally in his uniform and cap, but what about those two fellows on the  back row in what appears to be their pajamas and beanie hats. 

 

 

                       

 

Jennie worked  in Poulton Post Office  and she recalled when a war telegram came through for her widowed mother. Maria Danson.   Fearing the worst, she was allowed to run home with it.  Fortunately it was good news - that Frank had been wounded but was recuperating hospital in Malta.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This photograph   was unfortunately unidentified, but I think Frank could be on the right of the front row.  Wounded soldiers, fit enough to go out and about, wore a distinctive uniform of blue flannel suits with white revers and a red ties. 

 

Jack Riley is identified in the centre  of this group,  wearing sailor’s uniform  and a cap HMS Chester.  He was the grandson of my great grandmother Maria Danson, nee Rawcliffe's sister  - Jane.  On the left is Marcus Bailey, a neighbour of Jack in Fleetwood. 

I have  a postcard  (above) sent by Jack's  mother to my great grandmother Maria to say " Jack went out to sea today.  He went in good spirits".  The postmark is difficult to make out but could be 7.?? 16  or 18. 

I have tried to trace Jack  in service records without success.  HM Chester was a ship involved at the Battle of Jutland in the First World War, when young sailor John Travers Cornwell was awarded the prestigious Victoria Cross for "a conspicuous act of bravery".   Was Jack Riley another young sailor  on board HMS Chester at this time? Something else to add to my "Research To Do" list.

 

 A photograph from my husband's family collection with  this group of young sailors,  obviously relaxing!  The postcard franked 15th December 1909 from Beverley (Yorkshire?) was addressed to my husband's great grandmother, Mrs S. A. Hibbert, 169 Maxwell Street, South Shields, with the message:

Dear Mother, I write these lines hoping you are keeping well, and to ask if you can pick me out  in this group?  

 

 

 

 

 

My husband's uncle Matty (Matthew Iley White) of South Shields, County Durham is among this group of soldiers perched on a rock in India.  Matty (1914-1978)  served in the  Durham Light Infantry in India 1933-1937, as listed in his service book below.

 

 

 Matty, seated on the left) tucking into his food at army camp. 

Friendship Through Sport

 

My father  John Percy Weston (1912-2003) is on the second row right  as vice captain of his school team at Broseley, Shropshire.  This is the earliest photograph (1926) I have of my father and the local historical society was instrumental in me getting a copy. 

On a generation to a similar photograph of my brother  in the hockey team of Broughton School, Edinburgh, in the 1960s - (on the front row second from the left)

 

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Sepia Saturday gives an opportunity for genealogy bloggers 

       to share their family history through photographs

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