A Woman's Age in the Census - 1891.

March 21st this year was Census Day in ** England, Wales and Northern Ireland, so I just had to share this article I came across in a local newspaper - "The Kelso Chronicle" of 15th April 1891. 

"As a rule, men do not mind their real age being known and therefore they can scarcely appreciate what an awful ordeal the recent Census was for certain members of the softer sex. 

Girls in their teens and married women do not mind it much.  Young servant girls overrate their ages, with a tendency in the opposite direction once they pass five and twenty.

The women, however who are mostly averse to telling their ages are widows who hope to marry again, and maidens who have passed the first bloom of womenhood, who are, in fact, what is called in polite parlance "old young ladies". 

If their consciences are tough, when the Bogie Man,   that is the Census Man, comes round, they boldly lop off ten or fifteen years. 

 If their consciences are tender - a rare occurence - they will quit the neighbourhood where they are known and hide themselves in some big town.  

The worst of all these precautions is that they are of little use if the proverb be true that " a man is as old as the feels, but a woman is as old as she looks". 

The article must have been written by a man! 

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 Notes: 

** Scotland has deferred the 2021 census until next year, because of the Covid pandemic.

Silhouette Signatures is an idea  I came across  on Facebook genealogy pages, with Timothy J. Barron and Dana of The Genealogy Girl  introducing this concept of creating an image to illustrate an ancestor,  where  a photograph is not available.  

 

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"The Times" at War - September 1916

"The Times" newspaper of 16th September 1916 is the second title I was asked to review by Thomas at Historic Newspapers  in return for giving  a link to his website which sells original newspapers as gifts.

This date was significant to me as my great uncle George Danson, a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps. was killed on the Somme and my husband's great uncle Frederick Donaldson died on the  same day - remembered on the Thiepval Memorial.  I was interested to see how a serious newspaper reflected the war and life on the home front.

First impressions -  tightly packed pages with small print, no photographs, lots of classified adverts  and only a few pictorial ads - so visually not very appealing to today's general reader.

Content wise, there was no question that the war dominated the coverage from the front page announcements of men  "Killed in Action".  Two pages listed naval honours and recommendations for  promotion awarded after the Battle of Jutland.  Also featured were a Roll of Honour, reports of war on all fronts, including an excellent map showing "The Great Advance in the Albert Plateau" , plus lists of war charities.  and sad Personal Adverts requesting  any information on soldiers reported missing.

Headlines such as "Great British Advance", "Successes on a Wide Front". "Our Troops have Advanced", "Considerable Success Already Obtained - some 2000-3000 yards at various places"  present a positive picture, along, too,  with news of a new type of fighting machine  - the tank, which "proved of considerable utility".    The official casualty numbers for the day were tucked away at the end of an article - 212 officers killed and 3543 men,

One story which had personal links  told of  the Victoria Cross awarded to 15 year old John Travers Cornwell  - "Brave Boy's Honour After Death", Seaman's Gallant Deeds". In his memory the Cornwell Badge became the highest honour awarded to Boy Scouts and one my husband received. 


                         

 What else caught my eye?

• The classified  adverts with households  seeking  lady housekeepers, housekeepers (what was the difference?), cooks, parlourmaids, scullery maids, between maids, laundry maids.  
• Life was changing, though, with an advert for a "Lady Motor Driver" and a "Lady Clerk - not under 30, must be a first class typist and shorthand writer and experienced in filing and indexing".    
• Seeking work was a "Gentlewoman, excellent cleaner of plate....speaks French and Italian, with own portable Corona typewriter".

• Auction Sales notices with  lengthy details of estate and their contents on the market.
  
• A long listing of Shipping Adverts for travel to India, Egypt, Hong Kong,  Shanghai, Singapore, Australia, South Africa,  USA and Canada.
• Article on "The Home Treatment of Alcoholic Excess and the Drug Habit"- with no interference with social, business or other duties".  

For family historians, newspapers offer an invaluable source of background information on events (local, national and international). They also enable us to experience the actual events described in the language and emotions of the time.  

To mark a milestone anniversary, a gift of such a newspaper is special and personal. I was impressed with the presentation box, entitled a "A Day to Remember" and the original newspaper was carefully wrapped in tissue paper.

If you would like to find out more, click on the link Historic Newspapers. There are newspapers from all over the world, but the bulk of their archives are from the US and the UK, including many regional titles. Take advantage of a special 15% discount on your shopping basket. Just key in the code 15TODAY.

Please Note - this article was not written on the basis of  any financial transaction.

A Leisurely Sunday Read for September 1937.

Browsing through old newspapers and finding quirky stories makes for historical bliss as far as I am concrned!  I enjoy featuring reports  in my series "Stop Press" - whether it be a female navie,  a rant against suffragettes,  a jilted bridegroom  or a slow stagecoach journey.

So I was delighted to receive an e-mail from Thomas at Historic Newspapers asking if I would review some newspapers on my blog and  and give a link to  his website  which sells original newspapers as gifts.

My first chosen newspaper was  the "Sunday Chronicle" of 26th September 1937 - my husband's birth date and just six months before my parents married. I was interested to find out what preoccupied  the nation at this time - two years before the outbreak of the Second World War, in the midst of the Spanish Civil War  and four  months after George VI's  coronation.

On the  international scene, the  front and back pages were stark, with warnings about the threat to peace,  and photographic coverage of "Dictators behind a Wall of Steel"  as Hitler and Mussolini met in Munich'.   A centre page editorial article asked "Where will Hitler strike next?" The Spanish Civil War rated only the briefest of mentions. 

For a leisurely Sunday read, there was an article on T.S.Lawrence  by Sir Winston Churchill, and  in a much lighter (spicier?)  vein  the first instalment of a romance "Transgressors in the Tropics".

As a  popular Sunday paper, sport and gossip abounded , with big coverage of the weekend matches including Lacrosse (we don't see that sport featured now) and a headline "Scots can still teach English players - a tribute to Tartan [football] teams)" - that made me laugh given the current state of Scottish football!  

Readers  could catch up on film news with a picture of Marlene Dietrich  "half dead with glamour", and what were they listening to on the radio?   Well,  it was Sunday so religious services and appropriate music predominated.  

Fashionable women were shown the latest fur trimmed coats and advised  to "Be prudish this winter - no ultra low decolletage, no slit skirts".

I find advertisements as fascinating as the news items. A comic strip  extolled the benefits of using "Rinso" to do your laundry and enhance your home, your appearance - and your social life.  Patriotism and health were the two messages in the advert for shredded wheat   - sounds familiar today,

 Readers were also urged to  "Lose 49lbs in fat" - through eating Kruschen salts.  l would love to lose over 4 inches off my waist, but It sounds horrible and also a rather an unbelievable claim!  

Other headlines that caught me eye

• An item on ill fated aviator Amy Johnston hoping to make a gliding record.
  
• "Black out at the Lights", with a power cut turning off the famous Blackpool illuminations and hotel orchestras forced to play by candlelight (of particular interest to me as I was born in the town). 
  
• And my favourite quirky item  bore the intriguing headline of   "Zeppelin was Her Stork"! and told how Zeppelina, celebrating her 21st birthday, was named after a German Zepplin which crashed near her her home in Essex on the day  she was born in 1916. 

For family historians,  newspapers offer an invaluable source of background information on events (local, national and international).    They also  enable us to experience the actual events described in the language and emotions of the time.   It is not textbook history, but it is full of vigour on many varied small aspects of life for ordinary people. 

To mark a milestone anniversary, a gift of such a newspaper is special and personal.   I was impressed with the presentation box, entitled a  "A Day to Remember" and the original newspaper was carefully  wrapped in tissue paper.

 If you would like to find out more, click on the link Historic Newspapers.  There are newspapers from all over the world,  but the bulk of their archives are from the US and the UK, including many regional titles. Take advantage of a special 15% discount  on your shopping basket.  Just key in the code  15TODAY.

Please Note - this  article is not based on any financial transaction. 

From "Rich" Imposter to a Poorhouse Death - Black Sheep Sunday

Old  newspapers in my local archive centre  have some fascinating and colourful  titbits of information which often catch my attention, such as this  report in "The Kelso Chronicle" of 9th May 1879 which announced:

"The notorious imposter Robert Aitkin, alias Hi-I-Obby, has just died in Hawick Poorhosue in his 78th year.  The most remarkable episode in his chequered career occurred at Dunse 20 years ago, when he succeeded in making the people believe that he was heir to a large estate and great wealth by the death of an uncle in America.

 A number of gentlemen gave him a cash account in one of the banks for £1000, and he actually went so far as to purchase the valuable estate of Reston Mains, in Berwickshire. He bought hunters and jewellery, and dined and kept company with some of the most respected families in Dunse. He was ultimately apprehended, tried for fraud, and sent to Greenlaw Jail to expiate his crime. This portion of his career was dramatised and acted in a number of theatres on the Border.”

So crime in this instance clearly did not pay!  

Black Sheep Sunday is a daily blogging prompt from www.geneabloggers.com to inspire family hsitorians to write stories of their local and family history.

Loss of Three Sons in Five Days - Sympathy Saturday

I came across this poignant entry in my local paper "The Hawick Express", 11 March 1881.  It records the sad death within five days of three young sons from scarlet fever.  

"At 49 Castlegte, Jedburgh on the 4th inst. Walter Hilson aged 6 years;  on the 6th inst. James aged 3 years; and on the 8th inst. John William aged 9 years - all of scarlet fever - children of James R.  Hilson and Helen K. Guthrie".  

Sympathy Saturday is a blogging prompt from www.geneabloggers.com to encourage bloggers to write aspects of their family and local history.

A Slow Stagecoach Journey - Nov, 1846: Travel Tuesday

Images of stage coaches on Christmas cards look colourful, dashing and rather romantic, but what was the reality like for our ancestors travelling 165 years ago?

A news item in the local newspaper "The Border Watch" of 19th November 1846 paints a rather different picture of the reality of stagecoach travel.

“A SLOW COACH. – The Edinburgh and Hawick coach, which left Princes Street, Edinburgh on Saturday afternoon at 4pm  did not reach the Bridge Inn, Galashiels, until about 10pm; thus accomplishing the distance of thirty-two miles in the astonishing period of six hours!   

The pace was such that an ordinary pedestrian would have found little difficulty in keeping up with the coach. The road was by no means heavy, although in some places newly laid with metal. The coachman did his duty well with whip and voice, constantly urging forward his jaded steeds, and employing the box seat passenger to assist him with a spare thong.

But it was all of no avail. The animals would not move one foot faster than another. Up hill or down hill there was little perceptible difference, and several times the vehicle came to a dead halt, almost on a level.

The coach was full from Edinburgh, but a passenger having been let down on the road, another person was taken up. In spite of the loud remonstrances of the passengers, a second was buckled on behind, and a third was allowed standing room beside him. It appears there is now no restriction as to the number a stage coach may carry, and consequently three poor miserable horses were forced to drag, throughout a weary stage of fifteen miles, a heavy coach loaded with eighteen or twenty persons.

If there is any law against cruelty to animals, surely it must apply to a case like this. Whatever grievances attend railway travelling, it will be something, at least, to get rid of this wholesome horse murder.”

Stop Press! A Holiday Trip in 1875.

Old newspapers offer fascinating titbits of information and cast a light on life at the times.  Here are a couple of short items on a works excursion  from the small mill town of Hawick in the Scottish Borders

On August 14th 1875, "The Hawick Advertiser" announced:  

NORTH BRITISH RAILWAY

EXCURSION

BERWICK-ON-TWEED

THE SEVENTH ANNUAL EXCURSION in connection with DICKSONS & LAINGS FACTORY
will take place on SATURDAY, 21^ST August,
when a Special Train will leave Hawick at 6.20am.
and BERWICK on the return journey, at 6.30pm.

 

Fares – ADULTS, 2/9; Juveniles, 1/4½

Tickets to be had at Wilton Mill

The HAWICK SAXHORN BAND will accompany the Excursion.

"The Hawick Advertiser" of August 28th 1875 reported:
ANNUAL DAY TRIP TO BERWICK.

Overheard on Hawick Station platform a Dicksons & Laings worker announced that: “Oor trip’s aye the biggest”. They sold a total of 2113 tickets; 1330 Adults: 700 Juveniles: 60 Apprentices, and 23 tickets for the Saxhorn Band.

Considering the population of Hawick in the 1871 census was given as 8,370,  the numbers on this train excursion made it quite an occasion. 

With thanks to local historian Gordon for passing on this item

    

A Jilted Bridegroom, 1871: Stop Press!

A Breach of Promise of Marriage with a difference - for the innocent party here, is the jilted bridegroom, not the bride.

I came across this item  in "The Border Advertiser" 18th March 1871 entitled "Action against a Lady for Breach of Promise" and it made fascinating reading.  So here is a summary of a very lengthy article.

"In the Court of Common Pleas an extra-ordinary action for breach of promise was heard.  The plaintiff in the case Lewis Currie sued his cousin Mary Margaret Davidson Currie  and in his declaration alleged that they had during the infancy of the defendant  agreed to marry one another, and that after she became of age they duly ratified  and endorsed the promise.  Yet the defendant had refused to marry him. 

With regard to the young lady, she was possessed of considerable personal attractiveness and,  beyond that,  a dowry of £6000.  There had been a considerable correspondence between the couple, with letters read out in court to much laughter.  The defendant addressing her fiance as "My dearest George", and signing herself "Ever yours, dearest George - Yours till Death" before winding up  most appropriately with a bit of poetry.  Other  letters declared "Since you left, I care for nothing. I live for you".   "Oh my own very darling George.  I have given you my heart and with it my first and only love.  With heaps of love and millions of kisses, I remain my darling George, yours ever" 

The defendant, however, related also that at a the house of a recently married friend, she had met a young Spaniard who expressed the wish "to be the happy fellow in her locket".  

   

Wedding dress - 1879  
.

In further correspondence with her fiance George, she talked of being married in white silk and the 19th of January was fixed on for the wedding.  On that day the defendant married  - but not to the plaintiff (more laughter in  court).

On the 3rd of January she wrote to the defendant breaking off the engagement on  the grounds that "we are not in any way suited to one another".  She refused to meet the plaintiff who, the court was told,  had spent  £400  in preparing a residence for his new bride.  


The defendant became the wife of Mr J. Fernandez Martini on 19th January 1871 with the certificate of marriage presented to the court.

It was acknowledged that the defendant had wronged the plaintiff, but no action of this kind brought by a man should be encouraged.

The jury after deliberating the matter for an hour found in favour of the defendant with damages awarded."

This case reminds me so much of the Gilbert & Sullivan's comic operetta "Trial by Jury".  What would they have made of this reversal in roles? 

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If you share my liking for old newspapers, have a look at other stories in my "Stop Press series

• Female Fashions for December - 1805 
• Woman's Age in the Census - 1891  
• Royal Wedding Dress - 1879
• A Female Navie - 1849 

Stop Press! A Genealogy Sceptic - 1842:

I came across this statement when browsing at my local archive centre.  An article in "The Galashiels Weekly Journal:  no. 6, 1842" announced:
"Genealogy, in our opinion, is a matter of very little importance, fit only for chattering groups over their tea" 

Is this worthy of being a "Wisdom Wednesday" topic for discussion? 

If you share my liking for press articles, have a look also at:

• Female Fashions for December - 1805 
• Woman's Age in the Census - 1891  
• Royal Wedding Dress - 1879
• Slow Coach from Edinburgh - 1848  
• A Society Wedding with a Tragic End - 1913
• A Female Navie - 1849 
• A Rant Against Suffragettes, 1910

Royal Bridal Dress, 15th March 1879

In Britain we are in the  throws   of mega media coverage for the royal wedding on Friday of Prince William and Kate Middleton, so I felt it was time to unearth a copy  of "The Illustrated  London News", issue no. 2074 ,  March 15th 1879.  Many years  ago when in London I discovered a pile of the magazine in a shop by the Victoria and Albert Museum and bought several editions, as I love the old engravings.

The occasion featured  here was the marriage in 1879  of Queen Victoria's third son  Prince Arthur William Patrick Albert,  Duke of Connaught to Louise Margaret Alexandra Victoria, third daughter of  Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia.

The wedding report was very lengthy and extremely fulsome in style.  A short extract is given here:

The princess's dress was described as "made of thick white satin, the waist trimmed with lace 4" wide, the skirt also trimmed with lace 12" deep with bunches of myrtle.  The train was 13 feet long, with a rich lace flounce 3 feet wide, upon which was laid a branch of myrtle......

The pearl necklace worn by her Royal Highness  was a wedding gift from her most illustrious and venerable uncle King William I,  emperor of Germany.........

The bridal veil was richly decorated  with real point-de-gaze lace, ornamented with flowers, crown and the royal coat of arms  of Prussia, in relief, all worked with real white lace.  The order was given at the beginning of July last  and the work has been done by the hands of 300 peasant girls  in the mountains of Silesia". 

Copyright © 2011 · Susan Donaldson.  All Rights Reserved

Stop Press! A Woman's Age in the Census - 15th April 1891

Today is census day in Britain, so I had to share this article I came across at my local archive centre.  It is from "The Kelso Chronicle" of 15th April 1891.

"As a rule, men do not mind their real age being known and therefore they can scarcely appreciate what an awful ordeal the recent Census was for certain members of the softer sex. 

Girls in their teens and married women do not mind it much.  Young servant girls overrate their ages, with a tendency in the opposite direction once they pass five and twenty.

The women, however who are mostly averse to telling their ages are widows who hope to marry again, and maidens who have passed the first bloom of womenhood, who are, in fact, what is called in polite parlance "old young ladies". 

If their consciences are tough, when the Bogie Man,   that is the Census Man, comes round, they boldly lop off ten or fifteen years. 

 If their concsciences are tender - a rare occurence - they will quit the neighbourhood where they are known and hide themselves in some big town.  

The worst of all these precautions is thet they are of little use if the proverb be true that " a man is as old as the feels, but a womwn is as old as she looks". 

It must have been written by a man! 

If you share my liking for old newspapers, have a look at other stories in my "Stop Press series - it does seem to be developing a feminine theme.

• Female Fashions for December - 1805 
• Woman's Age in the Census - 1891  
• Royal Wedding Dress - 1879
• Slow Coach from Edinburgh - 1848  
• A Society Wedding with a Tragic End - 1913
• A Female Navie - 1849 
• A Rant Against Suffragettes, 1910

Stop Press! A Female Navie - 9th March 1849

In historical fiction I have come across stories of girls, running away from home, dressed up as a midshipman or army cadet, serving at the Battle of Trafalgar or in the Crimea etc. I have usually regarded the plot as rather far fetched and ridiculous. 

But truth is stranger than fiction - as witnessed by this article in the "Kelso Chronicle" of 9th March 1849" Someone could write a novel out of this!

BERWICK

 “A FEMALE NAVIE. – Cases are occasionally reported of females assuming the garb of the roughest sex – generally under the influence of some romantic motive – and undergoing without flinching all the inconveniences and hardships which their disguise, and the laborious employment of males, entail upon them. It is not often, however, that we hear of them doffing the petticoat and doffing the trousers, apparently out of shear dislike of the monotony and irksomeness of a country girl’s life, and envy of the greater freedom enjoyed by the lord of creation.

A case of this kind appears, however, to have occurred in our own town during the last year or two. The particulars, so far as they have been furnished to us by a correspondent, are as follows: - A young woman, 22 years of age named Jean Smith, left her fathers house in the village of Preston, East Lothian, on the 22d September, 1846, dressed in her brother’s clothes, a blue jacket, cap, and white moleskin trousers, leaving her own at home. The day before, she had borrowed money from several persons of her acquaintance, and was pretty well supplied in that respect. She took the train at Longniddry station for Berwick, intending to seek work as a navie. She fell in, however, with a mason, with whom she bound herself as an apprentice for three years at 9s a week, under the name of Alexander Johnston. She appears to have soon tired of wielding the mallet and chisel and engaged herself as a ganger of the Railway.

She lodged in Berwick with a Mrs Hogg, conducting herself in all respects as one of the better sort of navies. She had her sweetheart too, a young woman whom she invited to tea on Sunday evenings, escorting her afterwards for a walk “Sandy” it is said, received several hints from the chosen of his heart, that an excursion to the Toll would be very agreeable; but he was always remarkably slow in taking them, and contrived on some pretence or other, to put off the happy day.  Leaving the gangership on the railway, she hired herself as a hind to one of the farmers near the town, with whom she continued till March 1848, when she appears to have changed her mind, and returned to her father’s home, resuming the dress and employment proper to her sex."

With thanks to local historian Gordon for bringing this article to my attention