Through the Trees

Category: Facebook posts

  • QM QED

    Facebook post #019 (May 2020)

    Another branch of the tree scaled. So, not only did my Gt-Grandfather Squire hold a patent but so did both his brothers, and all in quite separate fields. Sibling rivalry! By force of numbers, the coal miners took a long time to go through, but my favourite waste of time has been recreating Alfred and Elsie’s holiday of a lifetime, in 1938. I’ve found the liners, the Pullman trains and the pioneering aircraft they would have used, the sights they would have seen, even the music they listened to, the films they saw, and the meals they enjoyed together.

    Updated on post #057 and post #058

  • Diaspora

    Facebook post #018 (May 2020)

    Turns out that the photos I’ve taken out and about have been quite handy in the family history. I’ve managed to photo some of the family’s actual houses, churches and workplaces, by complete chance, sometimes in towns where I had no idea we had a connexion. I’ve linked from the family story (1st to 4th Gt Grandparents) to my photos in: Agra (India), Alderminster, Alresford, Alton, Atherstone, Axbridge, Aysgarth, Baldock, Bangalore (India), Barnard Castle, Barnsley, Bath, Berkeley, Bewdley, Bexhill, Birkenhead, Birmingham, Blackpool, Blandford, Bognor, Bolton, Bourne, Bracknell, Bradford, Bridgwater, Bridport, Brighton, Bristol, Bromsgrove, Bury St Edmunds, Cambridge, Carlisle, Chatham, Chelmsford, Chelsea, Cheltenham, Cirencester, City of London, Clerkenwell, Coalbrookdale, Colchester, Coleshill, Croydon, Dagenham, Daventry, Dawley, Derby, Doncaster, Dover, Driffield, Droitwich, Dudley, East Ham, Eastbourne, Eastleigh, Ellesmere, Ely, Evesham, Fareham, Faversham, Folkestone, Gateshead, Gloucester, Grantham, Guildford, Halifax, Harrogate, Henley-in-Arden, Hereford, Hexham, Horncastle, Huddersfield, Hull, Hyderabad (India), Hythe, Ilford, Ilkley, Ipswich, Istanbul (Turkey), Jarrow, Keighley, Kendal, Kew, Kidderminster, Lambeth, Lancaster, Leamington Spa, Leeds, Lichfield, Lincoln, Liverpool, Lyme Regis, Lymington, Maidstone, Maldon, Malvern, Manchester, Mansfield, Middleham, Middlesbrough, Minchinhampton, Much Wenlock, New York (USA), Newcastle upon Tyne, Napoli (Italy), Newport (Salop), Northampton, Northleach, Olney, Peterborough, Petworth, Pitchford, Poole, Portsmouth, Ramsgate, Richmond (Surrey), Richmond (Yorkshire), Reading, Ripon, Romsey, Rotherham, Rugby, Ryde (IOW), Saffron Walden, Sheffield, Sherburn-in-Elmet, Shrewsbury, Skipton, Soho, Solihull, Southampton, Southend, Southwark, St Albans, St Helier (Jersey), St Ives (Cambs), St Neots, Stafford, Stockton, Stoke, Stone, Stratford-upon-Avon, Sturminster Newton, Sutton Coldfield, Tadcaster, Tamworth, Taunton, Thrapston, Tintagel, Tipperary, Tonbridge, Towcester, Tring, Uppingham, Upton-upon-Severn, Wakefield, Walsall, Waltham Cross, Warwick, Westminster, Weston-super-Mare, Whitby, Whitchurch (Salop), Wigan, Woking, Worcester, Worthing, Woodstock, Worthing, Wycombe, York! And the ones I’ve missed…

  • Little’s Little Ship

    Facebook post #017 (26 May 2020)

    Today is the 80th anniversary of the Little Ships first sailing to Dunkirk. This is my family’s surviving contribution, the Glenway, built and operated, appropriately, by my Little cousins. She was towed across the channel from Ramsgate by the tug ‘Crested Cock’ with a consignment of bread, munitions and medical supplies for the troops. She was spotted, by an anti-submarine vessel, on the beach, with 190 battle-weary troops on board, unable to re float and with her engine out of commission. The Captain armed her to resist enemy air attacks, refloated her, and sailed home, laden with soldiers of the 27th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery. Sadly, twenty of them died of their wounds during the sixteen-hour crossing. When the Glenway reached Dover, she was picked up by a passing tug and towed into port.

    Glenway

  • Grim Up North?

    Facebook post #016 (May 2020)

    This chapter of the tree has been long and difficult. My gt-gt Grandad moved to London, and I’ve now documented his mother’s family that he left behind in Barnsley. 37 coal miners and 3 others underground, a handful of labourers and mill and factory hands, and a coffin maker. One got 14 days’ hard labour for stealing a pigeon when he was 16. He was 5ft tall with red hair, knock-knees and a squint. One worked in the paper mill which was the backdrop for the film ‘Kes’. One died in an explosion at Wharncliffe Woodmoor colliery – the last major disaster in the South Yorkshire coalfield. One escaped to the Forest of Dean – where he was… a miner. One moved to Kent, where he was killed in a rock fall at Betteshanger Colliery, Deal. Five died in WWI, and one in WWII, where the explosions and the poison gas were deliberate.

  • Checking It Twice

    Facebook post #015 (May 2020 – 014 was a progress update, hoping everyone was coping with Covid 19)

    I’ve been checking my family tree work. Managed to miss one chap‘s kids. One of his sons owned 25 Thames sailing barges. One of his grandsons was awarded the Air Force Cross, and died on the R. 38. Another was consulting surgeon to the British Second Army, was awarded a Croix de Guerre, and made a Companion of the Order of the Bath, and a Knight of Grace of the Order of St John. Good job I checked…

  • Plough Your Own

    Facebook post (3 Apr 2020)

    That’s me furloughed then…

    Update (Nov 2022): Well it gave me the chance to finish the blog project, I suppose. Apparently, the expression derives from the Dutch verlof, “leave of absence”.

    Facebook post #013 (11 May 2020)

    I just found out that one of my relatives, Bert Baker, was furloughed. This was 100 years ago, mind, and it took ten days to get back from Alexandria before his leave could begin. He was in the Machine Gun Corps (the regiment with no history to fall back on, and a 36% casualty rate).

    The form completed by his commanding officer has faded badly but I can make out “Sobriety: drinker. Is he reliable? Fairly. Is he intelligent? Average.”

    When he wasn’t called back after six months, he married a German girl in Crouch End.

  • VE Day Postponed

    Facebook post #012 (9 May 2020)

    While VE Day was being celebrated 75 years ago yesterday, the swastika was still flying over the government buildings in Jersey. My relatives still had to carry German ID cards. This on British soil – closer than York to where I live now. There were severe punishments for those caught with illicit radio sets, or milling illicit flour to feed the islanders. Forced labour had been used to build a giant underground hospital, now believed to be a gas chamber intended for the undesirables of the British mainland. Happily, that flag was lowered 75 years ago TODAY, and the Channel Islands were liberated from the jack boot.

  • Rich Man, Poor Man

    Facebook post #011 (May 2020)

    So, in 1875 my first cousin died in the notorious rookeries around Seven Dials in London, a site of unspeakable squalor, open sewers and all. A three minute walk and twenty years away, my second cousin’s family moved into new business premises in Covent Garden. The business prospered. When their grandson died in 2012, part of his silver and gold collection was sold for £3m at Sotheby’s, and he left about £10m-worth to the Ashmolean.

    Ashmolean Gold (The Guardian)

    Update (Dec 2022) – A Surprising Connexion

    My cousin in the rookeries was Emma (who married her first cousin). The rich family was Edward and Alice. The basis of the story was Dad’s Dad Grandad marrying another of Emma’s first cousins (they lived in Shropshire), and Dad’s Mum’s cousin marrying the jeweller (they lived in Kent).

    But look! Those neighbouring families – of dramatically different fortune – inter-married, via the son of colour box Jabez, resulting in a indirect linking of the Barnards and Littles a generation before my grandparents joined the families.

    Further updated in post #066

  • Making an Exhibition

    Facebook post #010 (1 May 2020)

    #OnThisDay in 1851, the Great Exhibition opened in Hyde Park. It was visited by over six million people – equivalent to a third of the entire population of Britain at the time. The profits were then used to found the V&A, Science Museum and the Natural History Museum… Family history follows…

    Great Exhibition (The Victorian Society)

    See also our Great Exhibition page.

  • Chococolate Wars

    Facebook post #009 (Apr 2020 – 006-008 were progress updates)

    OK, so we’ve reached the great war in the family history… the Great Chocolate War. With the younger sons in Mum’s family trying to make a living away from the family farm in Yorkshire at this time, and Dad’s moving out of Peaky Blinder country, it’s not too surprising that some of the cousins ended up working in chocolate factories. (See George Powell and Leonard Lambert). This was the start of cocoa for the masses. Who would win, Rowntree, or Cadbury?

    The picture is of a tin in my collection, the result of a collaboration between the Quaker chocolate company founders, reluctant to support the actual war effort, but also reluctant to offend the Queen. It was a luxury Christmas present for troops in the Boer War.

    By WWII, chocolate was considered an essential household food.