Midgleys – maybe

I have just put a page up on Ruth Newell (later Lucas).  She was the sister (well, the page will say more about her exact relationship) of Sarah Ann Midgley, my great great-grandmother.  There are a lot of things that are not known about Ruth, but she was a powerful influence on at least some family members.  She was also, as her marriage license shows, unable to sign her name – in 1868 that would not have been so unusual.  But as I read ‘her mark’ I was stunned to think that illiteracy was possible.  My thanks to various respondents on Curious Fox – a very helpful resource

www.curiousfox.org.uk/

Crossland siblings

I have just put up a brief page on Henry Crossland, the older brother of Kelita Crossland and will over the next few weeks add information on Kelita’s other siblings.  These were all living and working in the Middleton/Hunslet area for their entire lives.  Many of the family had inks, to coal mining – not surprising since mining lay at the heart of the Leeds economy for at least the early part of the 19th century.  All had large families – and all having descendents.

Belfast burial records

It is really good to find official records being made available for free on the internet.  Belfast City Council now make the burial records for a number of cemeteries in the Belfast area easily available on their site

http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/burialrecords/

They can be searched by name and give details of the person, date, age and last residence, along with the location of the grave.  An excellent example of good practice – and one which should be followed by all councils.  Graves are one of the core resources for family and local history.  Any source for Ireland is of especial value because the damage to the census records in the Troubles of the 1920s made family history research very difficult.

Hogarths

I have had a few queries about Hugh Hogarth and the Hogarth family, so I have added some material and revised my page on him.  In all families there are ‘characters’ who stay in the family memory and Hugh Hogarth is a good example.  He seems to be the stuff that legends are made of – he married ‘up’ into the Bryces, a wealthy Glasgow merchant family;  he traveled to New Zealand and lived in Auckland; he fought (maybe) in the Maori Wars and he probably was a violent drunk.  But one little detail appears to have been neglected – throughout he was a draper, something that is a bit at odds with the story!

Synchronity

Now here is a strange coincidence – and most family historians probably have these slightly odd experiences.

My sister and I were looking in my parents’ loft late one evening a few weeks back, and in a pile of framed prints I found an original drawing by the local artist Mercy Hunter.  It was a name that I knew, because she had been a notable character in the ‘boho’ Botanic area of Belfast when I was a student; she could often be seen walking an ancient afghan dog.  My sister took a fancy to the drawing, and I did a bit of research on the artist, finding a site run by one of her extended family.  My sister emailed him a scan of the picture and I emailed him because my husband’s aunt had been an art teacher in Belfast at about the same time as Mercy Hunter.  And got an email back with a photograph of my husband’s aunt in the 1960s!  How strange!  The dead speak to us.  It is as if by focusing on it we call up the past and awaken it.  I know that Carl Jung wrote about this type of experience; as  a librarian I became used to strange coincidences as I researched things.

Nuremberg Rally

Sorting through some old papers belonging to my father I came across this postcard

It is addressed to my father, then living in Kent and signed by his school penfriend, Hans Meyer.  The message in English reads

I am here with the Hitler Youth in Nuremberg in the form of the ‘Reichspartietag.’  It is very grandiose.

It feels slightly shocking to read such a message about an event that had such ominous implications.  I wonder what happened to Hans in the years that followed?

Grand father’s diary

Among some family papers in my parents’ house I find the little pocket diary of my grandfather, Frank Birks.  It gives a brief description of his daily activities -Went into town alone; made three pounds of blackberry jelly; posted parcel to Belfast. That parcel was to his daughter and his grand-daughters who had moved to Belfast in 1959 when his son-in-law got a job there; it was a move that took a part of his family a long way away and probably made him unhappy.  At that time it was a considerable journey, often by overnight ferry.  He had only been retired for a couple of years having worked until 70 as a Cost Accountant in Rolls Royce (a job that I rather suspect he did not like very much).  There is a sense of his aloneness, he often notes going shopping by himself.  The last entry is for 23rd December when he goes into town and later his son and grand-daughter come for tea.  There are no more entries. On 25th December he died of a heart attack, he was 73.