Family tree for you Group

February’s Magazine

FreeWelcome back again to the newsletter sorry we have missed one month but with Xmas and the New Year there was not a lot of time to do one for the group.

I hope a lot of you have been onto the 1911 site and had a look I did buy some credits but used them all up in a couple of hours I did write to the site and so did Pat to say we thought it was a cheek asking for more money when we had already subbed to there site so now I will wait and see who puts it on for free.

This month we would like to do a mixed up news letter so hope you don’t mind as we do get a little stuck on ideas.

Victorian Schools

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All children go to schoolMany children in early Victorian England never went to school at all and more than half of them grew up unable even to read or write. Although some did go to Sunday schools which churches ran. Children from rich families were luckier than poor children. Nannies looked after them, and they had toys and books. A governess would teach the children at home. Then, when the boys were old enough, they were sent away to a public school such as Eton or Rugby. The daughters were kept at home and taught singing, piano playing and sewing. Slowly, things changed for poorer children too. By the end of the Victorian age all children under 12 had to go to school. Now everybody could learn how to read and write, and how to count properly.

Schools

There were several kinds of school for poorer children. The youngest might go to a "Dame" school, run by a local

woman in a room of her house. The older ones went to a day school. Other schools were organised by churches and

charities. Among these were the "ragged" schools that were for orphans and very poor children.

 

School room The school could be quite a grim building. The rooms were warmed by a single stove or open

fire. The walls of a Victorian schoolroom were quite bare, except perhaps for an embroidered text. Curtains were used

to divide the schoolhouse into classrooms. The shouts of several classes competed as they were taught side by side.

There was little fresh air because the windows were built high in the walls, to stop pupils looking outside and being distracted from their work. Many schools were built in the Victorian era, between 1837 and 1901. In the country you

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would see barns being converted into schoolrooms. Increasing numbers of children began to attend, and they

became more and more crowded. But because school managers didn’t like to spend money on repairs, buildings

were allowed to rot and broken equipment was not replaced.

Teachers

Children were often scared of their teachers because they were very strict. Children as young as thirteen helped the

teacher to control the class. These “pupil teachers” scribbled notes for their lessons in books. They received certificates,

which helped them qualify as teachers when they were older. In schools before 1850 you might see a single teacher

instructing a class of over 100 children with help of pupils called “monitors”. The head teacher quickly taught these

monitors, some of them as young as nine, who then tried to teach their schoolmates. Salaries were low, and there were more women teaching than men. The pale, lined faces of

older teachers told a story. Some taught only because they were too ill to do other jobs. The poor conditions in schools simply made their health even worse. Sometimes, angry

parents attacked teachers. They shouted that their children should be at work earning money, not wasting time at school. Teachers in rough areas had to learn to box!

Pupils

After 1870, all children from five to thirteen had to attend school by law. In winter in the countryside, many children faced a teeth chattering walk to school of several miles. A large number didn’t turn up. Lessons lasted from 9am to

5pm, with a two-hour lunch break. Because classes were so large, pupils all had to do the same thing at the same time. The teacher barked a command, and the children all opened

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their books. At the second command they began copying sentences from the blackboard. When pupils found their

work boring, teachers found their pupils difficult to control.

Lessons

Victorian lessons concentrated on the “three Rs”-Reading, writing and arithmetic. Children learnt by reciting things like parrots, until they were word perfect. It was not an exciting

form of learning! Science was taught by “object lesson”. Snails, models of trees, sunflowers, stuffed dogs; crystals, wheat or pictures of elephants and camels were placed on each pupil’s desk as the subject for the lesson. The object lesson was supposed to make children observe, then talk about what they had seen. Unfortunately, many teachers

found it easier to chalk up lists describing the object, for the class to copy. Geography meant yet more copying and

reciting - listing the countries on a globe, or chanting the names of railway stations between London and Holyhead. If you look at a timetable from late in the 1800s and you will see a greater number of subjects, including needlework,

cookery and woodwork. But the teacher still taught them by chalking and talking.

Slates and copybooks

Children learned to write on slates, they scratched letters on them with

sharpened pieces of slate. Paper was expensive, but slates could be

used again and again. Children were supposed to bring sponges to clean them. Most just spat on the

slates, and rubbed them clean with their sleeves. Older children learned

to use pen and ink by writing in “copybooks”. Each morning the ink monitor filled up little,

clay inkwells and handed them round from a tray. Pens were fitted with scratchy, leaking nibs, and children were

punished for spilling ink, which “blotted their copybooks”. Teaches also gave dictation, reading out strange poems

which the children had to spell out correctly.

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Reader

Slates showing pictures and names of different objects hang from the walls of the infants class. The children chant the

name of each object in turn. When they can use these words in sentences they will move on to a “reader”. This would p

probably be the Bible. For reading lessons, the pupils lined up with their toes touching a semi-circle chalked

on the floor. They took it in turns to read aloud from the bible. The words didn’t sound like everyday words; children stumbled over the long sentences. Quicker

readers fidgeted as they waited for their turn to read. School inspectors slowly realised that the bibles language was too difficult. Books of moral stories

gradually replaced Bibles, with titles like Harriet and the Matches. A reader had to last for a whole year. If the class read it too quickly, they had to go back to the

beginning and read it all over again!

Abacus

The pupils used an abacus to help them with their maths. Calculations were made using imperial weights and measures instead of our simpler metric system.

Children had to pass inspections in maths, reading and writing before they could move up to the next class or “standard”. The dreaded inspector, to make sure that

they deserved government funds, also tested teachers.

Cane

Teachers handed out regular canings. Look inside the “punishment book” that every school kept, and you will see many reasons for these beatings: rude conduct, leaving the playground without permission, sulkiness, answering back,

missing Sunday prayers, throwing ink pellets and being late. Boys were caned across their bottoms, and girls across their

hands or bare legs. Some teachers broke canes with their fury, and kept birch rods in jars of water to make them more supple. Victims had to chose which cane they wished to be

beaten with!

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Dunce's Cap

Punishment did not end with caning. Students had to stand on a stool at the back of the class, wearing an armband with

DUNCE written on it. The teacher then took a tall, cone-shaped hat decorated with a large “D”, and placed it on the boys head. Today we know that some children learn more

slowly than others. Victorian teachers believed that all children could learn at the same speed, and if some fell behind then they should be punished for not trying hard

enough.

Drill

When its time for PE or “drill”, a pupil teacher starts playing an out-of-tune piano . The children jog, stretch and

lift weights in time to the awful music. It is like a Victorian aerobics class! Even when the teacher rings a heavy, brass bell to announce the end of school, the pupils march out to

the playground in perfect time

Playtime

Outside the classroom is a small yard crowded with shrieking schoolmates. Games of blind mans buff, snakes and ladders,

hide-and-seek and hopscotch are in full swing. Some boys would beg a pigs bladder from the butcher, which they

would blow up to use as a football. Others drilled hobnails through cotton reels to make spinning tops.

Child Labour & The Industrial Revolution

During the 1800s the Industrial Revolution spread throughout Britain. The use of steam-powered machines, led to a massive increase in the number of factories (particularly in textile factories or mills).

From Country to Town

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As the number of factories

grew people

from the

countryside began to move into the towns looking for better-paid work. The wages of a farm worker were very low and

there were less jobs working on farms because of the invention and use of new machines such as threshers. Also

thousands of new workers were needed to work machines in mills and foundries and the factory owners built houses for

them. Cities filled to overflowing and London was particularly bad. At the start of the 19th Century about 1/5 of Britain’s

population lived there, but by 1851 half the population of the country had set up home in London. London, like most cities,

was not prepared for this great increase in people. People crowded into already crowded houses. Rooms were rented to whole families or perhaps several families. If there were

no rooms to rent, people stayed in lodging houses.

Housing The worker's houses were

usually near to the factories so that people could walk to work. They were built really

quickly and cheaply. The houses were cheap, most had between 2-4 rooms -

one or two rooms downstairs, and one or two rooms upstairs. Victorian

families were big with 4 or 5 children. There was no

running water or toilet. A

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whole street would have to share an outdoor pump and a couple of outside toilets. Most houses in the North of

England were "back to backs" (built in double rows) with no windows at the front, no backyards and a sewer down the middle of the street. The houses were built crammed close together, with very narrow streets between them. Most of

the houses were crowded with five or more people possibly crammed into a single room. Even the cellars were full. 

Most of the new towns were dirty and unhealthy. The household rubbish was thrown out into the streets. Housing

conditions like these were perfect breeding grounds for diseases. More than 31,000 people died during an outbreak

of cholera in 1832 and lots more were killed by typhus, smallpox and dysentery.

Pollution Chimneys, bridges and factory smoke blocked out most of the light in the towns. A layer of dirty smoke often covered the streets like a blanket. This came from the factories that used steam to power their machines. The steam was made by burning coal to heat water. Burning coal produces a lot of dirty, black smoke.

Improvements Gradually, improvements for the poor were made. In 1848, Parliament passed laws that allowed city councils to clean up the streets. One of the first cities to become a healthier place was Birmingham. Proper sewers and drains were built. Landowners had to build houses to a set standard. Streets were paved and lighting was put up. Over time slums were knocked down and new houses built. However, these changes did not take place overnight. When slums were knocked down in 1875 the poor people had little choice but to move to another slum, making that one worse. Few could afford new housing.

Child Labour

Many factory workers were children. They worked long hours and were often treated badly by the supervisors or overseers. Sometimes the children started work as young as four or five years old. A young child could not earn much, but even a few pence would be enough to buy food.

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Coal Mines The coalmines were dangerous places where roofs sometimes caved in, explosions happened and workers got all sorts of injuries. There were very few safety rules. Men, women and children did cutting and moving coal that

machines do nowadays.     The younger children often worked as "trappers" who worked trap doors. They sat in a hole hollowed out for them and held a string which was fastened to the door. When they heard the coal wagons coming they had to open the door by pulling a string. This job was one of the easiest down the mine but it was very lonely and the place were they sat was usually damp and draughty.     Older children might be employed as "coal bearers" carrying loads of coal on their backs in big baskets.

The Mines Act was passed by the Government in 1842 forbidding the employment of women and girls and all boys under the age of teen down mines. Later it became illegal for a boy under 12 to work down a mine.

While thousands of children worked down the mine, thousands of others worked in the cotton mills. The mill owners often took in orphans to their workhouses, they lived at the mill and were worked as hard as possible. They spent most of their working hours at the machines with little time for fresh air or exercise. Even part of Sunday was spent cleaning machines. There were some serious accidents, some children were scalped when their hair was caught in the machine, hands were crushed and

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some children were killed when they went to sleep and fell into the machine.

Factories and Brick Works Children often worked long and gruelling hours in factories and had to carry out some hazardous jobs. In match factories children were employed to dip matches into a chemical called phosphorous. This phosphorous could cause their teeth to rot and some died from the effect of breathing it into their lungs.

Chimney Sweeps Although in 1832 law forbade the use of boys for sweeping chimneys, boys continued to be forced through the narrow winding passages of chimneys in large houses. When they first started at between five and ten years old, children suffered many cuts, grazes and bruises on their knees, elbows and thighs however after months of suffering their skin became hardened.

Street Children Hordes of dirty, ragged children roamed the streets with no regular money and no home to got to. The children of the streets were often orphans with no one to care for them. They stole or picked pockets to buy food and slept in outhouses or doorways. Charles Dickens wrote about these children in his book "Oliver Twist".     Some street children did jobs to earn money. They could work as crossing-sweepers, sweeping a way through the mud and horse dung of the main paths to make way for ladies and gentlemen. Others sold lace, flowers, matches or muffins etc out in the streets.

Country Children Poor families who lived in the countryside were also forced to send their children out to work. Seven and eight year olds could work as bird scarers, out in the fields from four in the morning until seven at night. Older ones worked in gangs as casual labourers.

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Changes for the better It took time for the government to decide that working children ought to be protected by laws as many people did not see anything wrong with the idea of children earning their keep. They also believed that people should be left alone to help themselves and not expect others to protect or keep them. They felt children had a right to send their children out to work. People such as Lord Shaftsbury and Sir Robert Peel worked hard to persuade the public that it was wrong for children to suffer health problems and to miss out on schooling due to work.

Victorian Family Life

( Upper & Middle Class Families) Families were very important to Victorians. They were usually large; in 1870 the average family had five or six children. Most upper and middle class families lived in big, comfortable houses. Each member of the family had its own place and children were taught to "know their place".

The Father The father was the head of the household. He was often strict and was obeyed by all without question. The children were taught to respect their father and always spoke politely to him calling him "Sir". Very few children would dare to be cheeky to their father or answer him back. When he wanted a little peace and quiet he would retire to his study and the rest of the family were not allowed to enter without his special permission.

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The Mother The mother would often spend her time planning dinner parties, visiting her dressmaker or calling on friends, she did not do jobs like washing clothes or cooking and cleaning. Both "papa and mama saw the upbringing of their children as an important responsibility. They believed a child must be taught the difference between right and wrong if he was to grow into a good and thoughtful adult. If a child did something wrong he would be punished for his own good. "Spare the rod and spoil the child" was a saying Victorians firmly believed in.  

The Children Most days middle class children saw very little of their parents. The children in a middle class family would spend most of their time in the nursery and would be brought up by their nanny. Victorian children were expected to rise early, because lying in bed was thought to be lazy and sinful. The nanny would-be paid about £25 a year to wash, dress and watch over them, amuse them, dose them, take them out and teach them how to behave. Some would only see their parents once a day. In the evening, clean and tidy the children were allowed downstairs for an hour before they went to bed. Some mothers taught their children to read and write and sometimes fathers taught their sons Latin. As the children grew older, tutors and governesses were often employed and boys were sometimes sent away to school when the children grew up, only the boys were expected to work, the daughters stayed at home with their mother. They were expected only to marry as soon as possible.

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The Servants

All households except the very poorest had servants to do their day-to-day work. The cook and the butler were the most important. The butler answered the front door and waited on the family. The cook was responsible for shopping for food and running the kitchen, she would often be helped by kitchen and scullery maids. Housemaids cleaned the rooms and footmen did the heavy work.     People would come from the country to work as servants in the town houses. These jobs were popular because they gave them somewhere to live and clothes. On average they earned about £50 a year. Often they spent their working lives with the same household.

Poor / Working Class Families For poorer families their greatest fear was ending up in the workhouse, where thousands of homeless and penniless families were forced to live. If your family was taken into the workhouse you would be split up dressed in uniform and have your hair cut short. This could happen to a family if father were taken ill and unable to work.     Lots of children in poor families died of diseases like scarlet fever, measles, polio and TB, which are curable today. Foul drinking water, open drains and lack of proper toilets spread these. In overcrowded rooms if one person caught a disease it spread quickly through the rest.

Sport, Hobbies & Pastimes

By the second half of Queen Victoria's reign, most people earned more money and worked shorter hours than ever before. This meant that for the first time, ordinary people had enough spare time to enjoy sports and other pastimes, and to go to the seaside for holidays.  

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Nursery Toys The younger children of well off families had lots of beautiful toys in their nurseries. The favourite was the rocking horse, which was made from wood and painted brightly. Girls also enjoyed playing with their dolls' houses, furniture for these could be bought and changed with times and fashions. Victorian dolls were probably the most beautiful ones made. Their heads and shoulders were made of wax or china with bodies made of stuffed calico or wood. Most dolls were dressed as adults with beautiful clothes made from satin, taffeta or lace. A poor girl would long for a doll like this, which she would only see in shop windows, She would never be able to afford one but might have a rag doll instead. Boys would play with their tin or lead soldiers. Later in the century as the railways developed across the country clockwork trains became popular.

Older children Often older children would play with toy theatres. The plays they would perform would take up a lot of their time and money. First they had to buy a stage, which would be made of wood and cardboard with a row of tin footlights with oil burning wicks along the front. Sheets of characters and scenes would cost a penny plain and two pence ready coloured.    Girls might spend their spare time sewing. They practised their stitches by embroidering letters of the alphabet, texts or complex pictures within a fancy border. These pieces of embroidery were called samplers.     Reading was a popular pastime; many books written during the Victorian era are still enjoyed today. 

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Outdoor games These changed with the seasons, children played with hoops, balls or tops. They also played marbles or alleys.  

Sport became extremely popular in Victorian times. Traditional sports like football, cricket and boxing had been played for centuries but now they were given proper rules for the first time. The first Football Association (FA) Cup was played in 1871. This was when many football clubs were set up, ones like Aston Villa and Everton were set up by churches to attract more people to come to church. Others like Arsenal were set up by employers. Football was meant to keep people healthy and to encourage a sense of fair play. It wasn't that successful and free kicks (1877) and penalty kicks (1891) had to be brought in to clamp down on foul play. English and Australian teams played their first cricket Test Match in England in 1880. W.G. Grace was among the players. The organised matches drew large crowds and watching sport became a hobby.

 Croquet & Lawn Tennis Croquet was introduced in England in 1856 and was probably brought to America in the early 1860’s. It was considered particularly suitable for women since it required considerable skills but not too much strength or technique. (Victorians believed women were deficient in both!). Although croquet was never a popular men’s game, it had both social and economic advantages: men and women could play together, and it required little equipment and no special clothing.  

Lawn tennis was another popular sport for middle-class women. At first proper tennis evolved patting the ball back and forth, without keeping score, but, players were soon caught up in the competitive spirit of the game, finding it an excellent method of exercise and a useful mental and physical outlet. More active than croquet or archery tennis also appealed to men. By the 1880’s it had become the rage in fashionable summer resorts, and magazines devoted space to the proper clothes to wear while playing.

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Cycling this became very popular. The safety bicycle was brought out in 1885 and was the cheapest way to travel. People who lived in town would ride out into the countryside on their bicycles.

Some Important People of

Victorian Times

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836-1917) The first woman to qualify as a doctor in Britain. She founded a hospital for poor women and children in London.

Mrs. Isabella Beeton 1836-1865 An English writer who’s "Book of Household Management" was a bestseller for many years.

 Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) Inventor of the telephone.

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William Booth (1829-1912) A Methodist minister who founded The Salvation Army in 1878 to preach and give help, shelter and food to poor people

. Isambard Kingdom Brunel 1806-1859  Brunel was an engineer who specialised in railway traction, tunnels, steam ships and bridges. He designed the Clifton Suspension Bridge and was engineer to the Greta Western Railway. He built the SS Great eastern the largest 19th century ship.

Lewis Carroll(1832-1898) Real name Charles L. Dodgson, he was the author of Alice in Wonderland (1865).

Charles Dickens 1812-1870 Great novelist of the Victorian age. His novels were outstandingly popular in his time and are still popular now. His books include stories about thieves, convicts and schoolboys. He wrote about ordinary people and how they lived, about terrible prisons, bad schools and the workhouse. His famous characters include Oliver Twist, Scrooge and David Copper field

. This is a query from Annette in Blackpool

She wrote

Thanks for the reply. As far as I can gather my G, Grandfatherx3 was called Thomas Hughes and was born around 1800 probably in Mold or that area. The Crimean war was 1853-56. The mystery is that, although my Grandad said his G, Grandfather died during or just after the war, Thomas is named on his

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son's marriage certificate in 1859 and his job was a labourer. His son Evan is listed as a Gamekeeper. It's very confusing. So either he was killed before his son married and the registrar didn't write deceased on the certificate, or he died after the marriage and wasn't a Gamekeeper any more. All I have to go on, is what my Grandad said when he was interviewed by a newspaper journalist who was writing an article about my Grandad. He used to be a gamekeeper as well, for Sir Henry Tate (the sugar refiner and Sir Ernest Tate's son) and he made the most wonderful walking sticks. Central TV made a programme about him and that was the reason for the newspaper article. Grandad never actually spoke to the family about his G, Grandfather as far as I know. So the article is the only thing I have. With Thomas Hughes being such a common name there are so many in the Ancestry death records it would be impossible to find him on there. On Evan Hughes's marriage certificate it says that he was from Lees wood and that he married in St John's Church, Chester. I'm so looking forward to going to Wales to see all the places I've found during my research. I'm absolutely certain that if what my Grandad says is true and that Thomas was killed by poacher's there will be a record of it somewhere. It's just a case of finding it!~*Annette*~

So any help on this one anyone

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History of Harrods

Since the store first

opened its doors in 1849, Harrods has always prided itself on a reputation for excellence. Since its birth, Harrods has continued to seek out the finest quality merchandise, providing an outstanding level of service for each and every customer.

But this is just part of the Harrods story. The store is much more than a shopping destination, more than just a splendid building. Its story is tied up in the people who have passed through its doors, worked here, written about it and added to its magnificent architecture.The Early DaysThe Harrods story started in 1834 in London’s East End. With a special interest in tea; founder Charles Henry Harrod set up as a wholesale grocer in Stepney. To escape the filth of the inner city – and capitalise on trade to the Great Exhibition of 1851 in nearby Hyde Park – in 1849 Harrod took over a small shop in the new district of Knightsbridge on the site of the current store.From a single room employing two assistants and a messenger boy; Harrods’s son Charles Dig by built up the business into a thriving store selling medicines, perfumes, stationery, fruit and vegetables. Consequently expanding into the adjoining buildings and employing 100 staff by 1880.

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But the store’s booming fortunes changed in 1883, when it burnt to the ground in early December. With true Harrods mettle, Charles Dig by fulfilled all the Christmas deliveries and made a record profit for the store. A new building immediately rose from the ashes, and soon it extended credit for the first time to its best customers – among them Oscar Wilde and legendary actresses Lilly Langtry and Ellen Terry.

But the Harrods family decided they had enough of retail, and in 1889 the store became a public company. The 1890s were boom time, and new departments were added – including the Harrods Bank and Estate Agency – as well as the very first sale or "Winter Clearance" in 1894. The new Managing Director Richard Burbidge was well ahead of his time, introducing the world’s first escalator in 1898 - with brandy at the top to revive nervous customers - shortening working hours for his 200 staff, and the devising of a grand plan to build the world’s most luxurious department store.

Burbidge’s audacity was as monumental as the grand store he started building in 1901. Designed by architect of Claridge’s Hotel C.W. Stephens it was positively palatial, with a frontage clad in terracotta tiles adorned with swags, cherubs, pilasters and swirling Art Nouveau windows – and topped by a baroque dome, which still contains nothing more exciting than a water tank.

Inside, the magnificent interiors included vivid Royal Doulton tiles – still in place in the Meat Hall – fine rococo plasterwork created by Parisian craftsmen, and a vast tearoom with an Art Nouveau skylight, now the Georgian Restaurant. Harrods instantly became London’s most fashionable store.

In the early 1900s, writer Arnold Bennett based his novel Hugo on the store, while Harrods was recreated on the London stage in 1907 in the hugely successful musical comedy ‘Our Miss Gibbs’.

With 91 departments, the store occupied just the ground and first floors of the building. The four storeys above were made up of lavishly appointed mansion flats, whose stately entrance can still be seen in Hans Road. Even the newly built Selfridges in Oxford Street could not compete.

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In 1927 the stores fought neck and neck to achieve the highest profits. However Gordon Selfridges lost, and his gift of a silver replica of Harrods still sits on the lower ground floor of the store

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The famous Harrods motto 'Everything for Everybody Everywhere' has more than lived up to its reputation over the years. Noel Coward was bought an alligator for Christmas from the pet shop, while Ronald Reagan was on the receiving end of a baby elephant named Gertie. Author A.A Christopher Robin here, and Alfred Hitchcock had fresh herrings flown to him in Hollywood. In the early 1900s, the store made yachts to order, ran its own funeral service (embalming Sigmund Freud), sold aeroplanes and built houses.

In the 1930s, you could see one of the worlds first television sets at Harrods or hire a fully equipped ambulance; complete with a nurse. You could join the store's lending library during the 1940s and even have the clocks in your home wound by the store's specialist winding service.

Harrods has constantly evolved over the years to keep up with trends. The 1920s saw luxury apartments on the second and third floors converted to selling space.

While the following decade saw the south side of the store rebuilt to provide a sleek vast area of men's tailoring requirements; as well as a younger set gown department to cater for changing women fashions.

But soon the war would change society; and Harrods with it. The. Milne found the original Winnie-the-Pooh for his son store's lavish tea dances hosted by Victor Sylvester; limousine hire and debutante fashion for coming parties would be swept aside. Instead, the store turned to the war effort, producing uniforms, parachutes and parts

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for Lancaster bombers, and sections of the building were taken over by the Royal Navy.

There was not much money to be spent during the frugal post-war years and Harrods suffered. Finally in 1959, the House of Fraser group acquired the store, and began to upgrade what was seen as an old-fashioned institution.

The masterstroke was the opening

Have Way In; in 1967, a swinging young boutique that brought Carnaby Street to Harrods. Followed by a spectacular black marble perfumery hall in 1971, and a wonderous white marble cosmetics hall the following year.

Harrods has been influenced by visits from Noël Coward, Sigmund Freud, Oscar Wilde, Queen Mary, AA Milne and Pierce Brosnan, while making way for new visitors, new

Inspiration and new ways to surprise and delight everyone who comes to call.

Working from a single room with two assistants and a messenger boy, Harrod’s son Charles Digby built the business into a thriving store, which sold medicines, perfume, stationery, fruit and vegetables. By 1880, Harrods had expanded to include the surrounding buildings and employed 100 staff members.

Canning Town 1878   Post Office Directory

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  Canning Town is a populous district, in Church Street ward, in the parish of West Ham, in the southern division of the county, hundred of Becontree, county court district of Bow, rural deanery of Barking, archdeaconry of Essex, and diocese of St Albans; it is also in the Easter Metropolitan Postal district, and within the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court and of the Metropolitan Police. The Great Eastern railway has three stations within the district; the river Lea flows on the west to the Thames. Holy Trinity ecclesiastical parish was formed in 1868 from the parish of West Ham. The church, situated in the Barking Road, is a Gothic building, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, a tower with a small spire, also 1 bell and an organ; it contains over 1,000 sittings, all free and inappropriate. The register dates from the year 1867. The living is a perpetual curacy, yearly value £200, in the gift of the Bishop of St Albans, and held by the Rev John Russell, BA of Dublin. St Luke’s Church is in the early English style; it is a brick building and consists of chancel, nave and aisles. The living is a perpetual curacy, yearly value £200, in the gift of the Bishop of St Albans, and held by the Rev Thomas Stevens, MA of Magdalene College, Cambridge. St Gabriels Mission Church is a plain brick building; the Rev David Hughes Francis BA of St David’s, Lampeter, is curate in charge. There is an Iron Mission Church near the Tidal Basin and St Matthews Mission Church in the Plaistow Road. The Catholics have a chapel, with schools. The Peculiar People, Baptists, Congregationalists, Wesleyans, Primitive Methodists, Methodist Free Church and Presbyterians have each places of worship here. A Police station was erected in 1863. There are Board and National schools. The Victoria (London) docks are in Plaistow Marsh; these docks, designed for ships of the largest burthen, cover an area of 100 acres, and have an entrance lock, 325 feet long by 80 feet wide, with nearly 28 feet depth at Trinity High water. A branch of Her Majesty’s Customs is established here, and under the same roof the London and St Katharine Dock Company, Victoria (London) docks, transacts their business. The Victoria Dock pier is at the entrance, and there are chemical manufactories on the banks of the Thames and large creosoting works and iron shipbuilders in the parish. The area of Holy Trinity parish is 433 acres, and the population in 1871 was 7, 697.  

Official Establishments, Local Institutions etc Post & Money Order Office, Savings Bank, Government Annuity & Insurance, Victoria

Dock Road, Joseph Clement, receiver Post & Money Order & Telegraph Office & Savings Bank, Victoria Dock Road, Joseph

Cherry Osborne, receiver  

Insurance Agents:- General Fire & Life, Norman, Son & Greensted, 1 Victoria Dock Road

Prudential Life, Henry William Greensted, Cromwell House, Barking Road  

Public Establishments:- Custom House

London & St Katherine’s Dock Co (Charles Norman, sup; Charles Barithwaite, asst supt; Capt Geo B Linch, dock master; Richd Holloway, asst dock master; Michl

Adamson, assistant engineer), Victoria Docks Police Station, Victoria Docks, Edwd Ellis, chief constable

Londoners over the Border

   London does not end at the limits assigned to it by those acts of Parliament, which take thought for the health of the Londoners. More suburbs shoot up,

while official ink is drying. Really, there is no limit to London; but the law must needs assign bounds; and, by the law there is one suburb on the border of the

Essex marshes which is quite cut off from the comforts of the Metropolitan

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Buildings Act;-in fact, it lies just without its boundaries, and therefore is chosen as a place of refuge for offensive trade establishments turned out of the town, - those of oil boilers, gut spinners, varnish makers, printers ink makers and the

like.

Being cut off from the support of the Metropolitan Local managing Act, this outskirt is free to possess new streets of houses without drains, roads, gas, or pavement. It forms part of the parish of West Ham and consists of two new

towns; Hallsville, called into existence some ten years since by the Messrs Mare and Company’s ship-building yard, and half depopulated by the recent

bankruptcy of that firm; and Canning Tow, very recently created by the works in progress at the new Victoria Docks. Hallsville and Canning Town are

immediately adjacent to the barking Road station of the Eastern Counties line. That station is connected by a junction with the North London Railway, and is to be reached by a sixpenny ride from Fen church Street, Camden Town,  or any of

the intermediate stations. Any Londoner may, in dry summer weather, at the cost of very little time and money, go out, as we have done, to see this patch of

the land over the border.

  If he should go out in wet weather, or in winter, for that purpose, he will doubt whether it be land that he has come to see. It is a district, at such times, most

safely to be explored on stilts. The clergyman of the parish says, that he once lost his shoes in the mud whilst visiting in Hallsville, and did not know that they were gone till some time afterwards; so thickly were his feet encased in knobs of mud. The parish doctor tells us that he means, next winter, to wear fishing boots that shall reach to his thighs. The inspector of schools, when he goes to Hallsville in the winter, puts on shooting boots as a particular precaution. He may need a coracle sometimes. The whole of the ground on which Hallsville and Canning Town are built is seven feet below High Water mark. Bow Creek borders both colonies, and very ancient banks of earth dam its water at high tide, out from

them. The embankment is attributed to Danes, Saxons or Romans. When we first visited the place. The water in the creek was actually, to the stature of a man,

higher than the ground on which we walked.

  Our second visit was paid at the time of low water, on one of the Nature’s baking days. From the slight elevation of the railway station or the bridge over the creek, the district, on such a day, seems more inviting than repulsive. The wide plain of valuable pasturage – for the marshes that give ague to men, give

grass to beasts – is dry to the foot and green to the eye. There are pleasant belts of trees, with here a spire, there is a church tower, upon the horizon; and, in the foreground, groups of cattle feed as Cuyp used to paint them feeding. There are

a good many tall smoking chimneys that mark out the line of the creek, and there is forest of masts to tell of the adjacent Thames and of the docks; but, to

the eye, the broad green Essex plain is master of the situation.

  Such a plain suggests a feeling of repose. Hallsville and Canning Town seem to be enviable townlets, their small houses appearing, in the hot season, to be happy homes of men who pasture flocks and herds safe from the wear and worry of the

world.

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  But let us go down into either townlets. It does not, in the smallest degree, matter which. The houses are built in rows; but they’re being no roads, the ways are so unformed that the parish will not take charge of them. We get, then, upon

a narrow path of gravel raised about two feet above the grass – such paths enable men to walk not more than midleg deep about the the place in rainy

weather – and we come to a row of houses built with their backs to a stagnant ditch. We turn aside to see the ditch, and find that it is a cesspool, so charged with corruption, that not a trace of vegetable matter grows upon its surface –

bubbling and seething with the constant rise of the foul products of decomposition that the pool pours into the air. The filth of each house passes

through a short pipe straight into this ditch, and stays there. Upon its surface, to our great wonder, a few consumptive looking ducks are swimming, very dirty;

very much like the human dwellers in foul alleys as their depressed and haggard physiognomy, and to be weighed by ounces, not by pounds. Some of them may be

ducklings; but they look as old as the most ancient raven.

  Perhaps this row of houses is a poor back settlement – a slum of Hallesville. We go on, and are abruptly stopped by another ditchful of stagnating corruption,

bubbling as the last bubbled; while, at a little distance, is another row of houses built so that they may pour all their solid and liquid filth into it in the most

convenient way, and receive it back as air, with the least possible dilution. Near these houses we find a plank by which the ditch is crossed. There is a path across a patch of green, and the path is, in one place, made up of planks rotted with wet,

now dried into the soil on which they float in spongy weather. The planks tell a tale, so does the bloated and corrupt body of a drowned dog that lies baking in

the middle of that patch of green. We smell the dog, we smell the ditches, and we smell the marsh, dry as it is. As we go on exploring, we find the same system of

building everywhere.

  Rows of small houses, which may have cost for their construction eighty pounds a piece, are built designedly and systematically with their backs to the marsh ditches; which, with one exception, are all stopped up at their outlet; and in

many parts of their course also, if there were an outlet, or if it could be said that that they had any course at all, to or three yards of clay pipe “drain” each house into the open cess pool under its back windows, when it does not happen that the house is built as to overhang it. We feel a qualm in calling houses built when they are laid out as bandboxes upon the soil. In wintertime every block becomes now and then an island, and you may hear a sick man, in an upper room, complain of

water trickling down over his bed. Then the flood cleans the ditches, lifting all their filth into itself, and spreading it over the land. No wonder that the stench of

the marsh in Hallsville and Canning Town of nights is horrible. A fetid mist covers the ground. If you are walking out and meet a man, you only see him from the middle upwards, the foul ground mist covering his legs. So says the

parish surgeon, an intelligent man and a gentleman, by whom the day work and the night work of a whole district of this character has not been done without

cost to his health. He was himself for a time invalided by fever, upon which ague followed. Ague, of course, is on of the most prevalent diseases of the district;

fever abounds. When an epidemic comes into the place, it becomes serious in its form, and stays for months. Diseases come upon human bodies saturated with

the influences of such air as this breathed day and night, as a spark upon

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touchwood. A case or two of small pox caused, in spite of vaccination, an epidemic of confluent small pox, which remained three or four months upon the spot. “I have had twenty cases of it in one day”, the doctor said. The clergyman of the parish –

whose church is beyond the reach of the Hallsville people, but who is himself familiar to their eyes – told us that during a half year, when the population of

Plaistow proper and Hallsville were equal, he counted the burials in each. There were sixteen deaths in Plaistow, and in Hallsville seventy-two.

  Let us not abstain from recording the zeal of the clergyman of this parish. In it, there are place four miles distant from each other, together with thousands of almost untaught parishioners. At a time when his incumbency was worth only

one hundred and eighty pounds a year, in aid of which he had but another seventy pounds a year of private means, he for two and a half years paid at the rate of one hundred a year for a curates help, and struggled, by a pinch in his

own household, to relive part of the pinch among the poor. He was obliged, after a long fight, to abandon his endeavour; for he was outrunning is income,

“although living as economically as possible, making Lent to extend considerably over forty days”, These are the clergy who support the church; and there is only one way in which such men usually ask the church to support them in turn; - by giving nothing to themselves, only more succour to the poor. Thus, in the present case, appeal is made on behalf of the ignorance of Hallsville and Canning Town,

inhabited by dock labourers and men employed in neighbouring works and manufactories, who live surrounded by all circumstances of degradation. The

church is far from them; churchmen are asked to bring it nearer and in the best way, by establishing a mission. Thus comes into life a plea on behalf of the

Plaistow and Victoria Dock Mission. We allude to that in passing; our concern here being with the bodily condition of the people.

  Though there is no church near Hallsville or Canning Town, there is a small dissenting chapel, to the door of which we were attracted by a large placard

touching the election of a local Board of Health. The Board of Health shone in such mighty capitals, and the details as to the manner of voting and the

qualifications of the voters were described with such circumlocution on so large a poster, that we lost the smell of the place out of our noses for a quarter of a

minute. Then it came back again. We walked on a few steps and were beside another pestilential ditch, bubbling a if there were a miraculous draught of fishes just below. A row of houses was arranged with little back yards dipping into it; and, in on of the backyards was arranged with little backyards dipping into it; and, in one of the backyards, three ghostly little children lying on the ground,

hung with their faces over it, breathing the poison of the bubbles as it rose, and fishing about with their hands in the filth for something – perhaps for something

nice to eat.

 

  We went to the old national School, a small wooden lean-to, built at the side of the last house in an unfinished row. The poor in Rotherhithe, and here too,

describe any line of very crazy cottages as Rabbit-hutch Row. The old Hallsville national school is certainly a sort of Rabbit hutch; and not a large hutch either.

When it was first knocked up, there were but thirty houses in this part of the

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marsh, and accommodation was required for but eleven scholars. The new town grew rapidly, and there were no means of building a new school; so that, at last,

one might see the mistress on a wet day, with her umbrella up, teaching a hundred children in the dripping hutch. We are told that there have been one

hundred and seventy scholars crammed into it; although, if it were a fowl-house, nobody would suppose it able to accommodate that number of fowls. By fortune,

a long room, built by a publican as an American bowling alley for dock labourers and sailors, was bowled down as an alley and set-up again as a new

national school. It is spacious and clean. The skylights open and secure ventilation. There is a ditch full of filth sleeping at full length (we must not say

running) along one side of the building, and it branches into another ditch of the same character that stinks immediately under the back window; which,

therefore, is a closed shutter and no window at all. Over the two ditches, at the place where they meet, a wooden house is built; it seems by its form to have been constructed as a pleasure house on the ground of a publican who speculated in

the bowling green. But now it is a home. The white blind was down at the window. Was there death as well as deadly air inside?

  Of course the ditches were inevitable to the school; for there is no escaping them in Hallsville or Canning Town. The local Board of Health appears, from answers

made to inquiries, to care more bout Stratford, where its members live, than about colonies out in the marsh. On the occasion of our first visit, however, the Board has been active; for we learnt that a ton of deodorising matter had been recently scattered about the vilest pools. The stench, when we paid our second

visit, was unmitigated.

   Two years ago, when application was made by more than a tenth of the rate payers of the parish of West Ham for an inquiry into the sanitary condition of the district, with a view to bringing it under the conditions of the Public Health

Act, Mr Alfred Dickens was the civil engineer sent by the general Board of Health as an inspector. His report and the evidence at his inquiry is before us as

we write, and it dwells very much upon the state of Canning Town and Hallsville. We learn from this report that the area of the ditches in the parish

amounted to not less than one hundred and fifty acres, according to a surveyors book upwards of thirty-five years old, and that side cuttings at the railway and new cuttings of open sewer have increased area. Disease had cost the parish six hundred pounds in the year previous to the inquiry. There was then, of course,

as now, no drainage or paving in Canning Town; the roads in winter were impassable; but the inhabitants were paying (for what they did not get) an eighteen-penny rate under the Commissioners Act, not for works done in

accordance with it, but “for the expenses of the act”. Also, although the parish did not take charge of their roads, they were paying a highway rate for the

parishioners elsewhere. One horrible detail in Mr Dickens report has, happily, to be omitted from our sketch. Two years ago, there was in Hallsville and Canning Town no water supply. Good water is now laid on. In all other respects, the old offences against civilised life cleave to the district. The local Board of Health,

which the inhabitants of the parish sought and obtained, whatever it may have done for Stratford, seems to have done nothing for Hallsville, unless it be

considered something to indulge it with an odd pinch of deodorising powder.

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  Canning Town is the child of the Victoria Docks. The condition of this place and of its neighbour prevents the steadier class of mechanics from residing in it. They go from their work to Stratford or to Plaistow. Many select such a dwelling

place because they arte already debased below the point of enmity to filth; poorer labourers live there, because they cannot afford to go farther, and there

become debased. The Dock Company is surely, to a very great extent, answerable for the condition of the town they are creating. Poor and ignorant

men who have saved a few hundred pounds, and are deluded by the prospect of a fatally cheap building investment build not a few of the houses in it. But who was

it that named on row of houses Montesquieu Place? We should like to see in Canning Town some of the engineering works suggested by a place where on one

spot you may pass out of Ark Wright Street into Brunel Street and turn your back upon Graves Terrace. Was it then an undertaker who had made his money

in these parts, and spent it in a profitable investment upon houses that would further freshen up his trade, who built Graves terrace in Canning Town?

  Not to be unjust to the district, let us own that we found one ditch behind a row of houses covered with green matter; thus proving that it was not poisonous to

organic life to the last degree. In one there was an agitation, which suggested that its course was open, and we found this to be really the one ditch that has, at

certain hours, a flow. It has tidal communication with the river Lea. We understood that a few of the best houses, five or six perhaps, are drained into this ditch, when it is at some distance from their windows, and thus have what is, in

those parts, to be considered decent drainage.

  We need hardly to say, that the level of the marsh ought to be no obstacle to the proper drainage of a town built over it. If it to be worth while to put a pump over a coal mine, certainly it is worth while to put one over the place by the river side to which the sewage of a little town may fall, until the great out-fall question is

decided.

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Old Pictures and letters to look at

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During the First World War, women were working in factories and the Army had established the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps so that

more men were available as front line soldiers.

The Navy also

Needed more men on board its ships so it was decided to establish a Women's Royal Naval Service, known more generally as WRNS. On 29th November 1917 the Admiralty issued Memorandum No.245

announcing that recruitment had started and appealed for women to apply

They needed women for a variety of jobs such as cooks, waitresses, laundresses, bookkeepers, telephonists, wireless operators, as well

as drivers and motor mechanics.

The Headquarters of the Mediterranean Division was set up in Malta, in 1918

On 19th February 1919 the Admiralty issued an Order that WRNS would be demobbed and included the following tribute:

'The WRNS was brought into being at a time of great national emergency when it was necessary to release every man that could be spared for the active fighting forces.

The rapidity with which the Corps was organised to that end and brought to a high state of efficiency constitutes a remarkable

achievement and one that reflects the greatest possible credit on the Director and her officers and

ratings.

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The Headquarters of the Mediterranean Division was set up in Malta, in 1918

On 19th February 1919 the Admiralty issued an Order that WRNS would be demobbed and included the following tribute:

'The WRNS was brought into being at a time of great national emergency when it was necessary to release every man that could be spared for the active fighting forces.

The rapidity with which the Corps was organised to that end and brought to a high state of efficiency constitutes a remarkable achievement and one that reflects the greatest possible credit on the Director and her officers and ratings.

All who have come into contact with the WRNS have been impressed by their discipline, zeal and esprit de corps and the Royal Navy has felt justly proud of the Women's Service which the greatest war of all time called into being to work with us for the common end.'

The 24th May 1919 issue of the Daily Malta Chronicle announced that in the World War I Honours List the British Empire Medal had been awarded to Dorothy Evelyn’s French, a Senior Writer employed in the office of the British Naval Commander-in-Chief at the Auberge de Baviere in Valletta.

Demobilization continued throughout the summer of 1919 and the WRNS officially ceased to exist on 1st October 1919. The total number of girls having been in the service at its peak was 5,054 ratings and 438 officers.

In April 1939 the Women's Royal Naval Service was reformed. New trade skills were added, Gunnery Maintenance and repair, Photo Reconnaissance Interpretation, Cypherines, Operation Room Plotters and for modern communications. In January 1944 the first draft of Wrens, comprising forty ratings and one officer arrived at Malta on board HMS Orion and were quartered at the Imperial Hotel, in Sliema.

 

After the Second World War instead of closing down the WRNS it was decided to make them a permanent organisation, and an announcement to this effect was made on 1st February 1949.

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Service on Malta gave many girls the chance to enjoy a much wider social life than that back in their hometown. With several thousand British servicemen on the island the presence of around three hundred single girls meant that they received invitations to all sorts of entertainment, either in groups or on a one-to-one basis.

At the Manuel Island Theatre on Friday evening, 24th February 1950 there was the 'All Wren Variety Show', comprising a mixed selection of items. The most popular being a comic opera 'The Maiden's Dilemma', the lively 'Cockney Capers', the picturesque 'Rhapsody in Blue' and 'On Brighton Sands' featuring Victorian bathing belles. The band of HMS Forth provided the musical accompaniment.

 

Alice Lillian ALLEN,

W.R.N.S., the daughter of Charles Leslie Allen, married in Malta on 25th May 1953 to Ronald Edward SCURRAH, Motor Transport Fitter, Royal Australian Air Force, Hal Far

The Reverend J.R. Payne, Chaplain R.A.A.F, conducted the ceremony.

 

Elizabeth Therese ANDERSON, W.R.N.S., the daughter of William Henry John Anderson, married in Malta on 6th March 1954 to John BELCHER, Stoker Mechanic, Royal Navy, HMS Daring

 

Maureen ANDERSON, W.R.N.S., HMS Falcon, the daughter of Francis Peter Anderson, married in Malta on 2nd July 1960 to Peter Tom Maxwell HODGSON, Royal Navy, HMS Falcon, Hal Far

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Evelyn Laura ANDON, 3rd Officer, W.R.N.S., the daughter of Major William Valentine Hosteins Andon deceased, married in Malta on 9th February 1946 to Lieu-Commander Standish O’Grady ROCHE, Royal Navy, HMS Matchless

 

Hilda Elizabeth ANGLIN, W.R.N.S., the daughter of John George Anglin, married in Malta on 17th October 1952 to Edwin John EDMONDS, Leading Sick Berth Attendant, Royal Navy, HMS Falcon, Hal Far

Hilda Elizabeth ANGLIN, W.R.N.S., the daughter of John George Anglin, married in Malta on 17th October 1952 to Edwin John EDMONDS, Leading Sick Berth Attendant, Royal Navy, HMS Falcon, Hal Far

 

Audrey Mary APPLEBY, W.R.N.S, from Wetwang, near Driffield, Yorkshire, the daughter of Geoffrey William Appleby deceased, married in Malta on 2nd July 1956 to Donald Patrick CALCOTT, Able Seaman, Royal Navy, HMS Manxman

 

Joan ARMSTRONG, W.R.N.S., served in Malta in 1944. She married and lived in Australia

Violet ARMSTRONG, W.R.N.S., HMS Falcon, the daughter of Hector Armstrong, married in Malta on 19th September 1953 to Sergeant Dennis Harold GOUNDRY, Royal Marines, HMS Falcon

 

Gwendoline Ada ARNOLD, 111474, W.R.N.S., served in Malta 1955 – 1957 at HMS Falcon, Hal Far. The daughter of Robert Henry Arnold, she married in Malta on 28th September 1957 to Albert Edward BARKER, Leading Air Mechanic, and HMS Falcon

 

Melanie ARNOTT, 126124, W.R.N.S., served in Malta 1972 – 1975

 

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Phyllis Violet AUSTERBERRY, W.R.N.S., the daughter of Charles Austerberry, married in Malta on 2nd February 1951 to Archibald MURCHIE, Merchant Navy Officer, R.F.A. Nosprite

 

Malvina Patricia BAILEY, W.R.N.S., the daughter of Joseph and Ethel Bailey, married in Malta on 13th July 1957 to William John LIVESEY, Royal Navy

 

Astrid BAKSTAD, Leading Wren, W.R.N.S. Quarters, Kalafrana, the daughter of Bernard Leslie Bakstad, married in Malta on 25th August 1962 to Ronald TEASDALE, Naval Airman, Royal Naval Air Station Hal Far

 

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Women in the fitter’s shop, Tate & Lyle sugar factory, 1917

The first women in the fitter’s shop, Tate & Lyle sugar factory, 1917. The first World War required women to do work that until then had only been done by men.

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Links to Pages sites

www.Ancestry.co.uk

Genealogy and Family History Records Online

1901 Census online

Your guide To The 1891 Census collection Online for England and Wales.

Roots web

The oldest and largest FREE genealogy site, supported by Ancestry

Genealogy.com

All you need to know about Genealogy, Family Tree Maker and much much more

MyFamily.com

A great Family portal site. Take a look today!

FreeBMD

Free Birth, Marriage and Death records available

FreeCEN

FreeCEN is a project through Roots web that aims to enable free searches on census

records

BBC History

BBC History gives you a fascinating look into your familys past. Discover an enormous

array of resources at your fingertips and get started with your research today

1891 Census

Your guide To The 1891 Census collection Online for England and Wales.

1881 Census

Your guide To The 1881 Census collection Online for England and Wales.

1871 Census

Your guide To The 1871 Census collection Online for England and Wales.

1861 Census

Your guide To The 1861 Census collection Online for England and Wales.

1851 Census - New

Your guide To The 1851 Census collection Online for England and Wales.

1841 Census - Arriving Soon

Your guide To The 1841 Census collection Online for England and Wales.

The UK BDM Exchange search indexes posted by visitors to this site,

http://www.sog.org.uk/vg/index.html

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 Canada Postal Code lookup (Free) - Free postal code lookup with area code, province, latitude, longitude, elevation,

dwelling, street name and time zone

Census Links - British Isles by Gensource

Census Finder Online - Links to all the FREE census online

CensusUK - Free lookups on 1881 census, tri-county 1851 census & the British Vital Records

Completely Free Software - Some free Genealogy stuff if you take the time to look

Cyndi's List - Lookups & Free Searches by Volunteers

DBF Viewer PRO Edition - Software for viewing DBF database files (30 day trial)

DOWNLOADS - Genealogy-Links resources - Do you have any research to share?

English and Welsh Register Offices

Essential Charts & Forms

This is Christine’s write Up  Welcome to our first monthly Newsletter Review of 2009!  A lot of members checked in on New Year's Day to leave their best wishes for the coming year. Vera kicked off the start of new research for the year with sending some articles on Wigan, mainly for Pat W. I think.  However, these may be interesting to those who have relatives from that area, It showed listings from an 1869 directory and also an 1890 Street Guide of Wigan. Maureen in Australia is trying to find out more on her relative, Charlotte Fatherley, Born 1901 in London. She immigrated to London and wrote some music for exhibition waltzes in 1870 and became quite famous doing this I see. Has anyone got any more info on her? We had a quiet spell so we asked for a 'roll call', just to see who was still active in the Group. Sue, Maureen, Grace, Elizabeth, Pat W, Jenny, Melissa, Karen & Philip, Judy, Victor, Marion, Roger, Anthony, and Carol Ann all checked in.  Lovely to hear from you all. 7th January, Christine left an interesting link on family gravestones that included photos (if available).  Check it out on:www.gravestonephotos.com/public/area.php?area

 

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Just type in the name of the person you are interested in and if successful, the site will give you that person's dob, burial year, relationship, cemetery, parish etc.  If a photo is available, you can send for that too. Maz called in to say she had been away to Tenerife for Christmas and the New Year but was back home and has kindly offered to help with any questions on London or Kent. 7 January - I realised that we left 2008 with an unanswered query on two of Grace's relatives, Francis Turner and William Jones.  Grace replied that all she wanted to know was if William Jones had any brothers or sisters. Vera asked if anyone wanted look-ups, as it was quiet again.  Maureen said she would like help again with Sabina Dunford - when did she come out to Australia, why and did her mother Emma come too?  Lots of info passed, too much to mention here but Judy came up with the goods on 11 January.  She found Sabina and her family had travelled to Oz on a ship called the 'Emigrant' in 1853, Sabina being aged 5.  Along with her was her father Charles and her mother Mary Ann (not Emma as thought), brother Charles, 2 and sister Mary Ann aged 8.  Judy also found out some more info that Maureen did not know about, that Sabina's father Charles was born in Frome, Somerset.  Christine was then able to send Maureen some more info on Charles Dunford and his family. Here is a useful link for anyone researching the Somerset area: 

www.westcountrygenealogy.com/somerset/

www.wsom.org.uk/Parreg.html

 Judy sent more info on the Dunfords, discovering the name of Mary Ann Dunfords father - Charles Styles and her mother Sophy? Maureen was pleased with that info, as she did not know of it before.  She can now update her Tribal Tree, which Vera offered to do. 11 January and Grace still searching for the ship that took her father and family to Australia. Judy sent a useful link that would help others who are searching passenger lists to Oz: http://proarchives..imagineering.com.au

 12 January and Vera came up with more info on Charles Dunford and his marriage to Mary Ann.  She also found Charles's father. 13 January, Christine left an article on the 1911 census, which triggered off a long debate on it! 

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14 January we have a new member called Jan from Australia. She is Scottish and married an Australian 5 years ago. Jan lives in North Queens land.  The family name she is interested in is NISBET, who hail from Scotland. Christine and Vera found out lots of info on this family for her. 15 January - Annette from Blackpool wrote in, saying she had not been able to do much on her research as she has been looking after her Dad, who has had some heart problems. However, she is interested in finding out more info on her Great Grandfather x 3, who was killed by poachers on the estate he worked on, owned by the sugar tycoon, Sir Ernest Tate.  21 January - Marcia been looking at the occupation of a relative on a census form and all it said was 'Sluff'.  Can anyone shed any light on this? Well, that is all really for this month.  Please send in any look ups you want.  A busy start to the New Year. 

Hope you will enjoy

Vera and Christine

 

 

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