Family histories
Jul. 2nd, 2007 09:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sally_mariaYesterday afternoon Mum and I made a trip to Lydbrook, in the Forest of Dean, for a family get together. My mother's cousin is moving out of the house he's lived in all his life - where the family used to visit right back to the 1940s. So they decided it was a good time to get everybody together.
My grandmother was one of nine children, and seven girls. Her father (William Harris) was a fireman at one of the local mines - but one with some aspirations for his children. His oldest son went to the local grammar school (well before free secondary schooling) and eventually owned his own green-grocers shop. The family couldn't afford more schooling for the other children, so all the girls left school at 13. (In fact, my grandmother left just before she was 13, to go and look after a cousin who had just had a baby!) Gladys, the eldest, somehow obtained a job in service at the big house in Woodchester, a village near Stroud, and as her sisters left school they all travelled across the Severn to join her. (She worked her way up to house-keeper, and was the only one of the girls not to marry.)
I still remember three of my great-aunts, Auntie Nora, Auntie Evelyn and Auntie Min. One of my first memories of the larger family was Auntie Nora's 80th birthday party with thirty or so members of the family all together. Evelyn was the last, and she died two years or so ago, so the oldest generation yesterday were their children, with their children and grand-children. Even though they were scattered across Gloucestershire they remained close and the family resemblance is strong - my second cousins still have the black hair and green/hazel eyes. There were 10 children there yesterday, so the Harris genes continue on, though not in the male line.
Mum and the rest of the "older generation"
I had a lot of fun, playing with the children and going for a walk in the woods (as well as eating some very nice food) but I also managed to talk about some family history. I've been researching all of my family tree, but the Harris's are the one family I still have strong ties to, so it was good to find out more about them. I was also pleased to find that one of the family had a photo of my great-great-grandparents - William Harris's parents-in-law.
John Jones (and wife)
My grandmother was one of nine children, and seven girls. Her father (William Harris) was a fireman at one of the local mines - but one with some aspirations for his children. His oldest son went to the local grammar school (well before free secondary schooling) and eventually owned his own green-grocers shop. The family couldn't afford more schooling for the other children, so all the girls left school at 13. (In fact, my grandmother left just before she was 13, to go and look after a cousin who had just had a baby!) Gladys, the eldest, somehow obtained a job in service at the big house in Woodchester, a village near Stroud, and as her sisters left school they all travelled across the Severn to join her. (She worked her way up to house-keeper, and was the only one of the girls not to marry.)
I still remember three of my great-aunts, Auntie Nora, Auntie Evelyn and Auntie Min. One of my first memories of the larger family was Auntie Nora's 80th birthday party with thirty or so members of the family all together. Evelyn was the last, and she died two years or so ago, so the oldest generation yesterday were their children, with their children and grand-children. Even though they were scattered across Gloucestershire they remained close and the family resemblance is strong - my second cousins still have the black hair and green/hazel eyes. There were 10 children there yesterday, so the Harris genes continue on, though not in the male line.
Mum and the rest of the "older generation"
I had a lot of fun, playing with the children and going for a walk in the woods (as well as eating some very nice food) but I also managed to talk about some family history. I've been researching all of my family tree, but the Harris's are the one family I still have strong ties to, so it was good to find out more about them. I was also pleased to find that one of the family had a photo of my great-great-grandparents - William Harris's parents-in-law.
John Jones (and wife)
