But for a War

 

                                                                                  London at War 1942

I've always been fascinated by stories about World War II. It seems that many other people are too. WWII stories and documentaries are still made, read and watched with interest. Stories like these are usually told, at least in the English-speaking world, from the point of view of the victors so it is easy to know who to root for. Narratives with clear forces of good and evil appeal to something in our psyche.

That's the big picture. But I was reminded of the effect of the war on individual lives recently when I read Square Haunting which detailed the effects on Virginia Woolf's life when her London abode in Bloomsbury was damaged by a bomb. As a family historian, my interest is the stories of individuals. The story of how larger events affect those individuals and can be shown to be life altering.

Growing up I was aware that WWII had profoundly altered my families' lives. Just how much, I was not aware until I started exploring my families' history. That's something I'll be looking into in the coming weeks. 

 

Sources:

Wade, Francesca Square Haunting Tim Duggan Books/Random House, New York 2020

 

Images:

By Ministry of Information Photo Division Photographer - http://media.iwm.org.uk/iwm/mediaLib//38/media-38885/large.jpg This is photograph D 9314 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24367406

Time and remembering

 

In my DNA update of April 3, I wrote about the information my DNA cousin had given me about our mutual family line in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. I had the bright idea of checking the wills of William Long's employers to see if they would give me any clues to where I could find further records about our family line. After some sleuthing through the wills on the National Archives site, I came up with the documents which record the final wishes of two of these employers. However, while patting myself on the back for my discovery, I'd forgotten the difficulty of interpreting wills from the early 1800s. It's going to take more time than I bargained for.

                                                       snippet from a will downloaded from the National Archives site 

Time came up in another context this week. It had to do with a story that I'm writing. It's a tale that goes back to Vancouver in the '70s. It didn't dawn on me until after I'd written that it was legal to drink after the age of 21 that the drinking ages in Canada had changed in that decade. Of course, that thought came to me when my computer was shut down for the night. When I checked the following morning, I discovered that the legal drinking age in most of the various provinces changed in or close to 1970. Why hadn't I clued in when I wrote that part of the story?

Remembering is like that. Our brains can cough up incorrect facts and build whole histories that rely on them. Which is why it is always good to have corroborating evidence to any source or oral history. Even to your own memory it seems.

 

Sources:

The National Archives UK wills help guide https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/wills-and-probate-before-1858-further-research/

Taming the Jester

 

In ancient times the jester was a source of entertainment and a distraction from the humdrum of life. That was fine in a time when there was little enough to amuse and there was time to while away. These days there are so many distractions its hard to stay focused. It's even hard to know where that focus should be.

When I look around me, I can see binders and paper piles from projects begun but not finished. Much of it is detritus of things I will get to that magical day when I have free time. I haven't reached that mythical state yet. It doesn't appear that I will ever attain it.

Maybe I should make myself a schedule and follow it. That might help. But I know myself. I'd find ways to circumvent anything that smacks of regimentation. A case in point, today I sat down to write a newsletter article. But first I had to check my email. Then I remembered I hadn't signed up for an upcoming genealogy conference. A few hours later, I finally got down to writing that article. And whose to know, those hours of distraction may have helped because by the time I started writing I had an idea of what to write about. I hadn't had that when I first sat down.

Still, it would probably help to put things in better order. Maybe even figure out how to be better organized. I have a few books about being a better organized genealogist in my personal library. Maybe I should actually read one. After all, I appreciate the fact that I'm able to search my own library online because I catalogued it. Maybe I could do something similar with my genealogy research. Could be I'll find a way to tame that jester yet!

Changing Transport, Changing Land

 

                                                                                      Abandoned railway track

Recently I saw a presentation about the early settlers on the Coquitlam River. This area of British Columbia was settled relatively late. The waning years of the 1850s saw the first pioneer claiming land. This, of course, was the story of European style settlement. There were already people on the land as it was the territory of the Kwikwetlem First Nation.The first peoples' relationship with the land was different than that of the European settlers. 

When settlement by the Europeans began there were no roads. Transport was by water. That meant those early settlers took up land and built on the banks of the river; river banks which were differently placed than today. In fact, a map of the early settlement showed that one of the pioneers took up land on an island in the Coquitlam River which is no longer there.

The river and the land around it have changed so much over the years that it is doubtful that the early settlers would recognize them. A city has grown up around the waterway's new course (actually two cities) and the river has been dammed. All of these factors are a reminder to anyone studying the history of the area that it would be best to consult old maps and photos to better understand the lay of the land.

Land use changed in other ways too as new avenues of transportation were built. This was more obvious in the less populated lands of British Columbia, but I'm reminded that even a more built-up country, such as England, was also changed by new forms of transport.

The first week of the Future Learn course "Working Lives on Britain's Railways: Railway History and Heritage", gave a potted history of the rise of railways in Britain. Railroads allowed people and goods to get around more quickly and easily. They also changed the landscape as miles and miles of track were laid. I'm eager to learn more about what my ancestors who worked on the railway did in their jobs.

As with most new technology, however, the push for new railway lines abated once the heyday of railway expansion was over. In some places there was also retraction, leading to abandoned towns and disused tracks, another alteration of the land. 

 

Sources:

Drew, Ralph. Coquitlam Pioneers: First Settlers on the Coquitlam River - presentation given to the BCGS April 14 2021

 

Lives touched by religion and crime

 

                                                             Dr Williams Library houses nonconformist records

I knew I was in trouble as soon as I read the first question on the exam. Tests based on multiple choice questions are generally held to be among the easier types of exams. There are some people who can make even those more benign tests diabolical. I was reminded of this when I took the test for the NIGS course on English non-conformity. I had taken tests from the author of the course before. As in those previous tests, I squeaked by this time as well but the final score was way below my average.

It's too bad, really because the course covered the material really well. I would recommend the course, but just beware the sting in the tail. Now I have more ideas about how and where to further research my dissenting ancestors. The non-conformists go back far in my family lines. This presents a challenge but those challenges can lead to some interesting stories.

It's sad in a way that the people who did what was expected leave fewer interesting tales to be told. It is the nonconformists, the criminals and those who followed their dreams who reward us with stories and catch our imaginations.

This was underlined in an event I saw recently at a festival put on by mystery writers. In one session the topic was true crime and how it inspired the authors to write both fiction and nonfiction stories based on real events. It reminded me of how crimes and misdeeds had touched my own life. I wonder if I can uncover similar incidents in my ancestor's lives and more stories to be told. 

DNA Update

 

I finally got to take one of my family lines back further because of a DNA cousin! I didn't think that would ever happen. What's more, I contacted this researcher over Ancestry's messaging system and they responded. That doesn't happen every day. Of course, this is not on the family line that I have been writing about so I got sidetracked again.

When tracing my Welch line, I'd been able to take that family and some of the families who married into it quite far back but there was one wife's family that I didn't know anything about. Who were the parents of Elizabeth Long who married George Welch in 1827 in Southwark, Surrey?

My DNA cousin was able to supply that information and more besides. Included in the information were the names of William Long's employers in Cheshunt, Herfordshire. William Long was Elizabeth Long's father and George Welch and Elizabeth also lived in Cheshunt for a while.

In my previous research on the Welch family, I had great success when I found out more about the employers of some of the Welch family. The movement of a factory provided reasons for the family to have moved at one point. Maybe finding out more about the employers would provide clues on the Long family as well. That led me to a search of the wills in Cheshunt. I hoped for a will for William Long or wills for the men who had employed him. That search sent me over to the National Archives site where the PCC wills are still available for download for free. No luck with William Long but I think I found the wills of two men who employed him at different times. Now I just have to transcribe those challenging documents.

This latest DNA discovery sent me back to regular genealogy research. I don't think that's how it's supposed to work. But we'll see how this pans out. BTW the National Archives sites says they will be reopening soon. No word about what will happen with the free downloads at that time.