Travelling On

daisy_1571

Just to add go the ww1 stories, Mr daisy remembers an ancient old lady in the 60s, when he was a toddler, living with her daughter and looking like typical scary wicked witchy old person hunched in a corner. We now know she was only late 60s or early 70s at that point however her brother and her husband signed up to different regiments spring 1915 and died September and December that year. One of wounds in France and we have found his grave (you can see it from the road in google maps, 9 of them in a row, beautifully kept and pristine white) the other in Greece, body not found but his name is on a war memorial out there. Can you imagine? 3 wee girls to look after and your husband and young brother gone in a matter of months. How resilient these people were back then.

I too have taped but not had the courage to watch the won't grow old film.

Daisy xx

Karmacat

Daisy, thank you for that! That puts yet another angle on things, doesn't it. Even though they carried on, and maybe even had children, they were forever affected, by what they went through, and coping with the aftermath. Amazing to find the grave on google earth as well, I hope you can see it in person at some stage, always a powerful thing.

I did a very short trip to the battlefields with my sister a couple of years ago, retracing the footsteps of her late husband's grandfather's journey to the Battle of Ypres, he was gassed in the second day of the first use of poison gas. All the little cemeteries, as well as the huge ones, it was very sobering.

I wrote out the names of my women ancestors who were alive in 1918 ...

AMS, whose husband died in an industrial accident 3 weeks after the start of the war. She had four children. In 1918, one was about to start work on the docks, one was a 6 year old at school, and the two middle ones were still in a seamen's orphange, but kept running away. She worked as a confectioner, using recipes given to her by a distant family connection who did it on a slightly larger scale.

MW, a 37 year old, also with four children - she's the one whose husband was posted down in Kent, in the Military Police. She went to visit him there sometimes, and I'm absolutely sure she'd never travelled like that before. Like AMS, she had a temper - she refused to take her husband back for a while after the war, there had been Carrying On.

BW, a 14 year old who had a school scholarship, but couldn't afford to stay, her family needed her wage. She loved going to the swimming baths, and the war gave her quite a bit of freedom, as her dad was posted down in Kent in the Military Police.

CA, the one whose husband had run off in 1891 before her baby was born. Her sisters took the baby from her, and raised him between them all, she disappeared from the family. Legend has it she "married" again, and raised a full family, but we don't know, too common a name to trace, in that area.

EMA, married in 1916, and had a year old baby. Her husband was in a reserved occupation, she had no brothers who might have been killed. Not as fortunate as you might think - she died in 1925, aged 34, of cancer.

MW, a countrywoman in her mid 50s, moved into a very nice semi-detached, whose husband was the railway clerk. I like Martha. The only story I have about her is that she used to circumvent her terribly religious father-in-law, who wouldn't allow the children to use the rope swing in a tree on a Sunday: she made sure they played while her father in law was at church

EG, a 65 year old lady, and my great-great grandmother. A true Liverpudlian, tiny, less than five feet tall. She had three sons in the war - one was my great grandfather in Kent, but the other two were in France. Both came home, but one had a bad head injury, and died very young. I have a photo of her with them in their uniforms, before they were posted, and she looks three hundred years old. She and they all survived, though, and she had her Golden Wedding just before she died in 1923.


EG was the one most deeply affected by the war, but still, not on a scale that others' coped with. For my family, the real enemy was poverty - diseases and malnutrition. EG was less than five feet tall, but many of her grandsons topped six feet. Better nutrition, simple as that.


Right. I'd better start my day! See you later xxx

beanielou

Thanks for sharing Karmcat.

rtandon27

KC - so lovely of you to share some of your family research!

Great that you know so much about your family. xxx

Karmacat

Thanks both I'm just lucky I got to start on the oral history - the stories - in the 1960s, before that generation died away, so I have lots and lots it's lovely.

However, my computer decided I was spending too long on the interwebulator :rotfl: and has only just let me back on.

As a result, today has had quite a different shape
- cleaning and tidying in the office.
- sitting in the office with my sister, scanning documents for her.
- off out into the garden, bagging up the cherry laurel leaves for disposal.
- back to the office to sort some of the genealogy papers - now that I'm working on the papers my mum left, there'll be a lot of that

And my tv/dvd recorder junction is playing up - I can't watch while I'm taping, which is why I'm on here during Strictly

See you tomorrow everyone!

Kittenkirst

Karmacat wrote: »

Yep, I'm definitely an outlier as far as not opening the post is concerned. I can live with that.

I’m exactly the same as you, post always feels *such* a chore that I put it off. I like the idea of set days- I’m going to have a go at adopting that!

Cheery_Daff

What a ppignant set of stories about your family KC, thanks for sharing

I confess I always open post straight away - I'm far too nosy not to Mr Cheery is the opposite though - when I moved in with him he had bin bags of unopened post in the cellar :eek: most of it junk of course... But a couple of inportant things missed.

But all this talk of post has reminded me we had a letter yesterday (er, which I haven't opened :rotfl: but it's clearly just J0hn L3wis vouchers that I won't use :rotfl: ) - it was through the post redirect though and there are a couple of last addresses that I'd not got round to changing, mostly because they're not that important & post from them doesn't arrive that often. Must get on the case!

Have a good day

Karmacat

Kittenkirst, yay, finally another late opener, thanks for that :j
Cheery hiya, thanks for your comment on the family stories, I've never presented them all in one snapshot of time either, so it was quite poignant for me too.

You made me laugh with not opening the JL vouchers :rotfl: are you sure you won't use them? They do have very interesting haberdashery and kitchen accessories departments If not, gift them or sell them, maybe? I hate to see free money go to waste though realistically I know you're very time poor right now with the peak in commuting.

Karmacat

I've got the healthy walks thing coming up in 30 minutes - the dishwasher was on especially early so that it will finish by the time I leave the house the economy setting is very long! Plus I'm off out to see a friend tomorrow, which means I need to check everything's ready.

And today might be decisive for whether we sell my mum's house this week, I'm not sure, and I might have to go help, though I don't think so. I've had a month now of constant work on my house and garden, a couple of hours a day, more or less. There's still a huge amount to be done: big jobs that I need to pay people for, and littler jobs I can do myself. And in finance terms, I need to sort out all my utilities, which are all out of contract now, plus rejigging savings accounts. All that will have a bearing on the diary, to be honest, it will really be winding down … it's just maintenance then. That's exciting and scary both at once – good grief, turns out I joined in November 2006, and I must have started my first diary in October 2007. My diary has been a hugely important part of my life, but I can see the harbour in the distance, after this long and choppy voyage …feels pretty emotional.

[Deleted User]

Karmacat wrote: »

I've got the healthy walks thing coming up in 30 minutes - the dishwasher was on especially early so that it will finish by the time I leave the house the economy setting is very long! Plus I'm off out to see a friend tomorrow, which means I need to check everything's ready.

And today might be decisive for whether we sell my mum's house this week, I'm not sure, and I might have to go help, though I don't think so. I've had a month now of constant work on my house and garden, a couple of hours a day, more or less. There's still a huge amount to be done: big jobs that I need to pay people for, and littler jobs I can do myself. And in finance terms, I need to sort out all my utilities, which are all out of contract now, plus rejigging savings accounts. All that will have a bearing on the diary, to be honest, it will really be winding down … it's just maintenance then. That's exciting and scary both at once – good grief, turns out I joined in November 2006, and I must have started my first diary in October 2007. My diary has been a hugely important part of my life, but I can see the harbour in the distance, after this long and choppy voyage …feels pretty emotional.

I hope you enjoy your walk, KC, and am glad you feel like going this week:T


Let's hope everything runs smoothly with your Mum's house sale and your services aren't required after all.

A MSE member since 2006! You must have been one of the founder-members:beer:. I haven't known you for the whole of that time but am so glad I found your diaries eventually and have been able to join you (and the lovely people who post here)from time to time on your journey. Here's to lots more of your diaries:beer: