108th Wedding Anniversary

Once again, something very interesting has come into my hands; this time it was safely delivered to me  via Royal Mail and Canada Post from AR (only just though, as the envelope was poking half-way out of  the mail slot and it began to pour with rain about 15 minutes after I came home and rescued it).  The package had a dozen photographs in it - all originals, some without copies made of them - and the one that is most exciting, is the wedding picture of Lionel Percy Waller and Lily Maud Meadows.  Sometime in the last couple of decades, someone (we do not know who), had a professional restore the 1904 photograph to the best of his/her ability, and the result is not too bad.  I am going to see about someone here taking another crack at it in the new year, because the technology will have improved and we may get an even better quality picture from it.  I have put a copy of the original below the others, so that you can see what a state it is in.  It looks as though is has deteriorated further at the edges.

 If I paid more attention to dates, I would have done more than just notice that the wedding photograph was taken in winter, and found out that Lionel and Lily were married on December 24th, 1904, and could have made this an anniversary blog posting on Christmas Eve.

Full wedding party? Or just the Meadows side?

I wonder why the picture was taken on this bit of uneven-looking ground, rather than on the church steps, or inside a building.  Perhaps it was the fashion, or perhaps this was a place of some significance to the couple, or to one of the families.

Are the two people behind Lily Maud someone's, parents?  The fellow in the uniform is Lionel's best man.  AR thinks the lady sitting in black (above picture) and the man behind her may be parents of Lily.  If so, we have here the only known images of my great-great grandparents.  The lady in black does look more like Lily.  It is a shame that the original photograph distorts Lily's face, because in the reproduction photo, she looks all wonky, and it's impossible to tell what her wedding dress looked like.

Close up of Lionel Waller (in his Royal Horse Artillery uniform) and Lily Meadows

The current state of the original copy of wedding photograph of Lionel Percy Waller & Lily Maud Meadows

This poor old battered photograph survived a couple of world wars and much travelling around with those to whom it belonged over the years, and then its most recent trip across the Atlantic by post.  It is a miracle that it did survive at all to land in the hands of a great-granddaughter in the digital age.  There must be a few hundred people alive today who are connected with the people in this picture.  I hope others are led here eventually, to see this picture of their ancient relations as well.

Second Snow Storm of the Week

Here is a picture of my garden after the Boxing Day storm.

Here is a picture of what it looks like out the window right now, three days later.

[Later] And then in the last light of the afternoon -

12/12/12

December 12th, 2012: today is the last time we will have a 'triple' date until the next century.  And it is quite possible that by then there will be some new form of international time and date keeping based on the metric system, so this may be the last triple date ever.

This morning I have been rearranging my writing room and cleaning it out.  Amongst other dusty discoveries, I came across the bible that had belonged to my uncle Roger, who, sadly, died when he was a child, long before there was anyone alive to call him uncle.  There is a note written in the front of it from his teacher, dated 1950, that says it was presented for "Good Conduct".  This was obviously carefully saved by his mother, and copies of his Sunday School "star registers" are tucked in, along with all kinds of little religious cards stuffed into different chapters (whether marking verses of significance or not we will never know), some of them with pencil drawings done by a very young child on the backs.

Another John Brewer marriage

Just for the records, there is another marriage recorded for a John Brewer.  This one is to a Joan (or Jone) Harvey on May 11th, 1612.  I had dismissed this John earlier, because of dates that do not make sense in other documents linked to him, but someone on the "Family Central" website has put Joan Harvey as Adam's mother.  Whoever it was may have had access to primary sources, so I will add this as a 'further possibility' addendum to my previous posting.

The Trail Grows Cold

My winning streak has come to an end on the Brewer family trail in Earls Colne.  There may be connections yet to come with all the Wallers or Walls that are in the records there, but I'll have to make them through the Coggeshall Waller records, if they exist. 

Unfortunately, there is no trace of Rose Brewer's maiden name, or connection to a baptism record in Earls Colne.  And on Adam Brewer's side, his  father was named John Brewer/Bruer (no mother's name is on record), and I have found three such men that could be him, but I cannot definitively connect one of them to Adam.


The first: a John Brewer who married Ann Bridge on April 15th, 1588.  They had children named Joan (6-7-1589) and Rachel (17-6-1593). The second: a John Bruer who married Joan Jolly on January 26th, 1596.  They had Elizabeth (14-3-1596).


The third: a John Bruer who married "Phill" Sparrow (not sure what Phill was short for) on May 9th, 1598.  They had children named Amy (16-7-1599), and Hugh (19-10-1600).

It is also possible that none of these Johns is his father, that he had come from another village.  And it is also possible that the same John had two or three wives in succession as there may have been eruptive fever epidemics at this time, such as smallpox, killing  them off. 

I like the sounds of Joan Jolly and Phill Sparrow - they'd be good names for a great x's 10 grandmother.

image credit: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/image.aspx?compid=15177&filename=fig16.gif&pubid=48

Earls Colne Manor Records

Once again, I've been wading into waters that were only vaguely familiar to me beforehand: this time it's been those of the Medieval manorial system that developed after 1066 and lasted until the Tenures Abolition Act of 1660.  It was dissolving with the development of a money-based market economy by the late Middle Ages, but the vast quantity of records kept in the form of "Manor court rolls" that have survived are the source of much information on many aspects of life during this time.  Manors were the primary administrative units in England in the Middle Ages, and it is from these records that family researchers and historians alike can glean some very good information.

According to the Earls Colne records site, about two fifths of the two manors in the study were let to copyhold tenants, and  our Brewer relations appear to have been in this category.  Copyholders, so called because of the practice of giving a copy of the manor court's record to the tenant as a title deed, had property rights protected by law, but could not transfer their lands without license of the lord of the manor and payment of a fine, as a freeholder could.

Section of Earls Colne map showing "Francis" tenement 103 and 104 across from the old priory.

Here are the entries into the Earls Colne Manor Court Rolls and Fine Book that trace the passing of the land from one generation to the next through the family, starting with Adam Brewer.  I have left the text exactly as it was transcribed onto the Earls Colne website, without punctuation, etc.

Earls Colne Manor Court Rolls (ERO D/DPr79)

(Tuesday 12 July 1664)

document 39402316

whereas at a court here held 20.10.1624 Eliz Somerson afterwards wife of Wm Garrett took for herself and her heirs one cottage with a way and place belonging there and one yard parcel of a tenement called Francis and whereas at a court here held 2.4.1662 it was presented by the homage that after the then last court the said Eliz died seised thereof without heirs of her body and that Thos Somerson is her brother and heir but no one came then etc now to this court came the said Thos Somerson and sought admittance as tenant of the lord for the premises to whom the lord by the said steward granted and delivered seisin thereof by the rod to have and to hold the said premises with appurtenances to the said Thos Somerson his heirs and assigns from the lord by the rod at the will of the lord according to the custom of the said manor by the rents services and customs thereunto belonging and by right accustomed and he gave to the lord his fine etc and afterwards in the same court and in open court the said Thos Somerson came and by the rod surrendered into the hands of the lord by the hands of his said steward the said cottage way and yard with appurtenances to the use and behoof of Adam Brewer his heirs and assigns forever who present in court humbly sought admittance as tenant of the lord for the premises to whom the lord by the said steward granted and delivered seisin thereof by the rod to have and to hold the said premises with appurtenances to the said Adam Brewer his heirs and assigns from the lord by the rod at the will of the lord according to the custom of the said manor by the rents services and customs thereunto belonging and by right accustomed and he gave to the lord his fine etc
______________________

Earls Colne Manor: Fine Book (ERO D/DPr100)

(1664)

document 24200269

Adam Brewer 1664 admitted to the same cottage of the surrender of Thos Somersom fine given
______________________

Earls Colne Manor: Fine Book (ERO D/DPr100)

(1676)

document 24201380

Thos Brewer 1676 admitted to a cottage and a garden parcel of Francis after the death of Adam Brewer his father worth 15s per annum fine 1li

________________________

Earls Colne Manor Court Rolls (ERO D/DPr80)

(Friday 27 December 1676)

document 39801039

fine 20s

whereas at a court here held 12.7.16Chas2 Adam Brewer was admitted to him and his heirs to one cottage with a way parcel of a tenement called Francis now at this court it appeared to the homage that the said Adam Brewer died after the last court so seised and that Thos Brewer is his son and next heir who present in court petitioned admittance etc to whom the steward delivered seisin to have and to hold the said cottage to the said Thos Brewer his heirs and assigns of the lord etc and he gave the lord for fine etc

___________________________

Earls Colne Manor: Fine Book (ERO D/DPr100)

(1678)

document 24201656

Thos Brewer and Kath his wife 1678 admitted to a cottage called Francis worth 13s4d per annum fine 1li

______________________

Earls Colne and Colne Priory rental (ERO D/DPr113)

(Tuesday 19 March 1678)

document 22500678

Brewer Thos holds by copy a little tenement called Francis sometime Fuller's rent 1d1h (103a) Thos Hutton (inserted)

___________________________

Earls Colne and Colne Priory rental (ERO D/DPr113)

(Tuesday 19 March 1678)

document 22501945

Grimston Dan gentleman doth hold by copy 30a of land with a barn called Morlands late of Jn Brewer in the tenure of Thos Brewer rent 12s (165) (166) (167) (168) (171) (169) (170) Edw Harrington Jn Lay in right of his wife(inserted)

____________________________

Earls Colne Manor Court Rolls (ERO D/DPr80)

(Monday 28 October 1678)

document 39900484

whereas at a court here held 27.12.1676 Thos Brewer was admitted to him and his heirs to one cottage with a way and a yard parcel of a tenement called Francis now at this court came the said Thos Brewer and in full court surrendered by the rod into the lord's hands by the hands of the steward the said cottage and yard with appurtenances now in the occupation of the said Thos to the use of the said Thos Brewer for the term of his life and after his decease to the use of Kath Brewer his wife for the term of her life and after her death to the use of the right heirs of the said Thos forever who present here in court humbly petitioned admittance to whom the steward delivered seisin etc to have and to hold the cottage and yard aforesaid to the said Thos Brewer and his assigns for the term of his life and after his death to the said Kath and her assigns for the term of her life with the remainder as in the surrender aforesaid of the lord etc and gave the lord for fine etc

____________________________

Earls Colne Manor Court Rolls (ERO D/DPr83)

(Tuesday 28 April 1713)

document 41001155

at this court first proclamation of three was made that heirs of Thos Brewer or others who had right to his customary tenement of which said Thos died seised should come into court and lay claim etc but nobody comes etc

____________________________

Earls Colne Manor: Fine Book (ERO D/DPr100A)

1725  document 24401741

Thos Belcham son and heir of Sarah Belcham and Jeremiah Waller son and heir of Mary Waller which said Sarah and Mary were sisters and coheirs of Thos Brewer admitted by moieties to a cottage in Holt St fine    

____________________________

Earls Colne Manor: Fine Book (ERO D/DPr100A)

(1725)  document 24401767

Thos Belcham 1725 admitted on surrender of the said Jeremiah Waller to his moiety of the said cottage and paid fine for the whole in all 1li

_____________________________

Earls Colne Manor Court Rolls (ERO D/DPr84)

(Friday 9 April 1725)  document 41600270

at this court appears to homage that Thos Brewer a customary tenant of this manor died since last court seised of a customary cottage or tenement with appurtenances lying and being in Holt Street parcel of a tenement called Francis and that Jeremiah Waller son and heir of Mary Waller deceased and Thos Belcham son and heir of Sara Belcham which Mary and Sara were the sisters of said Thos Brewer are next heirs to said Thos Brewer which Jeremiah Waller and Thos Belcham present here in court lords by steward granted delivery of seisin by the rod to have and to hold etc giving lords fine etc

______________________________

Earls Colne Manor Court Rolls (ERO D/DPr84)

(Friday 9 April 1725)  document 41600304

to this court comes Jeremiah Waller son and heir of Mary Waller who was one of the sisters of Thos Brewer late deceased and in open court surrendered by the rod into hand of lord by permission of said steward all his half of a customary cottage or tenement with appurtenances lying and being in Holt Street being parcel of a tenement called Francis to which premises said Jeremiah and Thos Belcham son and heir of Sara Belcham who was another sister of said Thos Brewer at that court were admitted to half as next heirs of Thos Brewer all his right title interest and claim of said Jeremiah therefore to use of said Thos Belcham his heirs and assigns forever which Thos Belcham present here in court lords by steward granted delivery of seisin by the rod of half said cottage with appurtenances etc.
______________________________

 Rental of the Manors of Earls Colne and Colne Priory (ERO D/DPr118)

(1854) document 80000605

title to portion marked b (on sketch plan) 1725 Thos Belsham surrender of heirs of Thos Brewer ( Waller and others).



This is part of a map that shows how the Holt Street tenement had been divided by 1725

History Lottery Win

Lower Holt Street late 14th century two-bay hall with late 15th century cross-wing.

The photograph above is one of the handful that appear on the Earls Colne "Records of an English Village 1375-1854" site that I referred to a few posts ago - the one that took 27 years of scholarly effort to compile.  This building is now numbered 18 and 20 Lower Holt St., but was once known as Francis 104, 103, and 103a (Francis being the name of this piece of manorial land, as was the convention to name land, and the numbers being the plot numbers).  All very interesting, you say to yourselves, stifling yawns and wishing I would get on with it.  Well, my beloved relations, distant cousins, and interested parties visiting the blog, what would you say if I told you that half of this little cottage once belonged to our great-x's 9-grandparents, Adam and Rose Brewer?   It turns out that a piece of historical architecture still standing in Earls Colne (looking quite worse for wear in this 1980 photograph), belonged to our ancient relations.  Once again: what are the chances?  Man... it's days like this that fuel the addiction to genealogy.

[I just went to Google Street View, and it looks like it's in much better shape now.  And probably worth a ridiculous sum of money.]

More to come on our Earls Colne family, and a bit about the manorial system of copyhold tenure that led me to this discovery.



image credit: http://linux02.lib.cam.ac.uk/earlscolne/reference/images/house2.htm, from the Earls Colne "Records of an English Village" repository.

Back We Go

Earls Colne today with St.Andrew's Church on the left.

Today I have added some of the information on the Brewers - the family of my great-x's 8-grandmother from Earls Colne - to the "Wallers & Meadows" page.  Apparently it's pronounced "cone", btw.  In the picture above, you can see the original part of the building of St. Andrew's Church, which would have been the site of their baptisms, weddings, and funerals.

Mary Brewer's parents were named Adam and Rose Brewer, and Adam was baptized January 31st, 1613.  In 1613, William Shakespeare was still alive, as was John Donne and Galileo; James I was on the throne, Elizabeth I had been dead a mere 10 years; and it was still more than 8 years before the Mayflower pilgrims  would leave England for the New World.

We're starting to get back a bit now.  I don't know how much further it will be possible to go, but if this branch of the family was in Earls Colne for a few more generations, then we're not at the end of the line yet.  

Image credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Earls_Colne,_Essex_-_geograph.org.uk_-_131645.jpg

Remarkable Clinic

We had a patient in the clinic yesterday who, when I noticed her English accent and asked where she was from, told me she was born in Essex.  She was giving me rough distances from London instead of names of places to begin with, but when I confessed to a freshly acquired geographical knowledge of the area she then told me that she was from Witham.   And her sister lives in Benfleet now.  What are the chances? These are places I had never heard of 10 days ago, before I transcribed all the Waller family history to this site last week, then this week I meet someone who is from the very place one branch of the family comes from.

That may have been the remarkable highlight of the day - I am not sure which is more amazing - but, we also had a patient with three (3) spleens.  I'm not making this up.

Wallers and Meadows Page

This sounds a very pastoral sort of page, but it is, in fact, my transcription of the hard work done before me on the Waller side of the family, by Mollie, a cousin of my mother's.  She died earlier this year and I don't think I ever met her (certainly not as an adult), but be assured that I am completely in her debt.  She did the legwork at Somerset House (one would now go to the National Archives at Kew), which is the ideal and most reliable way to research English ancestors.  This is not an option for me at this point from a thousand miles away, so I am very, very glad to have a huge chunk of our history done for us.  I'd completely forgotten that I had a copy of this research until Mum reminded me of it last week.   It came up, interestingly, because I had found copies of Mollie's letter and application forms to retrieve information on Lionel Waller's military records in the files I accessed last week on ancestry.uk.

I have spent the afternoon putting together this information on a separate page (a new link appears to the right), and adding a map and some other bits of information I had, and I will continue to add the Meadows information as I gather it as well.

One amazing mother lode of information that I found in my research today was to do with Earls Colne in Essex, where my great (x's 8) grandfather and grandmother were married in 1663, and which is very close to Coggeshall, where this line of the family was living in the 16th and 17th centuries.  There is a Professor Alan MacFarlane, and his team of social anthropologists from the University of Cambridge, who, over a 27 year span, undertook to create a database of the surviving records of Earls Colne parish from the period of 1380-1854.    This makes Earls Colne one of the most thoroughly socially researched and recorded towns in the U.K.

To anyone reading this who may be interested in seeing something absolutely fantastic to the modern family researcher, check the website for the database:  http://linux02.lib.cam.ac.uk/earlscolne/.   Just imagine - one day in the not too distant future, there will be something like this for every little town and village in the land!  Perhaps not so scholarly right away, but similar in scope.

I will go back to that and see if I can find out if my great-x's-8-grandmother, Mary Brewer, is from Earls Colne, and that's why they married there instead of Coggeshall.  There are a lot of Wallers (Walls) in the records as well.

image credits: http://www.antiquemapsandprints.com

Somerset Years in WWI

I'd started to put together a posting on Frank Greed before Remembrance Day, to lay out something of what he did in Yeovil during WWI, but then Ancestry.uk came along and gave me free days to investigate all the war records of Lionel Waller and the other family soldiers, so I had to concentrate on that.

Here's the first bit of what I was working on.  I have just learned how to add maps, too.  You can zoom in and out on them and move around just as you would on the Google maps site.

    View Larger Map

Westland, the aircraft company that Frank Greed worked for during WWI, was a true Somerset company.  Apparently, every bomber that was built at the Yeovil factory during WWI was "delivered to France complete with a barrel containing cider in the rear to act as a form of ballast".   That's what I call a good use of space.

Frank's work involved making wooden propellers for the aircraft, that much we know.  Whether it was an assembly line type of set-up or if his carpentry skills were used as required for the whole planes, I cannot say.  There is now an aviation museum in Yeovil, which would be interesting to visit one day.

Westland N16 with wings folded

A horse drawn cart takes wings of  Short Type 166 from factory to Yeovil 's Great Western Railway junction. 

aircraft images credit: http://flyingmachines.ru/Site2/Arts/Art5845.htm
http://www.abct.org.uk/airfields/yeovil
wooden propeller (from Swiss aviation museum): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_War_I_wooden_propeller.jpg

Lionel Percy Waller

Ancestry.co.uk has got another period of free access at the moment, this time to World War I records - service, medal, and pension records - so I have been spending my morning learning more about my Great-Grandfather, Lionel Percy Waller, than I ever thought possible to know.  What a bonanza - there is even a copy of his record of death (reported by my dear old Grandad himself) among the records.

Lionel Percy Waller was a career soldier, joining the Royal Horse Artillery at the age of 20 (1893), and retiring in March of 1914.  Unfortunately for him, and the rest of Europe, World War I began July 28th of 1914, so back he went to his old regiment.

I can report to you that he was a short man (for our family), only 5' 8", and he weighed a graceful 129 lbs at the age of 20 when he was enlisted; he had black hair, brown eyes, and was Church of England.  And he was a gardener by profession beforehand, as was his father.

Here is Battery Sergeant Lionel Percy Waller's military service record, registration number 51473 (formerly 96489).

Service with the colours:
14-03-1893 to 13-03-1914, and after the outbreak of WWI,  10-10-1914 to 9-2-1919.

Overseas service:
India: 29-9-1893 to 10-8-1900
China:  11-8-1900 to 22-12-1902
Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (Dardanelles): 15-6-1915 to 25-6-1916

De-mobbed: 9-2-1919

                                                                                                    View Larger Map

If my research is correct, and trust me, trying to make sense of which brigade and battery was joining and merging with others as the war wore on is a challenge, it looks as though he just avoided Gallipoli, but landed in Salonika somewhere between 5-10 October, 1915 with the 10th Division (the "Irish" division).

We know from one of the old postcards that Len Adams was in Salonika as well.  I wonder if these two soldiers knew each other.  One day, one of Lionel's sons would marry one of Len's nieces, who would go on to become grandparents to a scattered horde, including me.

Lionel survived his time with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, then, presumably ill, he was posted to the No. 2 Royal Garrison Artillery Cadet School as an instructor on March 20th, 1917.  This looks like it was at Maresfield Park.  If so, here's a lovely tidbit of information that I found today: one of the cadets there in August of 1917 was a certain  R. Vaughn Williams, who wrote to Gustav Holst bemoaning the fact that he's been "bunged off [there] all in a hurry" for a 4 month course.  He described it as a "free and easy" place, but with a good deal of "stupid ceremonial", with white gloves on parade. (from Letters of Ralph Vaughn Williams, 1895-1956)

Lionel's medical discharge on June 2nd, 1921, reported the reason as malaria and rheumatism, and he was required to continue attending the "tropical clinic".

Of course, there is a lot more information on G-G-Waller, but I think I will probably start another page and post copies of all these military records on it.  In the next couple of days, I will find the rest of the records for any other members of the family and put them all together.




image credits: http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Regiments/RoyalHorseArtilleryWW1.html;
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=103329&page=116

RVW letters retrieved http://books.google.ca/books?id=NlTUBqBtVxAC&pg=PT200&lpg=PT200&dq=maresfield+park+cadet+school&source=bl&ots=RDQ3-aB87F&sig=_zL4282oul6m6iTwLusSBPvHgPI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=qvmeUKeMG_KO2QWvgoFA&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=fals)

November Already

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              



Hurricane season is nearly behind us for another year, and the clocks go back in North America tonight.  The very last outdoor painting has been done, and the garden is ready for winter.

Now come a couple of weeks of quiet before Christmas parties and the first snows arrive.  There's
a lot to be said for November, this most under-rated
of months; there is more time in it.   It is now that
 the poets and the writers can stay inside and write, and dogs will wait patiently for their walks and their apples.    

All Hallows' Eve

I have been saving this family tidbit for Halloween.

When I mentioned a few weeks ago that I did not know what my great-grandfather Francis Harry Greed did for a living, Mum said that among other things, he had been a coffin maker.  That is brilliant.  Not everyone can boast one of those in their family.  Coffin makers were often skilled cabinet makers in those days - which was Frank Greed's  profession, after graduating from being a carpenter and joiner - and so when he was working for J.J. Allen Ltd. in Bournemouth (est. 1899 to "carry on the extensive and old established business of Mr. J.J. Allen, House Furnisher, Carpet Importer, Cabinet Manufacturer, Upholsterer, Decorator, Warehouseman, and Funeral Furnisher"), that was one of the things he did.

I am sure that Frank Greed would like to be remembered for more than being a coffin maker.  He is another one of the family members who sounds like he would have been great fun to know.  Before settling down in Bournemouth, he and Alice seemed to like to move around a lot, and he was based in Yeovil during WWI, where he made wooden aircraft propellers.  His parents had a sweet shop in Winton (I found them - Francis James and Harriet Greed - on the 1911 census living at 172 Wimborne Rd.), which is very near to where AR lives. I have walked right by this address myself, but did not know of the family link. The Greeds were all from Taunton, Somerset originally.  I do not know what brought them to Bournemouth.

More on Frank and Alice and their children later.


And in another nod to Halloween: this is the skeletal view of your blogger's right hand.  I thought I had broken the third metacarpal a couple of months back and had it x-rayed.  It turned out to be a ligamentous injury, but I got the secretary of my favorite orthopedic surgeon to email me copies of the imaging.








info. on J.J.Allen: http://www.housefraserarchive.ac.uk/company/?id=c1575
coffin picture: an Edward Gorey drawing from one of my many E.G. books.

Aelfryn Jones and The Royal Welsh Choir

Two days ago, I received what can only be described as the most sweetly worded letter I have ever been sent (from a stranger), from the website manager for The Treorchy Choir.  He gently pointed out the error of my understanding of how the Royal Welsh Choir fit in with the Treorchy, and directed me to an entire essay on the website which clears the matter up.  The reason Aelfryn Jones was not mentioned as a member, and their tour to North America in which we saw them perform years ago was not listed, was because the choirs are two separate entities (or were, I should say, as the Royal Welsh no longer exists), despite their origins being intimately linked.  The Royal Welsh was the professional choir that traveled the world when no other Welsh choir was doing so, and whose original members were chosen from the now legendary Treorchy.  Here is the history of the Royal Welsh if you are interested.

http://www.treorchymalechoir.com/history/Royal%20Welsh%20Male%20Choir.htm

Perhaps the reason the family story about Aelfryn singing with the Treorchy became confused along the way, and thinking the Royal Welsh was a subgroup of it, is because his choir was based in the town of Treorchy as well and the two were "unequivocally linked", as the website says, and were even known to combine their numbers for special performances.

Thank you very much to Dean Powell.

Some Answers

It's a dark, rainy October night on the east coast of Canada - "starless and bible-black" - with a warm south wind through my open windows, and I would like to carry on with Dylan Thomas and more videos of Welsh choirs, but that would get less and less interesting very quickly for anyone following this, except for me.

Right.

Let me begin to get some things posted here that have been related to me recently by assorted relatives around the globe in answer to some questions that have come up in regard to the Postcard Project.

First of all, and most fortuitously, it turns out that we have another picture of Isabella Bathsheba and Gangan after all.  In the photo above, Isabella is sitting in the charabanc with Alice Greed on the left side and May Adams, Uncle Len's first wife on the right (the one he scandalously divorced, apparently, and the nieces and nephews were told that she had died quite young, of TB).  This picture may well have been taken before the divorce.  All we can know at this point is that it would have been in or before 1926, because Isabella died in January 1927, and the leaves are still on the trees in the photograph.  Uncle Len left for Australia in 1921, so it was probably before that, unless May remained a part of the family despite scandal.

Next.  The pictures of Gramfie's cousin George and the one of the 8 children lined up vonTrapp-style are still a bit of a mystery, insofar as I do not know how they fit in on the Greed side.  But, I have done a little research and it looks as though I should be able to work it out when I sit down and put it all in order, make some deductions, and check everyone against the records.

           

The picture of "cousin Jim" is Thomas Adams' son - Tom being the surviving child of the George and Elizabeth union (that still unresolved mystery), before George married Isabella.

No one knows or can guess at the picture "Taken at the Assembly Rooms Yeovil in the small balcony".  Was it merely a photo-postcard to remember the occasion of a night out, or was one of the Princes Orchestra members a friend or relative?  We know the date was 1926, that's all.

I have stories to write out as well, things that I've been told that provide some substance to the names and the few pictures we have left of people, and I will get to those in due course.  Interestingly, one of Gramfie Greed's cousins was a photographer, so there is a chance that somewhere in the world, there is a descendant with a whole treasure chest of family pictures, or at least, negatives.

My great-grandfather on my father's side was also a photographer, and a member of the Medici Society, so perhaps there is a small chance of finding someone with all his pictures as well.

Rwyf wrth fy modd gorau Cymraeg.   I can't resist - one more video: the Reverend Eli Jenkins prayer, from Under Milkwood,  set to music.

To Wales

Not to spread this project too thinly, but I began a 'Known So Far: Wales' page on the Welsh branch of my family today.  There is a purpose in my going madly off in all directions (after studying the relevant 1911 census pages) - the earlier I get the full names of a family of Jones from Wales onto this blog, the sooner someone, somewhere, who has already been doing some Welsh family research will stumble across this and mercifully assist me.  My great-grandparents' family names were Jones and Evans.  Divine intervention may be required to make a dent in family research from this distance.  I did try for a few hours to work out the next generation back for each great-grandparent, but I quickly began paddling in circles.

Really, it was just an excuse to spend an hour or two listening to Welsh choirs on You Tube in order to choose a couple of pieces to post here for others who may not know about this cultural gift to the world.   I had a great-uncle who sang in the Treorchy Choir, but I am rather fond of the Morriston Orpheus videos and not so much of the Treorchy ones (may I be forgiven my disloyalty).  

Symmetry

This postcard pictured above was sent to my great-grandmother from her brother Bill on October 15th, 1912 - the day he left England for Australia.  Today is October 15th, 2012 - one hundred years later to the day - and this very same postcard that was brought from England to Canada about ten years ago after my grandmother died (she had kept it from her mother, Alice), has been put into the hands of Canada Post today to find its way from the recipient's great-granddaughter to the sender's granddaughter in Australia.  It is about to become one of the most well-traveled postcards in recorded history.

When I got in contact with our Australian cousin a week or two ago and told her about my having this card, she was thrilled to find out about some of her family's history that they had not been able uncover. I asked if she would like to have the postcard, and she replied with an enthusiastic Yes please.  Then look at the date today: I was going to just take my time in parting with this little bit of treasure, but a perfect centenary was too much to resist.

Anyway, I was telling this story to the person at the post office when I took it in to mail it, and she summoned another colleague over to hear the story too, so I repeated it all - it was a fun little "post office moment" - and it was duly date-stamped, and taken away from me.

Safe journey postcard!

P.S.  AR thinks that Gangan (Alice) might have had a hand in all of  this.  I'm all for having such interference from The Beyond.  What fun!

Alice Mabel Adams

This is Alice Adams by the time she was Alice Greed and had three children.  I  discovered this faded photo of her today in my small collection - quite possibly taken at Bournemouth beach - with my grandmother and her brother with her.

Alice was the only sister of the boys that were writing the postcards to her, and we have her to thank for saving them in the first place.  Their parents, Isabella and George, were still alive until 1927 and 1923 respectively, but nothing of theirs has survived, that I know of at least, so these postcards are the oldest surviving family correspondence.  Who knows - perhaps one day someone will discover a box in an attic with all the cards and letters Alice wrote to his or her great grandparent.  One can live in hope...

What I would also like to do is find out about all these places where she was staying.  There is an assortment of addresses on the postcards; were they holiday places, or homes of relatives she was visiting, or did she move about a fair amount after she was married.  Oddly enough, considering I know about her parents and grandparents, I don't even know what her husband, Frank, did for a living yet.

A New Page

I have started a new page called "Postcard Project"  - check it out. 

Also, there are now too many pages to line up the links across the top of the main blog page, so you will notice that I have moved the "View Pages" links over to the right hand side.

Follow Up Note

Yesterday, when I told Mum about the Isabella-and-baby in Chester connection I'd dug up, she immediately said: Yes, I remember something about them going to Chester!  She thought that they had planned to emigrate, but that something had gone wrong and they were forced to delay or cancel their plans.  Alas, Mum was very young when these old stories were being told and the details did not stick with her.  So there was a Liverpool association, but it probably had nothing to do with Isabella going to the U.S. on a mission of mercy.

Here we have one of those clear moments from the past of which I can say: if they had gone on rather than turned back, none of us would be here now.

William Pitt Adams

This is rather interesting: Isabella's and George's son William Pitt Adams was born in Chester in 1884.  Why? 

His siblings, Alice and Sam, were born in (what would become) Bournemouth ahead of him, and his brothers John, Frederick, Leonard, and Reginald were born in Bournemouth after him.  What was Isabella, and perhaps the rest of the family, doing in Chester in 1884?  Could this have anything to do with a possible return to Liverpool after going to the U.S.?  Look how close Chester is to Liverpool.  If this was the case, perhaps Isabella did not know she was pregnant in the spring of the year - I cannot imagine she would have set out to cross the Atlantic to look after her brother if she knew she was pregnant - and William was born after her return, at the end of October.

If I ever manage to find out if it was Isabella that went to America, and if 1884 was the year, then we can connect these events.  Or, there is an entirely different reason why she/they were in Chester at the time... but, what?

Picture credit: http://www.onlinegalleries.com/antiques/d/chester-by-louise-ingram-rayner/91871

Slow Going



Steamer, Quebec City, c.1870

Steamer, Cleveland 1875

Dead leads and dead ends have been the continuing theme of my recent research.  I have nothing substantial to relate at all, other than that I found a detailed family listing of Bartholomew Pearce's wife's family  for Cousin J., which has everyone on it up to the present family members, who live around or in London, Ontario!  Once again my old paths have been crossed with people connected to us of Portland origin.  The odd thing about this family listing is that they have Bartholomew's wife married to someone else on it, and I have not been able to find when he died, or anything else about him.

My latest mother lode of a discover has been the website for The Maritime History of the Great Lakes.  There are thousands of images and old newspaper transcriptions available here of all things related to shipping in the Great Lakes, and I have only just begun to look at it this morning.  I have lost my initial optimism that we will be able to find out anything more specific about how Bartholomew made it from Quebec to Cleveland, but it is possible to see how he could have  (if it was by inland steamer), by examining the pictures and articles in this repository of information.

Now, as today is the only day that everyone can get together this week, we are having a family feast/late birthday celebration for one of my nieces out at the farm - and it is a beautiful day for it - so, I must get to the preparations of my contributions now, and leave the Great Lakes for another day.

image credits: http://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/1452/data?n=1,  http://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/454/data?n=39, http://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/1067/data?n=48

More About Steamships

I stumbled across a very good website this morning, and among other things, there was a transcription of the shipping news from the old Quebec Mercury newspaper on the day Bartholomew Pearce arrived.

Monday, May 22, 1871
Arrived, May 22:   S S Nestorian, Aird, Liverpool, May 11, Allans, Rae & co., mails, 855 pas and gen cargo for Quebec and Montreal:

Mail Steamship Arrived. –The S.S. Nestorian, Capt. Aird, from Liverpool, May 11, arrived in port at half-past three o’clock this afternoon, with the mails, 47 cabin, 808 steerage passengers and a general cargo for Quebec and Montreal.

And below is the text of an 1880 advertisement for the Allan Line, which was the steamship company that brought the most immigrants to North America in the last decades of the 19th century.  It gives a lot of information on the procedures and conditions of the passage, keeping in mind that this was 9 years after Bartholomew traveled and things might not have been exactly the same.

GOVERNMENT ASSISTED PASSAGES

AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS TO QUEBEC, AT œ5. FEMALE DOMESTIC SERVANTS AT œ4.

ALL APPLICATIONS FOR SUCH PASSAGES ARE TO BE MADE UPON SPECIAL FORMS, WHICH CAN BE OBTAINED FROM THE UNDERSIGNED, OR ANY OF THEIR AGENTS

Intermediate or Steerage Passages can be engaged by payment of a Deposit of One or Two Pounds on each berth, with Name and Age of each passenger. Post-office Orders to be made payable to the undersigned, Steerage Passengers are provided with comfortable sleeping compartments, and they are recommended to hire the Outfit supplied by the "Allan" Steam-ship Company, which consists of Woods' Patent Life-Preserving Pillows, Mattress, Pannikin to hold 1.5 pint, Plate, Knife, Nickel-plated Fork, and Nickel-plated Spoon. The Charge for the use of these articles for the Voyage is 6s. per Adult, and 3s per Child between the Ages of Two and Eight Years; leaving Passengers to provide bed-covering only, a rug or blanket being sufficient.

Intermediate and Steerage Passengers are allowed ten cubic feet of Luggage free for each adult; for all over that quantity a charge of 1s. for each cubic foot will be made. Packages of baggage must be distinctly addressed before being shipped.

BAGGAGE TAKEN FROM THE OCEAN STEAM-SHIPS TO THE RAILWAY CARS FREE OF EXPENSE.

Intermediate and Steerage Passengers embarking at Liverpool must be at the Office of the Agents, ALEXANDRA BUILDINGS, JAMES STREET, not later than Eight o'clock in the Evening of the day before the advertised date of sailing, by which time the balance of the Passage-money must be paid.

Passengers embarking at Londonderry will have to report themselves at the office of ALLAN BROTHERS & CO., Foyle Street, Londonderry; and Passengers embarking at Queenstown will have to report themselves at the Office of JAMES SCOTT & CO., the evening before sailing date, any time up to Eight or Nine o'Clock. The Steamers being under Mail contract, sail punctually on their appointed dates.

All Passengers will have strictly to conform to the rules laid down by the Company. Passengers' Boxes (if required on the Voyage) should not exceed fifteen inches in height.

AN EXPERIENCED SURGEON IS ATTACHED TO EACH STEAMER.

Intermediate and Steerage Stewardesses are provided by the Company, to attend to the wants of Female Passengers and Children. Through Tickets issued to all Inland Towns in Canada and the States. For further particulars apply to:

JOHN WARD, Stationmaster, Bandoran.

Liverpool, February, 1880.

Report credit: http://jubilation.uwaterloo.ca/~marj/genealogy/children/inthenews.html#1871
Image credit:  http://www.photoship.co.uk/JAlbum%20Ships%20Misc/Miscellaneous/slides/
Advertisemnt credit:  http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/exhibitions_talks_and_events/19th_century_emigration_to_the_north_america_online/at_the_port/advertisements.htm

Wrong Again

  

When I found the same ship's list on the LDS site, it listed the passengers in nice, clear text, not 19th century handwriting - and the one following Mr. Pearce was a "Miss. Peaton", not a Miss. Pearce after all.   Just when it was looking promising.

Back to the old drawing board.

I wonder...

 

Is this it?  The reason I could not find an Isabella Pearce on any of the ships' passenger lists the first time around was because she may have been listed as "Miss Pearce" - as in the Miss. Pearce on the above record - the fifth from the bottom.  This Miss. Pearce (listed as a spinster) and apparently travellng with a Mr. Pearce, who may have been a brother (?) was aboard the SS Circassian, and arrived in Quebec on the 22nd of September, 1873.  It fits.  But is it her?  I realize that this image is total crap to look at, and I shall try and make it better when I get home to my own computer. 

Happily, I can confirm that there is an Isabella Pearce showing up in the LDS records of Canadian ships' passenger lists, but, I would have to pay to see the record.  I found that an hour ago and have been trying to figure it out another way now, as I am not going to get to an LDS family research center in the next week.  We're onto something though.  Once A.R. mentioned in yesterday's email that she'd been speaking with a cousin of my grandmother's, who also remembered the story as being that it was Isabella that went to America, I decided to have another try at finding her on a ship's list somewhere.

And if this is our Isabella, who was the Mr. Pearce she was travelling with, I wonder?  And did he stay in North America?