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.