Friday, February 12, 2016

Five on Friday

It's Friday so I'm joining in with  Amy at Love Made my Home for this week's Five on Friday.  Click on the link at the bottom of this post to find others who are joining in too.

I thought I'd share five of my ancestors with you today

1.  Alexander Joseph Limb (1884 - 1954)
Born in Awsworth, Nottinghamshire he was my grandfather on my mother's side of the family.  He married my grandmother Florence Mary Stubbs in May 1906 at the Baptist chapel in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.  They lived in Shirebrook and grandad worked at the colliery where he looked after the pit ponies.  The child in this photo was my mother's brother William Edward who had been named after my great grandfather William Edward Limb who was killed in a pit cage accident at Shirebrook Colliery in March 1907.  My grandfather had the sad duty of identifying his father and registering his death.  Just a week later he was registering the birth of my mother's sister.  Unfortunately little William Edward died of meningitis in 1910.  Grandad was always known as Joe,  his first name Alexander comes from his mother's side of the family who moved to Loughborough in Leicestershire from Kirkaldy near Fife, Scotland early in the 1820s. My mother used to say that when she was a child there was always a photo of a man with a big white beard who was wearing a kilt on the wall.  She never knew why until many years later, just before she died, I found the Scottish connection.  I wonder what happened to that photograph?  



 2.  Joseph Limb (1837 - 1914)

My great great grandfather Joseph Limb was born in Shipley Wood near Heanor in Derbyshire and was baptised in 1837 at the Shipley Wood Primitive Methodist Chapel.  He married Alice Reeve, who already had a daughter Sarah Ann, in Awsworth in Nottinghamshire on Christmas Day 1860.  The family moved from Awsworth to Staveley and then back to Awsworth before settling in Shirebrook. He died at his daughter's house in Lace Street, Beeston, Nottingham in 1914. I was lucky to be contacted by the  grandaughter of Alice's daughter Sarah.  Alice LaCour lived in Folsom, Pensylvania, USA and was a country and western singer who used the name Lonnie Lynne LaCour.  We exchanged many e-mails, photos and family stories over the years, she was a lovely lady.


 3.  Martha Elizabeth Stubbs (nee Matthews) (1854 - 1915)

Martha my great grandmother on my mother's side of the family was born in Welby, near Grantham in Lincolnshire the daughter of a Saddle maker named Edward Matthews and his wife the wonderfully Dickensian sounding Betsy Charity.  She married my great grandfather William Stubbs at the Weslyan Methodist Chapel in Grantham and they lived in Hose and then Long Clawson in Leicestershire.  On the 1881 census William is listed as a farmer of 63 acres.  When he died Martha married again and moved eventually to Shirebrook in Nottinghamshire.  She is buried in the cemetery there not far from William Edward Limb.  The two little girls were twins Olive and Violet, my mother's cousins.  They emigrated to Canada around the time of WW1.  Little Olive died in a diphtheria epidemic but Violet lived to a ripe old age living and working in Ottawa for the government.  She travelled all over the world and as a child and teenager I loved her Christmas letters full of her adventures.  She visited us a couple of times too so I was lucky to meet her and spend time with her.
 


4.  Rosa Gough (nee Edwards) (1879 - 1963)

My lovely granny Rose, my father's mother.  I still have the mirror decorated with roses and a blue bird which she left me in her will.  I have happy memories of visiting her house.  She used to make me clothes for my dolls and used to tell me tales of her and her sisters' childhoods.  Her house was highly polished and in the 'best' room she had paintings on the walls and wax flowers under glass domes.  She used to give me a ten shilling note when we visited.  She was so very understanding after my father died and Mum married again.  I always remember her in her flowery 'pinny', hair in a bun making her way down the hallway of her house struggling on bowed legs - something that would be rectified at a young age today.

5.  Sarah Ann Edwards (nee Hodgetts) (1855 - 1939)

Sara Ann was my great grandmother on my father's side of the family.  That is her on the left of the photo in a check shirt and white apron.  She was apparently little and feisty.  She was born in Birmingham in 1855.  On the 1861 Census the Hodgetts family are living in the St Martin's area of Birmingham in 3 House, Court 10, Alleston Street.  Every member of the family had jobs making things at home.  When we visited the National Trust Back to Back houses a few years ago I imagined that she would have lived somewhere like that.  When her mother re-married she and her brother moved with her to Newhall and Midway near Swadlincote in Derbyshire.  Sarah Ann married Thomas Edwards at Newhall Parish Church on 14th February 1875.  Granny Rose (above) was her second daughter. 

I hope you have enjoyed my little look into my family history.

Have a lovely weekend everyone. 

38 comments:

  1. How lucky you are to have photos of your ancestors. My family on my Dad's mother's side were travelling folk, so they had very few possessions that weren't 'useful' and they burned anything that hadn't been handed on during life when the owner died. I can go back to grandparents and that's all. I don't think the generations before that believed in photos.
    If the Hodgetts lived in a court in Birmingham I assume you've visited the Back to Backs in the city. It's a wonderful spot to see how families lived back then, but I don't think I'd want to squeeze so many people into such a small space.

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    1. Yes, we visited the Back to Backs a couple of years after they first opened and I imagined the family in the first house we saw where they all worked at home making small items for bigger industries:)

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  2. What fantastic photographs to treasure. I am researching my family tree and find it fascinating. Unfortunately I don't have too many old photographs though. xx

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    1. It is a fascinating subject and I'm lucky to have such a lot of family photos which have come to me from various sources:)

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  3. Thank you for sharing photos of your ancestors Rosie. They look like wonderful story book characters! Your granny Rose was particularly stunning - such a beautiful and serene expression. x

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    1. Granny Rose was a lovely person. I only knew her as an elderly lady, she died when I was 12, so it was wonderful to find an earlier photo of her:)

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  4. This post was just incredible. You know so much about them. Saddle maker, not many of those around any more. Love that she left you the mirror in her will. Wonderful post

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  5. You are so lucky to have these photos! I have made genealogy research on the families of my mother, father, mother-in-law and father-in-law. Interesting but don't have any old photos:(

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    1. The photos help bring the people to life - there are still some ancestors I wish had had their photos taken just to know what they looked like but they weren't well off people so wouldn't have had many photos. The studio shot is the earliest I have:)

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  6. I've enjoyed seeing the photos as well as hearing about your family. I find the ones that were taken outside and not in a studio fascinating. Although I like the old studio portraits they're rather posed and don't give so many clues to the every day life of our ancestors.

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    1. Yes, the outside photos are the most interesting as they seem more natural although posing for a photo in those days was quite a peformance I think. The studio ones make the sitters seem staid and formal as they are keeping still in their Sunday best:)

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  7. What lovely atmospheric photos. You've managed to find out a lot about your ancestors, it's great fun tracing back as all the clues start to crop up. Good to write it all down for those further down the line. :-)

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    1. Yes, I've found quite a lot out about various members of the family. Just when I think I've got as far as I can another snippet of information turns up. It is fascinating:)

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  8. Wonderful photos! It's amazing what we learn about our ancestors.

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    1. My Mum started me off on the family history and her cousin in Canada sent me lots of photos. I just wish I'd asked them more questions and that they were still around to ask them:)

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  9. What wonderful photos you have and how nice that you know history behind them. Great treasures from your families past!

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  10. It is so good that you have the photos and information about your relatives. The second photo of your great great grandfather is wonderful. Sara Ann does look like a real character. I have been researching my family and there are some members that once you have a little information you start imagining what their life was like..it's a wonderful hobby. Barbara xx

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    1. Even when you see the photos it is hard to imagine what their lives were really like. Lots of hard work I expect with some good times in between perhaps? It is a wonderful hobby which has kept me interested for many years now:)

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  11. Wonderful! The old photos are priceless! happy weekend, Tammy

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    1. Thanks, I'm so glad I have the photos. Happy weekend to you too:)

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  12. How amazing of you to share your family history with us in this way. Thank you! Their stories are incredibly moving, and the photos must be wonderful for you to have to keep along with those stories of their lives. Thank you for joining Five On Friday, Happy Valentines! xx

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    1. I have hundreds of photos that need to be sorted and passed on to younger family members if they are interested. I worry about what will happen to them. Happy Valentines to you too:)

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  13. How lovely that you have so many old photos of your family - it is wonderful to learn so much about the history of a family - I did it for a couple of years - but sadly they all lead pretty boring lives but I still found it fascinating nevertheless.

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    1. Oh yes it is fascinating even though their lives must have been just hard work most of the time. Most of my ancestors lead quite ordinary lives but it is wonderful to find out about them:)

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  14. What a different five on Friday - and interesting too!

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    1. Thanks, Louise glad you enjoyed the post:)

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  15. Such an interest post Rosie - I love reading about family history.
    You're so lucky to have the photos that tell the story.
    Lovely meeting you at Five on Friday.
    Shane

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    1. Hello and thank you for visiting. glad you enjoyed the post, and yes I am lucky to have the photos:)

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  16. I love black and white phtoographs, its such a shame new generation depend so much on digital pics that are so easily deleted. Sadly I don't have many photographs of my grandparents, so it makes me a little sad. I am really happy that you have this treasure though, and treasure it is indeed. I can understand those people who houses burn in a fire and all they want is their photograph album - the real treasure. Lovely 5 on Friday.

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    1. In one way digital photos are wonderful but I doubt they will last as long as some of the black and white ones - saved because they were so unusual and so precious:)

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  17. One of my favourite hobbies is to go through family history and find out some new fact from ancestors notes and photos. A great idea for Five on Friday x

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    1. Thanks, Chel - glad you enjoyed it. there are so many details to pick up in family photos aren't there?:)

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  18. I enjoyed your old family photos, they sure never cracked a smile back then.

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    1. Ha, Ha - no they didn't! I think having to stay still for the camera sometimes made them look like rabbits in headlights:)

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  19. How marvellous to have all this history and photographs to go with it. Lucky you.

    Diana

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    1. Yes, I am very lucky to have the photos to go with the history, I find it all very fascinating:)

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