Monday, November 11, 2024

A Bit of Family History

 I've been taking advantage of the free access to the 1921 census offered by Find My Past over last weekend.  I'd already paid for the copies of returns for both my sets of grandparents and found my parents listed along with some of their brothers and sisters.  This time I was looking for great grandparents.  On my father's side three of the four great grandparents were still alive.  On my mother's side all four were no longer alive.  Three of those great grandparents are buried in the same cemetry as my maternal grandparents and my father.  My mother is buried with my step-father in a nearby village churchyard.

I've also found my father's elder sister Millicent Mabel (always known as Millie) on the 1921 census.  She was in service with a retired land agent and his wife.  Edwin Henry and Emily Ada Story lived at  Brownhill House in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.  Millie was one of three girls working for them and they were cook, housemaid and under housemaid.  There was also a butler called William Lionel Graves and he came from Tewksbury in Gloucestershire.  Two of the girls were from Upper Midway near Burton-on-Trent and one of them was my Granny's younger sister Clara so an aunt to Millie.  The other girl, had the wonderful name of Eveline Modwina Staley and she came from Ashby-de-la-Zouche, Leicestershire.


All this is quite fascinating, probably only to me but I'm enjoying myself with family history again.  

Granny Rose

 For years I've wanted to do something about my father's grave as it was rapidly deteriorating.  It had been there since 1955, although the stone surround was added by my Granny Rose in 1961.  I applied to the local council and was recommened a memorial stonemason and then had to apply to take over the management of the grave from my Granny who'd died in 1963.  It entailed a visit to a solicitor to get a witness signature. 

My father, middle back, his cousin and uncle both called Tom and a couple of pals.

 All done quite quickly and the replacement stone is now in place.  I've been sent photos but have yet to go and see it. 

3 comments:

  1. It's so satisfying tracking relations in the Census and often leads you off on another search for someone else. You've done well especially as you have the photos to link them to. It's interesting to hear how you got on with the grave too and reassuring that they take care to check too. 😊

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  2. Family history is fascinating. I love delving into mine, but can go only so far, for my grandparents immigrated from Ukraine in the early 1900s. So glad you could get your father's gravestone repaired.

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  3. It’s lovely when you can add to your knowledge of family history. I too enjoyed the free weekend especially looking through the newspapers. B x

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