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My mother, as a young girl, loses her father then her mother
Posted: 23 Dec 2019 Posted: 12 Dec 2019 Posted: 28 Jul 2017 Posted: 20 Feb 2017 Posted: 03 Dec 2016 All Entries |
Stories from my family history researchToday is General Election day in the UK but, as my wife and I use postal voting, we didn't need to venture out on a cold and rainy day to the Polling Station. On Sjoerds thread about his city I mentioned that I have been spending some time on family history. As a member of Ancestry I have access to many national records which, coupled with links to other members' trees, means that ones 'tree' can be enhanced and in the process many stories emerge. I thought that I would relate a few here, some sad and some poignant, but underlying they help to create a picture of life in times gone by. I will break this into individual short stories 1 Links to my maternal grandfather live on My mother was born on September 30 1913. She had 2 older brothers and a sister at that time. Her father was an oyster fisherman and a Royal Nany reserve seaman. WWI was declared on 28 July 1914 and my grandfather was 'called up' in August 1914. He was drafted to HMS Cressy which was torpedoed by a German submarine early on the morning of 22 September 1914, just a few weeks after his call up. He drowned along with many shipmates just 8 days before my mothers first birthday and leaving a widow and four young children My maternal family are mostly from the north Kent coast, in particular Whitstable, a lovely little harbour town just 7 miles from where I live now. Some years ago when walking along the coastal path I came across an old oyster fishing yawl, Favourite, which was built in 1890. It is the last surviving of more than 100 yawls that fished off Whitstable in the 19th and early 20th centuries. She is now the subject of a preservation scheme and I remember just leaning over and touching this relic of a gone by era. Little did I know that much more recently when I acquired a copy of my grandfathers RNR service record that he is listed as serving as an oyster dredger on F69 Favourite. And it is quite likely that I touched the gunwale in the same spot as my grandfather had touched more than 100 years ago. My photo of F69 Favourite 
( photo / image / picture from Raddang's Garden ) Last edited: Thu Dec 12, 2019 11:18 pm This blog entry has been viewed 307 times
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