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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: manonros on Sunday 26 June 11 16:51 BST (UK)

Title: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: manonros on Sunday 26 June 11 16:51 BST (UK)
I am a sucker for anything handwritten and old from charity shops or car boot sales, and when I saw an old hardback with handwritten recipe books and knitting patterns, I snapped it up for fifty pence.

However, on closer inspection, the cover reads- 'ROLL OF ANTI-GAS WORKERS, DIRECTED FOR TRAINING BY MINISTRY OF LABOUR.'

Inside are handwritten charts, with names, addresses, National Identity Cert. Numbers, and a record of training attendence, starting in late July 1943 and through to December 1944. Most atendees were women, but there were some men. The city is not named, but after some crafty googling I've found that it's Liverpool.

Don't know why I'm posting, really, I was just excited.  8)
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: fifer1947 on Sunday 26 June 11 17:18 BST (UK)
Ooooooooooo any Carsons in it?  :o
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: manonros on Sunday 26 June 11 17:24 BST (UK)
Afraid not.
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: fifer1947 on Sunday 26 June 11 17:45 BST (UK)
Didn't think there would be but ever the optimist!  :P  Thank you for looking!  :)
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: RedMystic on Sunday 26 June 11 18:58 BST (UK)
What a great find - and someday, some one is going to be soooo happy that it didn't hit the trash dump.

TX for sharing the excitement.  ;)

Wouldn't it be fun to hear about the strange things people have found accidentally that would otherwise have been lost forever?

Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: millymcb on Sunday 26 June 11 19:14 BST (UK)
What an excellent find...there is so little information on civil defence/home front workers - and women in particular. Well done.

Milly
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: manonros on Sunday 26 June 11 19:40 BST (UK)
I don't really deserve the "well done"- I was thinking of my stomach when I saw the recipes in the back! But I am really pleased I have it now, I only hope I can think of a way to make it useful for someone...

I have found some wonderful things in this particular car boot sale- A few months ago I found a handwritten beautiful birthday book from 1876, with lots of family birth and death dates in it. I know it'll be a treasure to someone, it's just a matter of finding that person!

Meanwhile, I am the guardian of other people's treasures  :)
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: Steve G on Sunday 26 June 11 20:12 BST (UK)
a handwritten beautiful birthday book from 1876, with lots of family birth and death dates in it.


Isn't that what they call a " Family Bible " ?

I'd come across mention of them before and simply assumed they were a big old copy of 'The Bible' which was handed down through the family and in which people made notes of births and such.

 I really should slide off to Google and try to gain a better understanding of all that  :)
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: youngtug on Sunday 26 June 11 20:37 BST (UK)
The Bible had a large section at the back of blank pages used for recording the family birth's, baptism's, marriages and deaths. If you are lucky enough to have one in your family ;D . I remember my mothers parents had one, my mother threw it out :'(
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: Deb D on Monday 27 June 11 01:45 BST (UK)
I remember my mothers parents had one, my mother threw it out :'(
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: Deb D on Monday 27 June 11 01:51 BST (UK)
Phooey, first image won't delete  :-\
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: Steve G on Monday 27 June 11 02:16 BST (UK)
 Cheers, Y'Tug. Google has since shown that to be quite the case. Though, whilst many books carry blank pages at the back ~ for what ever purpose ~ I see many images of very purpose printed 'Births and Deaths' pages in (I assume?) actual bibles

I remember my mothers parents had one, my mother threw it out :'(

 " My mother threw it out. " Words fail me!  :o Sling the bible? Sure. Fine. But; At least tear out the hand written, family pages. Pop them in a plastic bag and bury them in the book shelves, somewhere.

 Isn't this the nightmare of this game? What we hold may be considered worthless clutter, by the next lot. But, one of their kids may become one of us, fifty years down the line.

 And saying:  " My mother threw it out. "

Blowed if I have an answer  :-\
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: gortonboy on Monday 27 June 11 03:20 BST (UK)
I have a "memories box",,,,in it i put things that i would like to have found from my ancestors,,,,,,so i chuck in a wage slip,,,a special birthday card,,,a postcard from a relative  etc    My family have instructions to keep it and pass it down the line.....hopefully in a hundred years,,someone will open a treasure trove of family momentos  ;D
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: majm on Monday 27 June 11 04:23 BST (UK)
In our family there's birthday books .... very different from the Family Bible  (also have this too)...

The earliest one in our family was owned by a lass born on the Victorian Gold Fields (Australia).  In her handwriting she recorded her name against her birthdate, when she was around 8 years of age, and in that same childish handwriting she wrote her older and younger siblings on their days, and their parents, and the uncles and aunts, and neighbours and school friends too.

When each of her parents died, she wrote those dates in against them also. As an adult, she added the birthdates for each of her inlaws (including their parents too), and so on. When someone married, she noted the date of their marriage and to whom ....

When she died her birthday book was already in the hands of her favourite niece who was her namesake.  So the tradition continued, and there became a need to obtain a new birthday book.  The new one has all the rellies, in their own hand, and of course, there's so much information that can fit on each line (books are hand held, so quite small) and there's now additional books. 

The earliest book has been digitially photographed, and the second one is being done later this week.  Yes, there's some names that wthe current generation does not recognise YET but .... this will sort "in due course"...
And, yes, between several of my generation, we have bought up a number of "new" birthday books, in anticipation that these will be as scarse as hen's teeth and we are anticipating these will be for the future Grans in our family to hand on as gifts to their own grandchildren...


So, the birthday book's eldest person mentioned would be two of my great great great grandparents born 1805 and 1809 .....   And, yes, my cousins and I do spend pennies on confirming BDM certs  ;D

Cheers,  JM
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: Ringoroses on Monday 27 June 11 09:12 BST (UK)
Quote
My Mother threw it out.

I've probably mentioned this before on these pages...... several times  >:(

My family once had in its posession a "wonderful painting" of my 3x great grandfather, a Master Mariner who drowned at sea when his ship sank en route to San Francisco; he was only 32 years old.  It hung on the wall of my grandparent's living room through 11 children - until the youngest, number 12 (my aunt - who hears about it every time I see her!), decided she didn't like it because 'the eyes followed her around the room'.

So, rather than put it in the attic, or cellar (they had both!) or stuff it into the back of the wardrobe or down the back of the sofa where she couldn't see it.....my Nan put it out for the bin men.

Yeah, I know. Don't. Brings a lump to my throat every time I think of it... :'(

Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: manonros on Monday 27 June 11 09:19 BST (UK)
Ooooh Ann in the UK, that is shocking! I'm very lucky with family bibles etc... They've all been kept in good condition.
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: Ringoroses on Monday 27 June 11 09:30 BST (UK)
Ooooh Ann in the UK, that is shocking! I'm very lucky with family bibles etc... They've all been kept in good condition.

I know...still makes me cringe 4 years after I found out..... :o
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: maidmarianoops on Monday 27 June 11 09:42 BST (UK)
fantastic find

sylvia
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: Maggie. on Monday 27 June 11 20:55 BST (UK)
Ooooh Ann in the UK, that is shocking! I'm very lucky with family bibles etc... They've all been kept in good condition.

I know...still makes me cringe 4 years after I found out..... :o

My mum and her brother had a bonfire in the back yard of photos, letters and stuff after the death of their mother..... my gran had by all accounts made them promise to do so.

I also still cringe at the thought of all those lost gems  :o
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: Ringoroses on Monday 27 June 11 21:51 BST (UK)
A bonfire? That's even more tragic than going to landfill!

Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: Maggie. on Monday 27 June 11 23:05 BST (UK)
Exactly my thoughts, Ann .......... I have never fully recovered from the shock of being told of this devastating act  :o
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: shellyesq on Tuesday 28 June 11 14:13 BST (UK)
All these trashings make me sad.  A similar thing happened in my husband's family.

According to my husband's grandmother, her mother had gotten an invitation to a Presidential inauguration, as she was a distant cousin of the President.  Husband's grandmother had kept the invitation in a scrapbook.  When she went on her honeymoon, her sister, who had shared a bedroom with her, threw out the scrapbook.   :(
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: flipflops on Tuesday 28 June 11 19:47 BST (UK)
My sister lost almost everything whem she was taken into hospital for a couple of weeks. She'd been living in rented property and came 'home' to find the landlord had had it demolished  - along with virtually all her stuff and that was the end of all her  treasures and keepsakes :'( :( >:( :'(
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: mhomac on Tuesday 28 June 11 22:47 BST (UK)
I had an antique rocking chair, given to me by an elderly relative, which although it squeeked I loved to bits. One bonfire night I came home to discover my chair had gone. A friend of my mothers convinced her that it was taking up too much space in the room and threw the chair on the bonfire!.
Needless to say I never forgave her and didn't speak to my mother for ages.
I should add I was only 9 at the time!! ;D
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: Pastmagic on Wednesday 29 June 11 00:28 BST (UK)
My mother, god bless her, kept all sorts of stuff! In the last year, my cousins started a  Facebook
site and now there are 37 family members on this private group, so everything from 1900,s letters to spoons and  bibles have been photographed. 700 items in all. I avoided  Facebook for years, but this is working surprisingly well - new photos etc - and many many stories that would not have got shared. It also involves people from six continents, as we went and found what happened to people who emmigrated...

It might be worth scanning in that car boot find and putting it on the rootschat resources.
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: manonros on Wednesday 29 June 11 07:47 BST (UK)
That's a good idea pastmagic , I shall do that at the weekend. There is a definate feeling of "this should be available to people who want it!" as I know that there are people who are looking into the lives of those very people right now.
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: bobby Taylor on Thursday 30 June 11 16:38 BST (UK)
nice find
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: cms on Monday 04 July 11 20:06 BST (UK)
I would think Liverpool Record Office would like a copy too. You are entitled to keep your find but others also get the benefit. Well done for finding it.
Title: Re: Oooh I found a treasure in a car boot sale today...
Post by: manonros on Monday 04 July 11 20:38 BST (UK)
Thanks cms - I did wonder about this but wasn't sure who exactly I should contact. Shall mail them some photos in the morning. :)