It's such a shame so many memories are lost. If only they had all kept voluminous diaries
I remember gatherings at my grandparents' house, (when I was little) especially my paternal one, where there was a lot of story swapping and much laughter. (My paternal grandmother was, before she got married, a dressmaker, and she was a very respectable lady.
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I remember their saying things like, "Do you remember when great aunt Eliza did such and such, and her dignified demeanor was much ruffled?" and they would all howl with laughter. They were talking of people long gone and they all knew the stories, and they were told and retold with great affection for these people involved.
I always liked to hear of the escapades of my father when he was a little boy. The quiet and serious man I knew( who died when I had just reached 9 years old) had been a little devil when he was a child. I really liked that.
I remember other hilarious stories, and some sad ones about loss and hardship, some from other side of the family too, but oh, how I wish I had listened more when they were talking about people long gone; old people that they had known, or even not known themselves, but had only heard stories about, when they were children.
It was those 'unknowns', those people in the past, that made me lose interest when I was a child, and now they are the ones I want to know about.
One young man, it seems( details now cannot be verified unless I find their descendents) ran away with a married woman to London. In those days, very shocking.
There was something about a member of the family knowing someone who had been hanged for murder in the 1930's. No one would talk about it, so now I will never know.
Nowadays, the few oldest members left of the family, who were young teens and young adults in those old gatherings, do not remember those stories, or are simply not the least bit interested in the past or genealogy. How can anyone not be interested in genealogy?
