BATES Family

[equinox]

Hi Christine, Thomas Beecham, or old tom as he was known was born in 1820 witney oxon, he died in1907 he was the the one who started beechams pills and so fourth. One of his children was joseph beecham who was the father of sir thomas beecham the famous condutor so his grandfather was old tom .Joseph Beecham was Merricks half brother. One of old Toms sons died young and there was no course found, i have a heart defect that would have killed me, a heart electrical fault that kills young people, runs in familys.  genes united are not always a good thing. How are are we related from the bates at yardend farm.                 Regards Julie

[Christine M.]

Distantly, by marriage. Arabella was Merrick's great aunt on her side of the family and my great great grandmother.  My grandfather was also brought up by Philip and Arabella (his grandparents) but was not a blood relative of Merrick because he was related through Philip's side of the family (the son of Philip and Arabella's son). Don't know what sort of relative this makes us.
 Do you have any contact with the Beecham family? Have you researched Arabella's side of the family?

Christine.

[equinox]

Hi christine,  Arebella sewell was one of four childen. Lois, John and sarah, all born in little kimble bucks. There father was Edward and mother rebeca. Edward was a farm labourer, and rebeca was a turnpike gate keeper. Lois sewell was john meads second wife. They had twelve children. Bye the way Thomas Beecham was seventy and Elizebeth was twenty two went they had an afair, just after he got rid of his third wife. There was another illiegitmate child born to Thomas, a girl violet roberts born when Thomas was 80 years old. I have spoken to emma beecham Thomas beechams great great grandfather . She put me on to a book written by one of old toms great grandaughers, A guinea a box by anne francis. It is all about the beecham family, with a lot of family photos. Thomas was a terrible womaniser, emma new of the illiegitmate children, she said Thomas took care of them, he liked children. Is it possible there could be an old picture of merrick as a child with any of the bates family.
                                                             Regards julie

[equinox]

Hi Christine, I forgot to mention, Merrick named his first child scissy after philip and Arabela's daughter Scissy was a mother to Merrick and he never forgot her.
                                                          julie

[Christine M.]

Hi, I have never seen any photos of my grandfather or his siblings as a children. So no, I'm sorry, I don't have one of Merrick. Thinking about it, I guess Merrick and my grandfather were blood relatives. Something like second-cousins through Merrick's grandmother being Arabella's sister. Are there any dyslexics among your family members? Two of my children are dyslexic and I have carried out university research on dyslexia and am going to be teaching on it at university next term. I will talk about the genetics of dyslexia (not straightforward, possibly an inherited susceptibility) and it would be great if I could use my own family as an example. My grandfather always came across as an intelligent man but clearly preferred practical stuff. I also get the impression that he was the class clown. Possible signs of dyslexia.

Christine.

[equinox]

Hi Chistine
 Yes, i have dyslexia and so does my son. I was labeled backwards at school, but things moved on and my son was diagnosed early and had help, he also has dyspraxia. I was labeled clumsy. I have four children, three girls and a boy. They all have short term memory problems but are intelligent. My son was labeled disruptive at school before he was diagnosed, he also had frontal lobe  epilepsy but grew out of it. let be know if i can be of help in your research. If you go to rugby advertiser and search FAMILY RESEACH FINDS TRAGIC STORY, you can read what happened to Merrick.
                                          Regards Julie

[Christine M.]

Well. That's interesting! I'm not dyslexic although I do vere in that direction and I certainly underachieved at school. My teachers would be amazed at what I now do professionally. A couple of my children (the dyslexic ones) are also clumsy. However, there is a fair amount of crossover between dyspraxia (also known as Developmental Co-ordination Disorder), ADHD and dyslexia (and, anecdotally, Asperger's -also in my family). The jury's still out on whether these are separable conditions or different places on a more general spectrum. My take on it though is that these are differences not deficits. They all have an "up side" as well as a "down". It's just society's current obsession with literacy and the need to account for underachievement that has transformed them into deficits. With 10% of the population diagnosed dyslexic and possibly a further 10% undiagnosed, it simply does not stack up for all these people to be "abnormal".
Christine.

[heyescroft]

Hi there, I've just joined the forum and sorry to jump in on your thread but I'm interested in the dyslexia angle.  I'm through the Fenny Stratford/Drayton Parslow Bates' with my GGF being William Kightley Bates b 1856 in Fenny Stratford and his parents were David Bates & Elizabeth Purcell, I imagine that there must be a relationship to William & Arabella as they are all from Fenny Stratford but I don't know how.  The point is that I'm mildly dyslexic but my son is severly dyslexic, problems with short term memory and has just started adult literacy/numeracy classes - is this a Bates curse  .

Strangely, our family legend also talks of an illegitimate link to nobility and also that Howard (my middle name) is a link to an old family surname but yet to find that link.

Phil

[Christine M.]

Hi Phil,

I don't think of dyslexia as a curse, just a difference that societal attititudes make into a disability. Interestingly, although figures for dyslexia are the same world-wide, it's less noticeable in languages such as Spanish and Italian where the spelling system is straightforward.

Christine.