Picturing our ancestors lives.

[pharmaT]

Brilliant pics Sally.  Many of my husband's family lived in houses like these in Birmingham.

[josey]

My great grandmother was a soldier's wife - they met in Halifax NS. When I visited the citadel I saw the casements where the soldiers lived; married ones who had their wives with them would have had a tiny area at the back screened by a curtain where the family would live - children as well - the wife doing cooking & laundry for the single soldiers as well to earn a little money.

[andrewalston]

I often find myself transported by a description of a place where my lot used to live. Those with London connections will find it very interesting to read the descriptions of places in the Charles Booth poverty survey - http://booth.lse.ac.uk/

I am particularly lucky that many of my ancestors used St. Mary's church in Eccleston to the west of Chorley.

Considering that the village is named for the presence of the church, the building is not, as you would expect, in the village centre, but to its north, and is still surrounded by fields.

This means that the church looks very much like it did when Henry VIII decided that parish registers had to be kept. The main difference is a parapet added to the top of the tower in 1733.

It's easy to get some idea of those ancestors walking around there, and of course some reside there still.

[coombs]

My 3xgreat gran was born in a quiet rural Sussex village in 1839 and died in 1886 in a tenement block in Holborn. What a change.

[sallyyorks]

Brilliant pics Sally.  Many of my husband's family lived in houses like these in Birmingham.

This topic on the birminghamhistory site has a lot of great old photos of Birmingham.
Courtyards and Yards of Brum
http://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?40378-Courtyards-and-yards-of-brum

[jaybelnz]

When I went to UK last year, I visited the Mansfield Library/Museum, as I had earlier purchased a book from there, through an article I had found online re " Mansfield's Victorian Lady Artist" Ann Paulson.  I had learned a lot about her Art, her life in England and in Australia, where she died.  I found some references in the book that referred to some of her original paintings still being held at Mansfield Library/museum, got back in touch with the Curator, and she arranged to have the paintings out for me to view when I visited.  And I was able to photograph them.

It was amazing to see some of her original works, some of which had been exhibited in the Great Exhibition of London, and some others in Paris. Later in Australia, when she went there to live with her son after she was widowed.

The frames were pretty old and tatty, but I had some wonderful cleanups done by our great Rootschat restorers, earlier when I had received photos by email from the library.

Another lovely thing in the book, along with a lot of other family information, was a note from her Australian diary, stating that in a letter from home, that her Aunt Jane had run away from home to marry that Henry, to the great distress of her parents.  This was in 1865, and that little lady Jane on my avatar, is my great grandmother, I call her my runaway bride.  I think I may have put that in an earlier post on this thread, they're the ones that married in St. Peter's Church, now the Sheffield Cathedral, which I visited in 2013, of course I didn't know about the artist at that time, nor that my great grandmother had eloped!

I'm currently trying to track down some paintings of another family artist, the son of one of Henry and Jane's daughters, whose second marriage took him to Cornwall.

These artists are from my paternal family, but my Mum dabbled a bit as well, and I have a couple of hers, and my brothers have a couple, but I am totally non artistic!  I can sew, do some simple knitting, but I cannot even draw a decent stick man, so this artistic talent that should be flowing through my blood, has definitely not been inherited by me or my brothers! 😄😄

[coombs]

Nice to see the Birmingham street photos. A few ancestor siblings ended up in Birmingham.

This is Bletchingdon, Oxfordshire, taken by me as a car passenger. My 3xgreat gran was born in one of the cottages on the right. Sarah Brain, she was born in 1842. Her mum died in 1848 and her dad in 1854 of phthisis. Sarah was one of many children, only her and 3 others survived. Sarah was 12, her brother 14, her older sister 15 and younger sister 8 in 1854. I looked at Oxford RO for poor relief records but there is a gap from 1847 to 1869. Sarah and her sisters went into service and the brother into the army. Sarah later moved to London, wed in Lambeth and ended up in Foulness, Essex.



My 3xgreat gran was born in 1835 in Shoreditch. I took this pic near Holywell Lane, where she was born, I took this in January 2005 and cannot remember the exact location but near Holywell Lane. Clara Emma Auber. An example of the streets our London rellies lived in.

[jbml]

unlike a lot of village ancestors whose address is "Cottage, Street".

Oh to have such an accurate address as that! At least there is some possibility of finding a cottage still standing which, though you cannot be sure, might be it.

How about "In a camp in the lane"?

The enumerator didn't even record WHICH lane it was!!!

[coombs]

In some birth certs, especially in rural parishes, the address is given as just "Hacheston" or "Bletchingdon". Ditto for marriage and death certs, in towns and cities it tends to be more specific, although some marriage certs say just "West Hackney".

I often study census enumeration schedules of ancestral villages to try and nail where in the village the residence was, sometimes it is as clear as mud. I have to note down a nearby pub or blacksmiths to try and nail it, and the enumerator may have done a row of cottages, then across the road then back.