New Beginning

 

After a lot of deliberation I finally came to the conclusion that I need to "branch out"......he he....

I love doing my personal blog but I have also put years (about 50) collecting family history.  My own family, Mr. B's family as well as his bio-family, friends and family members trees, documents and photos. So I have decided to cut back on my personal blog to give "Twigs on my Branches" room to grow.

 

 

It is still uncertain how the new blog will develop but I need to get some of this information organized and out there for others to enjoy.  I thought for a long time about doing a small book but realized that it might be boring to pour though pages and pages of data and sources.  Several weeks ago I came across a woman's blog that resonated with me.  It was organized in a way that made it fun to read as she put the facts together along with some history.  For instance her relatives worked in the weaving mills in England and Scotland as did mine.  BUT...she found that they spoke their own dialect in each mill.  Apparently it was so noisy in the weaving sheds that they developed a form of speech with exaggerated movements to allow lip-reading and it was called Mee-mawing.

 

 

This is my 3rd Great-grandfather Henry Grieve, he is 50 years old in 1851.  His occupation is listed as HLW Cotton, meaning Hand Loom Weaver in Cotton.  

Come along with me for the fun. I know we will meet some colorful characters and you & I may even turn out to be cousins!

Twigs On My Branches

4G

Song - Grandpa by The Judds

A page from my fourth Great-grandfathers sketchbook - July 8th, 1839.

I just love genealogy!

The English Countryside

 

The last few days we have been white knuckling through the beautiful English countryside....so green....dotted with sheep & cows...so serine but we are driving!!!  We have visited 8-10 family villages & churches, all on tiny one lane roads surrounded by hedgerows.  As on pub guy said "you can't be nosy in Somerset!"   

 

Mr. B has been amazing with his reading of many ancient headstones that might pertain to my dad's side of the family.  

 

And speaking of taking one for the team......He is even willing to order a dram so he can talk to he local barkeep to find out about any connections to my family in the village. So far it's been very colorful. 

 

Women were subservient in that generation....obviously...as she was only listed on his headstone by her first name and that she was his wife.  

Lots of 1200-1500 a.d. churches that we explored and met some amazingly nice people along the way.  

 

And even a very tired Westie named Gordon who had been walking all day was at out hotel bar.  

 

Finding my great-grandparents headstone was worth shedding a few tears.  They were very poor and somehow their daughter, Sarah Routley Tuckfield Gore managed to make it to Canada - single - with about 9 kids.  And somehow my grandmother, Violet Elizabeth Bacon Gore Crawford, moved from Montreal with my Granddad to Oakland, California to start their family. 

 

Here's to my family roots - Tea & scones at the railroad station where my great-grandfather was station master. 

Word of the Day - Brilliant = good choice in America (we hear this one a lot)!!

Arches, Arches & Arches

Day 5 - Friday

We drove from Bath to Bradford-on-Avon to Wells and then on to our final stay in Dunster.  A very long, long, very long day.  Mr. B learned to drive on the "wrong" of the road and the "wrong" side of the car today.  We are both exhausted.  Besides me being his second set of eyes on the road - street signs, round abouts, pedestrians, bicyclists, speed limits, road closures, there was so much hedgerows that there were many times you could not see oncoming traffic around turns.  Anyway 2 tire rims & 1 side mirror later we survived!

 

Bradford-on-Avon was such an amazing, well kept village. We went to the Tithe barn (c1300's) where the ceiling was filled with wooden arches. We also visited the town & church then headed to Wells Cathedral. 

 

It was closed for a funeral until 4 so we had lunch in the old city center just nearby. Then we walked over to the Bishops Gardens to see the famous Ringing Swans. However apparently the don't ring anymore.  Now if you don't know the story, I'll fill you in....there was an American couple who lived in one of the moat towers and one of them would be present all day so they taught the swans to ring a bell and they would get a little food so all the swans learned to ring the bell and they taught their babies to ring for food. Just this year the couple moved back to the states so there isn't anyone to feed them regularly.....no more Ringing Swans.  But.....

 

....there were 7 week old baby cygnets to enjoy ( I think daddy kept his head underwater most of the time we watched them!)

 

There were several croquet games going on with a beautiful backdrop. 

 

The cathedrals famous scissor arches which were built into the building to support the sinking towers in the 1300's.

 

 

And the astrological clock that goes around every 15 minutes. Can you see the jousters on horseback up near the top? They go around the pillar - 2 in one direction & 2 the other - with their lances out and try to knock off the other guy, which they do until there is a "winner".  

We will be spending the next three nights in the medieval village of Dunster.  

Day 6 - Saturday

Scones & tea for breakfast - I never thought I would see Mr. B enjoy a church or a tea room but give him some history and he's a sport!

Mr. B learn to drive - Day 2 - only 1 rim and we are both relaxing a little more. Like he says " it's like being in the dentist chair all day" (sorry John K. Certainly not yours!)

 

On through Exmoor park to Bishops Nympton in Devon. Found The Black Cock Inn. Had a drink & spoke to the barkeep & owner.  She was new to the area and had no history of the area or even the age of the pub.  Oh dear.  We walked over to the old RR station house next door where my dads mother was born.  Her father was the RR station manager there.  Grandma Violet & Daisy (twins)were born in 1890.  It's a residence now so we couldn't nosy too much. It began to rain so we drove along the street to view the RR arches. 

 

Above are the old railway arches beside the train station. 

Beautiful green countryside dotted with sheep!

Then we drove to Wiveliscombe and tried to find lunch at 3pm. No go and we were both starving so we hit the local supermarket and bought sandwiches, crisps and drinks and sat in the churchyard to eat. We found James & Maria Tuckfield's headstone with help from the photo I brought. 

 

These were my great grandparents. We went inside the church & spent some time looking around - old baptismal, ancient graves.  Drove down Rotton Row behind the church where they used to live and barely made it as it was so narrow. 

Exhausted from driving & navigating-coaching, we headed back to Dunster & the hotel bar.  Took our drinks out back to "The Secret Garden" & Facetimed our family. Great to see their smiling faces!!!

 

Showed them the castle on the hill behind our hotel & lots of beautiful flowers. I guess flowers like water even more that sunshine because they are huge and plentiful here!

 

Night....

Word of the day - British word "Sorted" = it's all taken care of

Somerset England

Song - This is Your Fight Song by The Piano Guys

Mr. B and I are planning a trip to England, Wales and Scotland this coming Spring and in preparation for the trip we are Binge-Watching the series Outlander.  It's a little graphic sometimes but we zip through those parts because I enjoy the costumes, settings and scenery.

Stogumber

It has been both fun and challenging to put all of our information together gathered from friends, professional trip advisors and the internet into a plan that works for us.  

The first part of the trip will be to several small villages where my father's mother came from.  As you may remember, I do enjoy working on our family genealogy. The villages are in Somerset and Devon England.

Stogumber - Crowcombe - Wiveliscombe - Bishops Nympton

My Grandma Violet's family worked for the railways.  In fact she and her twin sister were born at the railway station in Bishops Nympton.  And my Great-grandmother came from the little village of Crowcombe where the Beatles filmed part of A Hard Days Night.  Can you imaging what an upset that must have been to a village in March of 1964?

I'll keep you posted on where else we may be heading and maybe you can let me know if you have any suggestions!

"I like trains. I like their rhythm, and I like the freedom of being suspended between two places, all anxieties of purpose being taken care of: for this moment I know where I am going." -- Anna Funder

Climbing Trees

Song - My Father's Eyes by Eric Clapton

I know I have been absent for awhile but I have found this new "obsession".

It is actually an old obsession that I just picked up again in the last few weeks.

When Mr. B and I were first married, I was fascinated to do some research on both of our family trees.  I interviewed all of the relatives and began combining notes and bits of papers with information written down. 

But back then everything was by "snail mail" and it would take forever to get birth certificates, census reports, etc.

Guess what?





You will be amazed........there is this new thing called "THE INTERNET"!!!









It is so incredible to find family members.....FAST!

The St. Paul - the ship my dad's family took from England to Canada

You can Google map homes your relatives lived in because their address is on the Census report or birth certificate.

My dad's parents lived here when he was born.

Or you can find photos of the church your grandparents were married in, or little country towns that they worked in the fields as farmers.

St. Jude's Church in Montreal, Canada where my dad's parents were married

Santa Maria in Cloz, Italy where my mothers family was from

It is just absolutely amazing.



I think I have a tiny problem because I can't seem to stop....even for meals....Mr. B has to cook and clean and do the laundry now!

Crowcombe, Somerset, England where the family were farmers

You travel through different countries and history.

England

Census Report

 
Sometimes a little detective work is needed to make sure everything links up.

And sometimes it's difficult to decipher old handwriting. 

BUT.......sometimes there is a surprise in your tree......

This little guy with a smirk on his face is my dad.

This woman was his grandmother, Sarah.........

So even though the Crawford Castle is in ruins.....(sorry dad), we still can say that we spent a little time in 1474 building this......

Take a bow!

Faded Treasures

 Song - Chug-a-lug by Roger Miller

While looking through my portfolio of "blog ideas", I came across the realization (place a light bulb over my head)..... that my family history is one of coal miners, saloon keepers, bootleggers and actually that's just on my mom's side!   (Sorry mom - you are still a sweetheart!)

AND Mr. B's family came from the South and they were sheriff's and moonshine smashers.

A Saloon in Starkville, Colorado but not my great-grandfathers.

My background......above.

Mr B's grandfather was the sheriff - second from right

His background....above.


(That's were the light bulb went off.)

They also shot people like "Billy the Kid".....ever hear of Pat Garrett?  Well, that would be Mr. B's great-great uncle! (maybe one more great in there?) Yes sir.

Larkin Randolf Lay and Margaret Garrett (Pat Garret's sister)

Imagine bringing that story into Kindergarten for "show and tell"

OK.....so we both have an interesting supporting cast of characters in our closets.

How the heck did we ever get together?

Times were tough during our grandparents days and they did what they had to do to survive. Whether it was making moonshine or destroying it.

When Mr. B and I were first married (bc - "before children"), I had some time to do some genealogy work and to interview older family members.  I found it fascinating to hear the stories of how they came to be. 

I spent days interviewing my maternal grandparents, with the clock ticking in the background and their canary singing in the kitchen. 

Grandma would tell of having to ride on a horse drawn buggy going over the Raton Pass to get Moonshine from New Mexico to bring into Colorado. She spoke about having to clean out the saloon early in the morning as girls were not allowed inside. 


Grandpa would tell of life as a coal miner and rarely seeing the light of day and of nailing my grandmothers skirt (with her in it) to the top of the dog house "because she just talked too much!" as children living in Starkville, Colorado. He also spoke of the Mother Jones meetings that his father took him to.

Starkville, Colorado

Mr. B's grandmother came to visit from Louisiana when we were first married and told us stories about going on a date in a horse drawn buggy. She was so......Southern and sweet and was delighted to be offered a bourbon-on-the-rocks, with a splash of "branch water".

...a little "branch water" please.

I started going through my genealogy files today to collect some photo's and information.  I began doing research in the 80's......a-hem....before email and internet.  I have receipts for a $4 check sent to England for a birth certificate.  Now, it is probably incredible what you can find online.

Anyway, it got my juices flowing again to do some research in the near future.

My great grandparents Lucia & Pietro and my grandfather is on the far right.

"My address is like my shoes. It travels with me. I abide where there is a fight against wrong." -- Mother Jones