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my ancestors

sistersue61

master brummie
Think this is probably the best place, have got to scanning some very old pics of Dads family and thought you may like looking at them.
The photographers used are on some of the pics too, interesting to see them and where they were.
Some of the pics are really faded so if anyone wants a go at sprucing them up, please feel free!
These are all of my dads Uncle Jack and Aunt Alice, on their wedding day, with their eldest son John as a baby, both taken in England, and with their family, Jack and Alice, Alices parents Maude and William Smith and Jack and Alices sons, John and Kevin. this was taken in Adelaide, where they all emigarated to in 1921. Sadly, Kevin the younger brother had a "brain disorder" and died young. Uncle Jack died of lung cancer, which was thought to be from the war - he won gallantry medals in WW1, as some of you will already know.Their daughter Mary is still alive and living in Melbourne, she came to visit my great-aunts in 1993.


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Lovely photo's Sue and great history to accompany them. Thanks for sharing...x
 
Second lot of pics!!
We know that pic 1 and 4 are Jack Reddy, the brother of dads grandmother, Margaret but the middle two, we are not sure of. there is a faded inscription which we thing reads "Uncle Jim Roach", but I haven't found a link to Roach in the family tree!!
Sue
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Third and final lot for now,
First austere looking group is we think the Reddy family, so dads grandmothers family. There is some mention of the photo being taken in Dublin, where the family originate, they apparently had a shop on O'Connell street, but haven't got to checking the Irish sites yet. Maggie was living in Birmingham with her Uncle when she was 11 and she met and married Albert, dads grandad, in New Hampshire, USA.
We believe the photo was taken around 1889/1900 and the baby at the front is Jack, from the previous photos, and Albert is on the back row 2nd right and Maggie on middle row 2nd right, with her mom next to her.
The second photo is Maggie and Albert, not sure when it was taken, but Maggie died in 1929, so prior to that.
The final photo is much more up to date, taken at Drayton Manor Park, before the theme park!! It shows, from L to R, my great-aunt Cecilia (Cis), my Aunt Win (dads sister), my lovely mom and my great-aunt Mary Charlotte(Molly), with yours truly at the front. My great aunts brought dad up from the age of 18months when his mom had a breakdown - no mean feat for two spinsters, living with their older spinster sister Winifrd and their bachelor brother Bill as well as their dad. They then had their brother with 3 children added to the household in 1933.
Sue






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These are lovely - thanks for sharing and the accompanying stories. I have just been given a photo of my father's mother and even my mother never met her!!! I just love tracing ancestors.
thanks again
 
Glad you are all enjoying them, it makes people aa bit more real seeing them - the men espaecially look very alike with their dark hair and features, dad looks like them and has only just started to go grey.
The women were quite formidable, Maggie must have ruled the family with a rod of iron and certainly did not approve of Jack going off to Austalia with his young child,there is a letter she wrote to Maude, Jaks mother-in-law that was very censorious, as Jack hadn't written to her!!I am trying to scan it, but it is so faded that its not coming out too well yet! My aunty Molly was a very successful personal secretary,she loved nice things and was quite "posh",managing the money side of the family, she always had lovely clothes and make up and accessories, her room was like a princesses room, but out of bounds unless she was there! My Aunty Cis, on the other hand, had a few jobs, she was a hairdresser and for many years cut my very curly hair, but she was also anaccomplished wages clerk and used to take in work, Completely opposite to Molly, she never cared about "fripperies" as she called them, cheap and cheerful was fine for her, no fancy things in her room, but loads of dressing up hats etc, I always wanted to be like her, she spoke her mind but was soft at heart, used to take me to Mass and paddling and the park, she was so proud when I qualified as a nurse, I spent at least a couple of evenings with them when I trained with their soup!
Very fond memories, sadly, arthritis and a fractured hip causing pneumonia killed Cis, them Molly became dementd and could not cope at home and died from a strangulated hernia - even with the dementia though, she still made herself up each day and put her jewls on.
Sue
 
These are lovely Sue. It's the icing on the cake to have photos of our ancestors. And if you have the story to go with the photo, well it's the very best you can hope for as a family historian. And do we all do this with photos? .... "oh aunt so and so, looks so like our Billie's daughter, look at those eyes and that same thick, dark hair" etc etc etc ... I am amazed at how the family features pop up along the line. But it's true. You have a great collection Sue. Viv.
 
Lovely photos Sue - I have really enjoyed looking at them and reading your memories :adoration: At the moment I am sorting out photos of my aunts & uncles (sadly all of them have passed away) and I am making a word document for each one - putting their photo at the top and then any information, memories I have of them underneath. It is taking time but I am enjoying it and I am amazed at how many things I have started to remember about them. Some of the memories are only little things but I think it will help to make them more real to future generations.
 
Thats what I am trying to do Pollypops, dad is the last of his family alive, so am trying to document everything he thinks of, the forum meet ups are great for jogging his memory, he finds talking to other members about places reminds him of things.Moms family is more complex as it is so big on both sides with both of her great grandfathers having married twice. Her older sister is 89 and has a lot of memories although they do get confused sometimes, but am making progress with it. I am really enjoying it again, after a break and am planning a tour for dad of where his rels lived, including Blockley in Gloucestershire, where the family originted.
Sue
 
Thanks for sharing your photos.
It's good to have family photos, my husband only has one of his grandmother, none of his grandfather. Photography in those days was expensive and the pictures were treasured, but I was talking to my grandaughters at the weekend and they rarely print off any copies as they can look at them "on the phone", so if the phone is lost so are the photos. They transferred their "Prom" pictures to my PC and I shall print some to keep in case my hard drive goes weird! It's good to keep back-up too, I lost a lot when my old PC "died".
My Cousin gave me a pile of copies of family photos, she had sorted them with my Aunt before she died, and had written in pencil whatever she could remember, it was a wonderful present!
rosie.
 
Rosie you are so right about photos. Because digital cameras/phones make it so easy to take lots of photos we probably take more in a few days than our ancestors took/had taken in their whole lifetime but I do think people will actually end up with less photos to pass down the family because so many never get printed and they are often lost when computers break. I must easily have a thousand photos which have never been printed - how silly!
 
Thats what I am trying to do Pollypops, dad is the last of his family alive, so am trying to document everything he thinks of, the forum meet ups are great for jogging his memory, he finds talking to other members about places reminds him of things.Moms family is more complex as it is so big on both sides with both of her great grandfathers having married twice. Her older sister is 89 and has a lot of memories although they do get confused sometimes, but am making progress with it. I am really enjoying it again, after a break and am planning a tour for dad of where his rels lived, including Blockley in Gloucestershire, where the family originted.
Sue

Hiya Sue,
I lived in Blockley from around 1985 - 2005. Happiest days of my life and my biggest regret is leaving there.
Is it the Payne family your are researching?
I have a couple of friends in Blockley and Paxford with that name
 
Hi in exile, yes it is the Payne family I am researchimg.
We knew there were links with Blockley from my great aunts and I was extremely lucky that when I started my research and googled the family and Blockley made contact with someone called gridiron, who very kindly sent me transcripts of the parish records, eaning that i went back to my great great grandparents quite easily. Didn't manage to go beyond that as there were two Payne/Pain families and it was almost impossible to differentiate between them.
I had been to Blockley when I waas 12, with Girls Brigade and we camped in the church hall, we looked for graves then, but I don't recall if we found any!!
My g g grandad was Jonathan payne and his wife Charlotte. Most of the children moved away, Albert my great grandad, William, Henry all to Birmingham and George stayed in Blockley as well as Eliza. Catherine (Kate) emigrated to USA with her husband and Albert and Maggie married from their home.
Henry apparently was apprenticed to a baker in Paxford, but went on to become a railway worker like his brother William.
The family were estranged at some point, but haven't found out why yet, still hoping, it would be good if any of the Paynes you know have any more info!
Sue
 
Apologies if this is wrong thread - so many to choose from. I am looking for advice on how to find and search parish records. Have checked cemetery records to no avail so need to move on. Any advice would be appreciated. Not sure where to start.
 
Hi Ann, you can try freebdm, familysearch.org which are free or Ancestry.co.uk which you have to subscribe to. familysearch.org is good for parish records.
 
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