|
|
 |
Family Trees
Posted: 30 July 2023
Word Count: 102
Summary: Happy tale of family history which ended up disasterously
|
Font Size
|
|
Family Trees
When two boxes are joined by a line
other boxes are birthed
in place and in time
joined together
with a line
Picture great uncle Len
joined a box in Southend
the happy couple
snapped
on a Velocette.
Great aunt Violet
such a dapper flapper
was aligned to Mills and Mixer
back in time to a box named
Edward Garfield, "The Immigrant"
In 1603 he sailed across the sea to join
the "first Colony" which spread
from the 34th to 41st-degree
latitude north.
No-one knows which boxes were lost
from the Algonquin tree of boxes
when intersected by European poxes.
|
Comments by other Members
| |
 michwo at 12:35 on 30 July 2023
 Report this post
|
As a bit of a telly addict I have to say that the first things that come to my mind on reading this poem are the various series on BBC1 of "Who do you think you are?" In the latest series, which finished on Thursday with Lesley Manville, one of whose ancestors was transported to New South Wales in the 1830s for playing a part in the Swing Riots of agricultural labourers in Hampshire, and received a 'conditional pardon' in 1838, the condition being that he had to settle in Australia, there was also a Clifton who had a First Nations ancestor in the Hudson Bay area of Canada who trekked all the way to British Columbia and whose second husband was drowned en route. Fascinating stories!
As a take on LINES this would be hard to beat for the sheer why-couldn't-I-think-of-that? simple but effective element in the basic idea underpinning it. A cracking good read, Bill! Well done!
| |
 FelixBenson at 13:26 on 30 July 2023
Report this post
|
This is such a clever way into the challenge. I am a big Who Do You Think You Are fan too, and you have captured what fascinates me. The accidents and the crossing destinies. The photographs and glimpes of another time.
I love the sound of:
Great aunt Violet
such a dapper flapper
And these last lines really capture what really fascinates me the most - the mysteries and what we can never really know but only hunt in vain for:
No-one knows which boxes were lost
from the Algonquin tree of boxes
when intersected by European poxes.
Loved it.
| |
 V`yonne at 14:07 on 30 July 2023
Report this post
|
We all love Who Do You Think You Are, it seems 
The first stanza's a brilliant description of a family tree and I love the pattern of the next 2
Picture great uncle Len
joined a box in Southend
and
Great aunt Violet
such a dapper flapper
and of course those broken lines where the trail simply disappears because of history.
No-one knows which boxes were lost
from the Algonquin tree of boxes
A great take on LINES. Thanks Bill.
|
|
| |
 crowspark at 18:45 on 30 July 2023
Report this post
|
Thank you Michael, Kirsty and Oonah.
I am obsessed with my family history. There are Wests of my line in the US, Canada and Australia. Delaware was named after a West, Sir Thomas Richard West, 3rd Lord De La Warr. He is not a relative as far as I know, but it is early days.
| |
FelixBenson at 01:30 on 31 July 2023
Report this post
|
How exciting to have some relatives overseas.
I have only found English, Irish, Scottish so far and I knew about those as they are grandparents and no wonder since the industrial revolution attracted people from the rest of the UK to Manchester. I have some on the Scottish side who went to Canada and Australia, but only in the 60s, no earlier. I would be most excited to find someone from beyond the UK, but no luck so far.
Let us know if you find out any revelations about your family tree!
| |
crowspark at 09:08 on 31 July 2023
Report this post
|
It is well worth taking a dna test. I traced my biological father by finding a cousin in America and she put me in touch with family I didn't know about. So on my father's side I am descended from a Victorian working class hero, "The Storm Petrel" aka Joseph Ray Hodgson who was a ship's rigger at age, and 10 started his freelance life-saving career at the age of 15 by jumping into the River Wear to save the life of a 3 year old boy. In his life he won many medals for lifesaving including a medal from Napoleon III after he saved the crew from a floundering French ship. He went to East Africa and Australia where his first wife died, married again and died in poverty in London where he had to pawn his medals for food.
My son's ancestors on his mother's side were originally miners from South Wales.
| |
FelixBenson at 10:48 on 31 July 2023
Report this post
|
That is amazing, Bill. To find out so much. I have just been reading about Joseph Ray Hodgson. What a life story! And that boom and bust of the Victorian period that often seems to feature in life stories on the tv programme we all love. He sounds like an incredibly brave person.
I bought my sister the DNA test for her 50th, as she was interested in it and I thought pretty much anything that comes up for her will affect me too. So far not much has transpired, but she is less proactive about it than you. In terms of our percentages it was all GB/Ireland pretty much. I am still hoping for some revelations and continuing to buld my family tree hoping for some drama.
So far I have found someone who was briefly in prison. A great great grandfather, but I can find out what he did. If it teaches you any lesson it's to give your kids unusual names, because I am stuck finding out the least about the only grandparent that was still alive when I was born. It was for her that I started looking. But so many in her family have the same names. They're all John, William, Mary, Elizabeth on my mother's side and Duncan, Donald, Rose and Mary on my father's!
| |
V`yonne at 11:09 on 31 July 2023
Report this post
|
|
Oh you're both very brave My granda was born in 1876 and I knew him til I was 12. My other grandparents were farm workers and granny died in 1978. All of us scots/ulster. James's daddy was from Antrim and we once worked out from the name Bell that we must be related in some way. On the Kyle side I was related to Paisley. I'm not sure I would want to know much more but you must divulge any developments!
|
|
| |
crowspark at 12:39 on 31 July 2023
Report this post
|
DNA works well with a family tree but you have to get a "density" of information so that you start getting "matches" with other family trees and other resources. You would not believe the matches I have started to get! I could not imagine all the links I am finding. My latest quest is to see whether my "Larkin" relatives are related to Phillip Larkin (my old university librarian). Well he was born in Coventry and I have no connection with Coventry, but, his family came from Kent in the 1700s and I have Larkin relatives in Kent in the 1700s ... Watch this space as they say.
My experience tells me that you cannot make assumptions about your family based on a couple of generations. Oh, and my favourite family name so far is Eusebius Gustavus Crowhurst who was born in 1834 in Sussex. He is my second cousin four times removed!
| |
|
|
| |
Comments by other Members
