Shake the tree and nuts fall out!

  Week 49 (Dec. 6-12): Homemade Many of the ladies in my family all did knitting and sewing (of various types) and some of the men did crocheting and many things were “ homemade ” including jumpers and cardigans, shopping bags and even hay nets for horses. I am going to focus on my Great aunt Dora Louise Haylock (she has been in a post before so I’m not going to add all of her life story again). Dora was my Grandad’s sister, we spent many school holidays visiting her and her husband Albert. She was old when I remember going to visit her as a child. After Albert died Dora moved into a nursing home so that she had help and people around her, we lived 4hours drive away sadly. One of her hobbies that she continued to do in the nursing home was knitting. She would do all sorts of things – blankets, toys, jumpers etc. In 2002 I found out I was pregnant with my 1 st child. I rang Auntie Dora and told her the good news. She said that she was going to start knitting me cardigans for the

  Week 48 (Nov. 29-Dec. 5): Strength The “strength ” of a Military wife. Violetta Beatty Gifkins was the wife of my grand-uncle. This lady has been a puzzle over the years as she was known as “aunt beatty” and it was believed to have been her surname and she used it as didn’t like her first name. Even on photos she is listed as “beatty”. However, after going down the wrong line for a very long time and having her as Margaret Beattie married to Fred, it came to light via a professional genealogist that her name was Violetta Betty Gifkins and she was married to Fred’s brother Arthur who went under the name of Fred!!! For the purpose of this story I will refer to her as “beatty”. Beatty was born 29 th January 1915 in Lambeth to Francis Gifkins and his wife Mary Brown. She was the 3 rd child and 3 rd daughter they had out of 6 children. She was named after her fathers mother.  The photo right is of Beatty and her husband Arthur in Nigeria. On the 1939 census she is listed as single

  Week 47 (Nov. 22-28): Thankful   For this theme I can’t really write about one ancestor as I can’t say that any of them have done anything that I am thankful for as such.  So this is going to be a general post. There’s many men who fought in the 1 st and 2 nd world wars and many lost their lives in doing so, of which I am thankful to them as it means I can live without all the wars. Then comes the family members who have given me information, shared certificates and photos and anything else linked to our ancestors. I’m also thankful to all the lovely people on the family history forums who take time out of their research to help with querries, research and helping other people. Many of us would still be stuck if it wasn’t for the help of others. And lastly I think thanks need to go to those who have sat and transcribed documents (this isn’t easy as I’ve done it in the past) and helped get them digitised. I know I wouldn’t be where I am today without so much being online as

  Week 46 (Nov. 15-21): Birthdays For this theme I decided to do a list of all ancestors who have the same “birthday” as me – 3 rd Jan. This wasn’t as easy as I thought it may be and has taken a long time to go though everyone in my tree! (I have also included anyone whose “birthday” is in jan). There are 579 others whose exact “birthday ” I don’t have and only listed as January (this could also link to the quarter and not actually January). 3 rd January “birthday” ·       Amy-Louise Lackey (me) 3 rd Jan 1982 peterborough ·         Emma Haylock 3 rd jan 1868 australia ·         Frederick George Haylock 3 rd jan 1901 queensland ·         William francis 3 rd jan 1879 west rainton ·         James William leslie liddle 3 rd jan 1899 sunderland ·         Drucilla overall 3 rd jan 1871 chatteris ·         Jessie martha sarah pile 3 rd jan 1907 london ·         George baker 3 rd jan 1907 sunderland ·         Charlie clark hands 3 rd jan 1897 blaydon ·         Benjamin Harri

  Week 45 (Nov. 8-14): Stormy Weather I don’t have any sailors in my tree that would have battled “stormy weather ” so that isn’t an option (well I have 1 man in the Nvy but I don’t know much on his wearabouts). I do have a lady with maiden name of “weatherly” which sort of links in, but there’s not much known on her. So this brings me to a man whose name is a cloud – Cyrus/Cyris/Cirrus and according to wiki Cirrus clouds arrive in advance of “storms”. Cyrus Simons was my 2 nd great-grand uncle. He was born January 1858 in Bradford, Yorkshire. He was the 4 th child and 4 th son of William and Elizabeth, and 1 of 7 children in total. Cyrus died in October 1912 in Bradford, Yorkshire. He married Annie Elizabeth Sheldon 4 th April 1885 at Bradford Cathedral. They had 2 children together and Annie had 3 from her previous marriage (however, she is listed as spinster on the marriage cert to Cyrus). There is an additional child born after they were married but has the same name as her 1