Shake the tree and nuts fall out!

  Week 1 - foundations As with the previous 2years of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks I am going to start with myself as the “ foundation ” stone. The reason for this is I am the only living person that has any interest in the family history.   The “ foundation ” of my family history work started 30years ago, it sounds a long time but I am by no means a professional.   I was involved with Girl Guides and St John Ambulance at the time and linked to one of the two we were doing a badge linked to family history and this was where it all begin. My tree for this project was hand written and contained very little information – names, dates of births and the odd date of death as many people were still alive then and photos of who I could. It also had limited people of me and my sister, our parents and their parents and grandparents. I think it may have had marriage dates that were known but that is it.   I enjoyed the above project and over the years made progress from my “ ...

new year new 52 ancestors

  Week 52 (Dec. 27-Jan. 2): Future There’s not really much I can add to the “ future ” theme, apart from that I will be continuing to take part in the “ future ”.

  Week 51 (Dec. 20-26): Holidays I had hoped to have someone of the “ holiday ” name in my tree but no such luck. I don’t really have photos of the Christmas “ holidays ” except from my childhood onwards (and to be fair they are most likely the same as most other peoples). Then I thought it doesn’t say it has to be Christmas “ holidays ”, so I went with a fond memory of a summer “ holiday ”. My mum (Barbara) never had a “ holiday ” as a child and she decided that me and my sister weren’t going to face this as we grew up. She would work hard and save up so that we could go “ somewhere ” for a “ holiday ” – whether it was a week long or just a weekend away on a mini “ holiday ” as she called them. We would stay with friends and family, we stayed in caravans and chalets etc. Over the years we went to many places around the UK. My earliest memory of a “ holiday ” I was aged about 2years, was of a giant pig outside a local shop. Every night we had to go for a walk to see the pig so ...

  Week 50 (Dec. 13-19): Lines End of the “ Lines ” is where I have gone for this week, and I don’t mean the end of the “ lines ” family (as not got any), I mean the end of where I my maiden name stops, my maiden name was Lackey. Going back in time many of my Lackey ancestors had loads of kids (my 3x great grandparents had 11, my 2x great grandparents had 13 and my great grandparents had 8), both male and female and from the males the Lackey “ line ” continued on. But as you get nearer to me most of them only had 1 or 2 children. So, the “ line ” has slowed right down. Many of the males linked to my great grandparents era either didn’t have children or only had girls, which has sadly meant that the name was dying. I am the last child of my direct Lackey “ line ” and this means the end of the “ line ” stops with me. However, myself, like most of the female Lackey’s have had sons. It is so very strange the way it has worked out. I know that there is still some living Lackey’s in...

  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 ...

  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 a...