Christmas Memories

 My first Christmas memory is from when I was around 4 years old, we were living in Sutton Coldfield at the time and I think that there must have been a special  Christmas service at a local church for John and Denise's school. I remember sitting in this old church with stained glass windows and listening to the Christmas Carol 'O Little Town of Bethlehem' being sung. We didn't attend a church at that time but this must have made an impression on me and this carol has always remained a favourite.

On Christmas Eve we would lay a pillowcase at the foot of our bed, it was always exciting, wondering when Father Christmas would come and I can remember sometimes waking to check whether the empty pillowcase was still on my bed or whether it was filled, I still have a plastic pillowcase with a picture of Father Christmas on it which I used. In the morning we would carry our filled pillowcases to the living room and open our presents under the Christmas tree. When we lived in Scotland we had a silver Christmas tree with fuchsia pink ribbons and coloured lights (very retro).

When I was about 8 my Mum began a new Christmas tradition, after our traditional Christmas dinner of turkey and roast potatoes etc. followed by a real Christmas plum pudding with hidden coins, which I think where put in the pudding to encourage the children to eat them, and the Christmas crackers with party hat and joke. A small self made snowman would be set on the table. This little snowman, which was a large jar covered in cotton wool with a removable head, sometimes Mum used a white balloon with a face drawn on, which would be popped when the meal was over. The snowman was filled with little presents for everyone, even though we had been spoilt rotten by Father Christmas this little present after dinner was always looked forward to by me, infact I still possess one of these presents, a little plastic clip purse.

I have carried on this tradition with my own children and grandchildren and even though it is sometimes difficult to find presents small enough to fit in the snowman's body it is still a much appreciated tradition. 

Underneath are some photos of my Christmas memories- my pillowcase and snowman gift and a film of Christmas 1972 when we were living in California.

Bicycles

 Living in the Netherlands I am blessed to be able to bike everywhere, mostly on bike paths and a nice flat terrain. Last week my bike had to go to the cycle repair shop to fix a flat tire and several other necessary repairs. On Thursday afternoon I always pick up my granddaughter Naema from school, as my bike was still at the repair shop I borrowed my daughter Esther's bike. My bike has back pedal brakes whilst Esther's bike has hand brakes, something that I took into consideration whilst biking down the hill from the dyke but when I suddenly had to stop at a junction I automatically tried to brake by peddling backwards before I remembered that the brakes where on the handlebars. Thankfully everything went well and I was able to stop in time, but it reminded me of one of the stories that my Nana told me about her childhood.

      My Nana, Violet Popplewell was born on the 12 December 1900, yesterday would have been her 120th birthday. Her father died when she was 2 years old and her mother eventually remarried a widower with five daughters. Violet went from being an only child to suddenly having five sisters, one of whom was the same age as her. They lived in the seaside town of Bridlington and her mother ran a small bed and breakfast located on Quay Road. Some of the stories that my Nana told me remind me of Louisa May Alcott's book 'Little Women' especially since the sister closest to Violet in age was called Joey, and she seems to have been just as vivacious and headstrong as the Joey in Little Women.

     The story that I was reminded of last week also involved bikes. The girls all owned a bicycle, which wouldn't have been so common in the early 1900's. I think that Violet and Joey where aged about 12 or 13 and together with a friend they decided to go for a bike ride in the countryside. Their friend had just received a new bicycle for her birthday and Joey desperately wanted to ride on that bike instead of her own. She kept on pestering her friend to swap bikes for a short while so that she could ride on the new bike. Eventually her friend gave in and swapped bikes with Joey. Everything went well until they began biking down a steep hill, Joey tried to brake to slow down her decent but discovered that the bike didn't have any brakes on the handlebars. Her friend had forgotten to inform her that her new bike had back pedal brakes, Joey and the bike ended up in the hedges. Luckily both where not badly damaged and everyone could laugh about it later.

Stories

 My five grandchildren are blessed to have their grandparents around them and also two great grandparents. My Mother in law celebrated her 92nd birthday today and my Mum celebrated her 94th birthday last August. These two wonderful women have lived through almost a century of history and have memories of their parents and grandparents. Our grandparents and other elderly relatives are a link to our past and our family history, it is also one of the first things that I advise people who are beginning with their family history to do, to ask their elderly relatives for information about their past.

My Dad's parents died when he was a teenager and my Mum's father passed away two years before I was born, so I grew up with only one grandparent. Thankfully when I first became interested in family history at the age of 16, I was living close enough to my Nana to be able to talk to her regularly about her past and listen to her stories about her Edwardian childhood growing up in the seaside town of Bridlington. 

 I was also able to talk to my Dad's elder sisters, auntie Alice and auntie Lily who were teenagers when my Dad was born and were able to share stories of my grandparents and their childhood during the 1920's as well as my grandfather's experiences in the First World War.

Genealogy isn't just a list of names and dates but should become a patchwork full of stories of our family which brings the backdrop of history to life.

When I think of my auntie Alice I recall her story of my grandmother Charlotte, wrapping Alice and her sister in blankets and taking them out into a field on a cold winters day during a First World War air raid from zeppelins. Also stories of my Grandad who served in the Royal Garrison Artillery in Flanders and was hit by shrapnel at Hell Fire Corner and was for a time declared missing and presumed dead. Eventually after applying for a widow's pension my Grandmother received a notification that my Grandfather was alive and in a hospital in New Castle. Auntie Alice told me about the huge scar across his back and the problems with his lungs preventing him from being able to hold a full time job.

My Nana told me that her grandmother Eliza Challis had long black hair, and she gave me a perfume bottle that belonged to her mother which still carries her scent.

My Mum told me stories of her childhood, growing up in the 1930's and 40's, of sleeping in their air raid shelter during the Second World War and listening to the buzz bombs passing overhead, and her new pink coat being covered in plaster after a bomb dropped at the end of their road.

My Dad had stories about working on the dogem cars at Hull Fair, and how he learnt to drive whilst driving a laundry delivery truck. He told me about the death of his father when he was 13 and then the death of his mother a year later, and that he was sent to live with his aunt in SouthShields. Of his many jobs, even working for Billy Butlin, and where he was when the end of the war was announced.

All these stories paint a colourful picture of their lives and are so integral in helping us to understand who they where and who we are.

We need to record these stories and pass them down through the generations along with our own personal stories.

Sometimes stories can be remembered for several generations, my husband heard a story from his uncle Freek, who was also a Miller about a young Miller's assistant who almost fell into the machinery. The Miller was able to catch him by his collar and saved him from a painful death, the saying was that the young boy laughed but the Miller was white from fright. When my husband visited the windmill where this happened he discovered that the Miller who was "white from fright" had been a Miller there in the 1700's, whilst he had always thought that the story happened during his uncle's lifetime he realised that it was a story that had been passed down from generation to generation.

This is the power of stories, whether good, bad, happy, funny or sad our stories can help and inspire future generations.

Genealogy, detective work and DNA part 3

If you have been researching your family tree for as many years as I have then maybe you will also have branched off of the direct line and tried to find out about the siblings of your direct ancestors.
During the mid 19th century as many Tin and Copper mines closed down in Cornwall the Cornish people migrated to all corners of the globe in search of employment in mines, infact there is a common saying in Cornwall that "a mine is a hole anywhere in the world with at least one Cornishman at the bottom of it!"  It is estimated that 250,000 Cornish migrated abroad between 1861 and 1901.
My own great great grandfather Robert Stickland left Cornwall in the mid 1840's to work as a boilermaker and engineer in the industrial midlands of England, I was also interested to discover what happened to his siblings.
Through Ancestry.com I came in contact with a distant 'cousin' living in Australia who was also busy with her family tree and we discovered that she was descended from William Stickland the younger brother of Robert, who had emigrated to Australia in the mid 1850's, after arriving in Australia he married a Cornish girl and they had four daughters, his second daughter was given the name Grace Morsehead Stickland after my great,great,great grandmother, confirming the fact that we had the right William Stickland. My distant 'cousin' in Australia has also done a DNA test and I was pleased to discover her name among my DNA matches, confirming biologically our distant relationship.
One of Robert's sisters,Wilmot Stickland, married and travelled with her first husband to California during the time of the Gold Rush, their eldest child was born in California but after finding their fortune they returned to Cornwall, her story can be read in one of my previous blogs.
Robert's youngest brother Richard Arundel Stickland died at the age of 14 after a fall from the mast of a schooner in the port of Hayle. That left one brother unaccounted for, John Stickland who was born a year later than Robert in 1829. On the 1851 census aged 21 he is recorded as still living with his parents and his occupation is recorded as being a copper miner. In the summer of 1851 I found a record of a marriage between a John Stickland and Eliza Treglown but in 1862 Eliza was living in Norfolk and was married to someone else, her marriage certificate declared that she was a widow, so I assumed that John had died, though I couldn't find any record of his death.
Then my DNA test results came back, Ancestry 's results give you a list of possible relatives, people who share a small part of your DNA, recording how many segments, according to how close the relationship is.
Ancestry also shares a list of surnames which you have in common and places where your ancestors lived. One of my DNA matches shared the name Strickland and looking at his tree I saw that he had a John Strickland born around 1830 and living in Australia close to the area where William Stickland, Robert's brother lived. The only thing was that on this person's tree he had recorded that John was born in Australia and had a different father. After doing genealogical research for more than 40 years I know that family trees are not always correct, infact I have had mistakes in my own which I have discovered later after more research and after more information becomes available. I decided to check all the documents which were available about this John Stickland/Strickland and discovered the following facts that convinced me that this is my long lost John Stickland, brother of Robert.
First of all in August 1854 a John Stickland arrived in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, in October 1857 he was initiated as a Freemason in Beechworth, Victoria, his occupation was recorded as being a miner. In 1863 and in 1864 he fathered two daughters though he didn't actually marry their mother until 25 November 1864 (could this have been because he was still legally married to his first wife in England?)
On his marriage certificate he is also recorded as being a miner and as final proof I found a copy of his daughter Maria Strickland's birth certificate on which it records her father's birthplace as being Cornwall! Also an interesting fact is that the area around where some of John's children where born is often referred to as the Cornish settlement.
John had a total of 10 children and passed away in 1908 at the age of 78.
One of his sons, also named John, and also like his father and grandfather, a miner, fought during the First World War in Gallipoli. During one of the battles he was severally injured and was sent to England to recover. His vision was so impaired he was unable to return to active service, but during his stay in England he met and married his wife and resided for a short time in Dorset, very close to his ancestral home of Cornwall.
Without the help of the DNA test I probably never would have found out about John Stickland/Strickland (like my great great grandfather he added an 'R' to his name) and now I have found a lot more 'cousins' in Australia.

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Genealogy and Detective work part 2 - using DNA tests

 As I mentioned in a previous blog which I shared last year, my half sister Jacqui was able to find her biological father Wayne Frederick Webber, who thankfully aged 96 is still alive. A DNA test which both Jacqui and Wayne's son submitted gave us the definite proof that our research was correct.
Via a DNA test you can get in touch with other people who share some of your DNA, and you can search out how you are related. Through my test I was able to get in touch with my second cousin Brenda Masse who lives in Canada, our mothers were first cousins and so we share the same great grandparents. Brenda and I were able to share photos and I was able to see a photo of my great grandmother Theresa Orwin nee Bromby for the first time, on a wedding photo of Brenda's grandparents.
Sometimes it involves some detective work in order to figure out how some of your DNA matches are related to you and which branch of your family tree they share with you. One case involves someone whom I contacted who shared quite a large segment of DNA, he also had an extensive family tree on Ancestry, but I couldn't find any links to my tree. After contacting him he informed me that some of his ancestors were from Hull, which is were my ancestors all ended up living and where I was born. He also told me that he had a couple of missing fathers in his tree, so ancestors who were born out of wedlock and no father named on the birth certificate. This is a big dead end in tracing our family tree, but possibly one of my ancestors or their sibling was the missing father. After checking Jacqui's DNA matches and asking Brenda to check hers and discovering that this person was also in their matches I was able to narrow our connection to our Orwin or Bromby family. Even though I was unable to enlighten him about who the missing father could be I was able to narrow it down as to via which families we are probably related.
My great great grandmother on my Orwin side, Emma Young was also born illegitimate, she was born on the 1st May 1839 in Thorne Union Workhouse to 22 year old Elizabeth Young. Emma grew up living with her grandparents William and Elizabeth Young in Crowle, Lincolnshire, her grandfather was a tailor and her grandmother was a school mistress, her mother never married but became a dressmaker in Crowle.  I never expected to find out who Emma's father was, and I am still not sure that it is correct, but shortly after receiving the results of my DNA test I was looking through the list of potential 'thru lines' which Ancestry.com provides. Most of the names were people already on my tree, but I suddenly saw the name of Samuel Lister in the place where Emma's father should have been. I decided to do some research about Samuel Lister, he was born in 1797 in Sturton, Nottinghamshire and was married in 1818 and he had four daughters. The interesting fact was that in the Autumn of 1838 he and his wife applied for a position as school teachers at Retford Union Workhouse. Even though Crowle is in Lincolnshire and Retford in Nottinghamshire they are reasonably close with Doncaster which is in South Yorkshire being the largest town between them both. Via a newspaper report I discovered that even though Samuel's application for the job was approved by the Guardians of the Workhouse his and his wife's appointment was rejected by the Commisions Office, in London. The reasons that were given were that Samuel's farm had become bankrupt, that one of his daughters had given birth to a child out of wedlock and he had refused to support her and that Samuel had been convicted of an assault on someone, making him morally inadequate to be a teacher to young children. Apparently the Commissions Office had received this information about Samuel Lister from a "secret enemy ", Samuel renounced the accusations, his farm was indeed bankrupt but that was the fault of his father, he claimed that he hadn't refused to support his daughter and that the assault charge was against another person with the same name. Even though the Nottinghamshire authorities were on his side he and his wife didn't receive the appointment but less than a year later, in February 1839 they were given the appointment of Master and Matron of Thorne Union Workhouse. In May of the same year Elizabeth Young gave birth to my great great grandmother Emma Young at Thorne Union Workhouse !
I still can't explain why Samuel Lister's name appeared on my DNA thru lines but the fact that he was living in the area and later became the Master of the Workhouse were Emma was born is very coincidental, but until I can find a definite descendent of him who shares DNA with me I will just have to keep him as a presumed ancestor.
In my next blog I will share how I have found a missing brother of my great great grandfather on my Strickland side who I have been able to prove via my DNA relationships ended up in Australia.

Genealogy and detective work

I have been doing genealogical research for more than 40 years now as I caught the bug when I was 16.
One of the reasons that I love doing this work is because it is like detective work and I love detective books.
Sometimes you can get stuck with a genealogical line for several years until you suddenly find a hidden clue which can then help you trace that line back several generations. This was the case with my Strickland line.
In the past genealogical research usually entailed that you travel to the place were your ancestors came from and if you wanted to find them on one of the census returns then you needed to have an address as the censuses weren’t indexed. So armed with the newly ordered birth certificate of my great grandfather John Robert Strickland, I travelled to Doncaster, South Yorkshire and payed a visit to the Record Office where I could view the census returns for Mexborough, the place where his parents were living when he was born in 1861. Scrolling through the microfilm roll of the 1861 census of Mexborough I was eventually able to find the street in which they lived and found the census record of John’s family. The nice thing about census returns is that they record how old everyone is and also their place of birth, so this can then help you to get a step backwards in your tree. The place of birth of John’s mother was very clear to read - Norwell in Nottinghamshire which is a small village close to Newark where I knew that the family had lived. I was eventually able to trace her family - the Templemans back several generations as they had always resided in this village.
John’s father Robert Strickland was a different problem as his place of birth was unclear on the census and for the county was a question mark. I remember asking someone at the time what he thought the place was and he said he thought it looked like Hayle which is located in Cornwall. I dismissed this as Cornwall was so far away and I had always been told that Strickland was a Northern name.

1861 census of Mexborough 

During the course of the years I researched several possible places were Stricklands had lived and which looked similar to the place name on the census, such as Hale in Westmoreland, which is close to Sizergh Castle which I knew to be the ancient home of the Strickland family. This place seemed to make sense, but the Robert Strickland I found didn't connect to my family in Newark. I also tried Hawes in Yorkshire, but all avenues led to a brickwall.
It wasn't until several years later that the 1881 census return was indexed that I was able to find my great grandfather's family and on this census the place of his father's birth was clearly written and it was indeed Hayle in Cornwall!
This opened up a whole new avenue of research and I discovered a whole community of Stricklands or rather Sticklands (a different spelling) living in the Hayle area. I was eventually able to trace this family back to the early 1600's and found a wealth of information and documents, so much so that I was eventually able to write a book about my Cornish ancestors.
That is why genealogical work is like detective work, eventually a clue will turn up which will shed new light on your family or will point you in a different direction.
Nowadays research is a lot easier, so many records have been indexed and digitalised that you can do your research whilst sitting comfortably in your own home.
Also DNA tests can help us to link up with distant family members and allow us to share our research with each other.
In my next blog I will share a story about how my DNA test helped me to discover the father of my illegitimate great great grandmother Emma Young.

The May Pole

I have shared this photo on a previous blog several years ago, it was taken on May Day around the year 1910. My Nana, Violet Popplewell is the little girl in the front marked with an X. She once told me that her ribbon was the colour red.

May Day has been celebrated in the northern hemisphere, in one incarnation or another, for centuries. Predominantly falling on the 1st May, on May Day people from all around the world celebrate the first day of spring. The quintessential symbol of the May Day holiday is the maypole.
A long, thin pole is erected and intertwining ribbons are attached, whereby the maypole dance is performed. The participants move in concentric circles about the garland-festooned pole, each holding a coloured ribbon, and work together to plait the fabric, unravelling it by performing the dance in reverse. The maypole is the focal point for a carefully choreographed ceremony that creates kaleidoscopic patterns of overlapping multi-coloured ribbons. It is an ancient custom still performed at spring fetes and village greens yearly.

These young school girls were all pupils of the Oxford Road Primary School in Bridlington, North Yorkshire.

Joan Alice (Orwin) Staveley 1924-2020

Sadly my auntie Joan, my Mum's elder sister passed away at the beginning of this week. She was 95,  a grand old age, she was always fit and full of lots of spirit, the last time I spoke to her on the phone she complained about all the dithering old people around her whilst she was probably one of the oldest.
During the war Joan worked in the intelligence department as a wireless operator, copying down messages etc. because she had signed the official secrets act she was not allowed to tell her family what she did, even after the war.
A few years ago, seventy years later, she was allowed to talk about what she did during the war.
Here follows is her story in her own words, her feisty character shines out, I'm so glad that she shared these memories with me.

"My Memories of W.A.A.F WWII November 1941 – 1945
By Joan Staveley
Ex 2052480 J Orwin WAAF
The war was on. I was working in an office at the time. What help was I here; it
wasn’t helping the war effort. I decided then and there even though I was
officially still too young (by 6 months) I was going to join up.
First things first, need to talk this through with Dad and my brother.
Dad – Herbert Orwin already in the RAF spending a lot of time in India
Brother - Cyril Orwin – Joined as a boy apprentice in the RAF, eventually trained to become a fighter pilot, shot down and became a prisoner of war. Continued to serve after the war and rose to the rank of Group Captain.
Dad was very understanding and gave his blessing. He said it was better to join up
as you could then choose what you wanted to do rather than wait to be called up
and end up in munitions or the army or something else that you didn’t really
want to do.
So the next day I went to the recruitment office. It was 12 noon and only a WAAF
CPL on duty (the officer had gone to lunch)
She asked for my birth certificate, I crossed my fingers and lied! (Naughty) I told
her that all my papers including my birth certificate had gone when a land mine
had dropped near our house (the land mine part was true!) I proceeded to tell her
that my date of birth was 7th April 1924, making me seventeen and a half; just old
enough to enlist (my real birth date was the 7th September 1924). It was November 1941.
Off I went, AC Plonk Joan Orwin 2052480. I caught the train to Bridge North
arriving around 22.00 hrs. Awaiting us new recruits was a lorry (covered) to take
us to the camp (ooh! Mum what have I done?)
On the journey to camp I met Dorene North from Bradford (from this time on
through to 1945 we were to become known as the ‘’Terrible Twins’’)
We did our Square Bashing and had a jab or two. I remember Vera Henn who had
been a model before the war, hitching her skirt up to have the jab at the top of
her leg so that she wouldn’t have an unsightly scar on her arm. So up went our
skirts.
After our square bashing we were posted to Aberdeen to do our training which
took place in the main post office in Crown Street. We were attached to Dyce
Aerodrome but only actually visited it once as we lived in civilian billets.
I stayed at Mrs Wisharts in Princess terrace with her son, daughter, (who was a
manageress of a large hotel) 2 trainee male doctors, a female school teacher, Vera
Henn, Phil Wright, Betty Wrights and myself who were WAAFS.
My friend Dorene North was billeted across the road with 10 other WAAFS, but we
were looked after much better than they were.
During our time there we would often after training, get changed into our civvies
and go off to the dances. We had the best of both worlds.
I remember about a week after having our jabs Vera and I went to the pictures
with two sailors we’d met. During the film I broke out with vaccine fever and the
two sailors had to give me a chair lift back to our digs as I couldn’t walk. I went to
bed. Vera said she would get Donald one of the trainee doctors to have a look at
me. I pretended to be asleep. There was no way I was going to let him look at the
lump near my groin where I had had the jab He came in and said to Vera ‘’let her
sleep’’ (relief). In the morning I was a lot better.
Our training took 6 months. During this time we were taught the Morse code by a
civilian gentleman call Mr Strachan. After training was completed we were given
our SPARKS (Government Code and Cypher School)
After Aberdeen we went home on a weeks leave and then we were sent to
Blackpool for two weeks for more square bashing.
We were then moved to Compton Bassett for a week. We arrived there at night. It
was freezing and we all had our great coats on. As we climbed out of the Lorries
these Erks! All chanted ‘’you’ll be sorry’’ they thought we were new recruits. You
should have seen their faces when we all walked into the NAAF the next morning
all proudly showing off our SPARKS. They were still training , I think they had only sent us to Compton Bassett to kill time, because a week after we were posted to Y Station CHICKSANDS PRIORY in Bedfordshire.
We arrived about lunchtime and by teatime we were being sent home on another
weeks leave. (funny??) We didn’t know why at the time, but now know it was to
give them time to vet our background (MI5 and all that). When we came back off of
leave, many who had been with us when we first got to Chicksands were no more!
So here we were to stay until November 1945.
We signed the official secrets act and were told to say nothing to anyone. Even my Dad, brother and husband, all died never knowing what I actually did.
My nickname in the camp was Mickey, I was given the name because there were
three Joan’s in our hut which made things confusing. One remained Joan, one
became known as Briggsy and I was given the name Mickey due to the fact that my Dad used to call me Mickey Dripping when I was young. Problem solved.
We first started working in the Priory itself (later to be called the Officers Mess)
and when we went on duty the Army were guards on the door. All the rooms had
wireless sets arranged around each of the rooms and we would just plod on taking
messages hour after hour (boring we thought, but we got used to it, it became a
way of life).  We did no transmitting at all after our training only intercepting.
Then the wireless blocks were built and that’s where we then spent our time,
night shift, day shift or evening shift. When you entered the blocks you had to go
in through a maze and you came out through a different maze with RAF personnel
on duty guarding you. We had some laughs and some tears but I wish I could go
back to it again.
Doreen and I were in Hut 121 (top camp the men were in the bottom camp) there
were lots of nice people, Mizpah North, Joyce Fuller, Doris Spershott, Mary
Froggart and Joan Briggs to name a few.
I remember Joan Briggs, Big girl, big bust who used to work as a telephone
operator in Manchester. We were talking about the cost of phone calls, she said a
call cost 3d, I told her we only paid 1d. Well she was so adamant ‘’ everyone pays
3d for a call’’ and she wouldn’t believe me. Next time we went on leave Dorene
came with me to Hull. One day we were passing a phone box and I said ‘’here
Dorene here’s 1d, ring Mum up and tell her we will be home for tea in a quarter of
an hour’’ She did so and the cost? 1d, so I said to her ‘’when you get back to
camp tell Briggsy how much that call cost you’’ You see Hull has its own
telephone exchange and still has today.
We had many adventures during our time together. One day Dorene and I were
hitching a lift into Bedford when David Niven (film star) drove by in his army
officer’s uniform on a motorbike, he gave us a wave, he was gorgeous. Then a car
stopped to give us a lift (you wouldn’t dare hitch hike these days) it was two men,
a young fellow called John Banks and an older man. They said they were going
greyhound racing and would we like to go with them. Well we had no special plans
so off we went to the other side of Bedford to a field were the races were held.
There was a lot of people there and we had a few laughs, we had a meal there
then the boys deposited us back at midnight at the Sandy Lane entrance to the
camp in time for duty.
In our hut we all used to take turns to light the stove which was in the centre of
the room and the only means of heat. Imagine in the winter, snow covered coke
which is bad enough to light when dry never mind when it’s wet. We used to have
to rake the snow off it and try to light it. Not an easy thing to do which is why the
NAAFS mound of coal used to dwindle at an alarming rate as we all used to sneak
over there and pinch it so we could start the stoves.
Dorene’s grand parents lived in Hammersmith so most of our weekend leaves were
spent there. Funny every time I went they had a raid free night and they would
say ‘’ good Mickey’s here so we’ll all have a good nights sleep’’. That is until one
night when we were at Hammersmith Palais (Ted Heath, Joe Loss Bands) and boy
was there a raid. Dorene and I being small, cottoned onto two tall Australian’s
hoping they would protect us when we left the Palais. We were climbing over
rubble and hose pipes, talk about pandemonium. After that, going to
Hammersmith didn’t mean a night of no raids anymore.
One of the last Buzz Bombs fell at Chicksands Priory but, luckily it fell on the
bank of the river which ran through the camp. The bottom camp (men’s camp)
took the blast. Luckily the huts that caught the blast were empty except for one
chap who had a night off and he only got a gash on his cheek – Lucky!
We also had a horror of a man Warrant Officer Paige, every camp had one (funny
that)
We often went to the dances were Glenn Miller and his band were playing. They
were stationed near Bedford. I actually saw Glenn Miller the night before he went
missing. We were going into The Bridge Hotel and him and a couple (civilian man and
woman) came down the stairs and got into a taxi. Guess we were one of the last
few to see him. He had gone the next day. A big loss to the music world.
I remember one night, we left the Corn Exchange were we’d been to a dance and
were dashing for the train. There was one in the station so we jumped onto it,
whoops. The train didn’t stop at our station Shefford Village were Chicksands was.
We were on the wrong train and the first stop was Luton. There was no train back
so we went to the police station and they rang the camp to inform them we
wouldn’t be back and put us up for the night. We got the first train back the next
morning and we were put on a charge.
Another memory of mine is of the cold weather and going on duty at 8 a.m.
It was so cold, too cold to walk to the ablutions and wash in cold water. So we
used to use the water from our hot water bottles (still luke warm), we’d pour the
water onto our flannels, it was so much nicer than a freezing cold block and
freezing cold water.
Going back to our training time, there was a girl that sang with a big band at the
Palais, Elsie she was called I often had a chat with her. Well blow me down if a
year and a half later didn’t she arrive at the camp. She’d joined the WAAF; I never
thought I would see her again. She sang with the camp band then along with a
male singer Alf Adcock.
Whilst we were in Aberdeen Vera Henn was dating a naval officer who lived there
and his sister Rose was a nurse at the Cottage Hospital. Rose asked us if we would
visit some of the Canadian soldiers there who were badly burnt. So we used to go
and visit them and write letters home for them as they had no one else to visit
them (tragic). Quite a few of them died and the other badly burnt lads must have
being in agony, you could smell the burning flesh. They were only 18 or 19 the
same age as us.
We had a fire at Chicksands in one of the huts. Rosemary Portal (sergeant) was the
one in charge of it and she had a small room at the end of it. When they had all
gone on duty the hut went up in flames (SQDN 1)
The next day a car with its flag flying arrives at the camp with Lord and Lady
Portal the mother and father of Rosemary. As far as I can remember Rosemary
who had an electric fire in her room (forbidden) and had gone on duty and left it
on. It must have being too near the bed and set alight. I wonder what happened to
her?? More to the point I wonder what would have happened if it had being one of
us (not being the daughter of a Lord in the RAF!) who had caused the blaze.
Yes we had some good times and it was hard to imagine ourselves back in Civvie
Street.
None of us had our teenage years like the kid’s of today had but we met some
really great people and looking back I wouldn’t have missed any of it.
Great friends Dorene North, Lorraine Craddock, dear old Mickey Maules (CPL) my
name sake. It gave us a little bond ‘’the two Mickeys’’. I remember Sgt Bustard,
Sgt Jones, CPL Smith, Sgt Sandy Brown, Gwen in our hut, Mary Durdy, Freda
Dewhurst, Nobby Clark and Alma Savage.
I’m left with many happy memories which money can’t buy
QRX (closing down code in Morse)"

Hidden Gems

Elizabeth Grace Miles

Thomas John Miles

Mary Ann Rowe and nephew Thomas John Miles

Sometimes via Ancestry.com I am able to communicate with other people who are also connected to my Family Tree, and we are able to help each other and they are able to share memories from their family history which sometimes can shed some more light on my own family history.

This was the case with the communications that I had with Alan Williams, his grandparents Mary Elizabeth Rowe and Joseph Sincock Williams emigrated to the United States in 1877 and settled and lived in Butte, Montana, which I discovered from Alan had a large Cornish community because of the many copper mines in that place.
Alan's grandmother left many recorded memories of her time in Cornwall, her mother Mary Ann Miles was the sister of Thomas Miles, the first husband of Wilmot Stickland. (My great great grandfather's sister)
Here follows  a short excerpt about her memories of her uncle Thomas and of the tragic murder which occurred when she was about 12 years

“After spending some time in California during the Gold Rush, Thomas returned to his father's home in Angarrack a rich man.  Shortly thereafter his father passed away.

 One night, while drinking in a "public house," he loudly proclaimed to the clientele that he would marry and take to America any barmaid who would kiss him.  One of them (name not recollected) took the dare and, true to his promise, he did marry her and they set out for California.  (Was this Wilmot!?)

They had two children born in the U.S.---Elizabeth "Lizzie" and Thomas III "Tommy."  When Tommy was an infant and Lizzie was two, the family returned to Angarrack making a great display of wealth including much gold and jewelry, even golden arm-bands on the baby.   Thomas proceded almost immediately to build a large house on a hill for themselves.

It was not long, however, before the wife began to clandestinely meet a man she had been keeping company with before she was married.  One day a maid allowed little Tommy to fall out of his highchair.  Thomas rushed down to the village to get a doctor, and then back up to the house again, whereupon he was seized with a heart attack and dropped to the ground dead.

Tommy had received injuries to his back which left him deformed---a hunchback for the rest of his life.  The mother married her former lover and they began a life of extravagance and waste, continually fighting over her money.  On May 1, 1869---May Day---while the children were playing around the town May Pole, they were summoned to their aunt Mary Ann (Miles) Rowe's home.

Another tragedy had struck the family.  Their mother had been murdered by her husband.  He had cut her throat in an argument over money, and then tried to cut his own throat.  Police found him still alive, however, clutching the razor in one hand and the wife's bankbook in the other.  He survived and was found guilty of the crime and spent the rest of his life in Bodmin prison.

The children---Lizzie and Tommy---were taken in by their aunt Mary Ann Rowe to live with her own two children.  The court awarded Mary Ann custody of the two children, plus what was left of her deceased brother's estate for their support."

Even though there are some discrepancies in her memories about the murder, Wilmot Stickland did die on May Day, but she wasn't murdered, she died of consumption. Two days later her distraught husband, John Stickland, cut the throat of his 4 year old daughter and then his own throat in a double suicide attempt. He was indeed discovered as you can read in my previous blog of June 2016 and spent his last years in  Broardmoor Prison.  "Skeletons in the cupboard "  https://debrakluit.blogspot.com/2016/06/skeletons-in-cupboard.html
Some of the facts of Mary Elizabeth Rowe's story I knew about but not in such great detail, I knew via census records that Wilmot and Thomas Miles had lived in California and that their eldest daughter Elizabeth Grace Miles was born in California in 1859. I had also assumed because of the dates that they had gone to California to take part in the Gold Rush. I also knew that they had returned to Cornwall before or shortly after their second child Thomas John's birth.
Thomas Miles certainly seems to have struck lucky in California though it must have been a strenuous life for Wilmot and I can imagine that she was happy to be back home in Cornwall. I knew via records that Thomas Miles had died shortly after their return but obviously didn't know about the tragic circumstances of his death. I had seen on the 1891 census that Thomas John Miles was recorded as been deformed, I now know how that deformity came about.
I obviously don't know for sure whether Wilmot was having an affair with her cousin John Stickland, they didn't marry until two years after her first husband's death and only after discovering that she was a few months pregnant.
The money certainly does seem to have gone quickly as this was one of the things that was discussed in the trial of John Stickland and also one of the added causes of his distress, that he had no money left to bury his wife.
Wilmot's two children from her first husband were indeed brought up further by their paternal grandmother Elizabeth Miles and later by their aunt Mary Ann Rowe nee Miles.
Elizabeth Grace Miles eventually emigrated back to the United States and married a fellow Cornish man Charles Dawes Pascoe on 11th August 1886 in Butte, Silver Bow, Montana where her cousin, Alan's grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Rowe was also living.
Alan has also very kindly supplied me with copies of many old photos from his grandparents photo album, including photos of Elizabeth Grace Miles and Thomas John Miles the children of Wilmot Stickland.
Through communications with other family historians we can sometimes find hidden gems and can fill out the stories of our ancestors lives.

Cornwall - Powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution

The pumping machine made by Harvey's of Hayle

The Puffing Devil, built by Richard Trevithick

In my last blog I talked about the five children of John Stickland and Mary Rogers who were brought up by their grandparents after the untimely death of their parents, their father John in the May of 1773 and their mother Mary in the October of the same year.
Their grandparents Robert Stickland and Bridget Pryor resided in the tenement of Coswinsawsin, a tiny hamlet on the outskirts of the Cornish villiage of Gwinear, bordering onto Carnhel Green and Penponds.
At the time of their parents death the children were still quite young, Bridget the eldest was 8, John 7, Robert 5, David Rogers 4 and the youngest Mary was still a baby of 9 months when her mother died.
Grandfather Robert Strickland died two years later at the age of 65, he left a Last Will and Testament which enabled Bridget to carry on with the upbringing of her grandchildren. Interestingly one of the Executors of his Will was John Harvey, Blacksmith of Carnhel Green, who later went on to establish a Foundry in  Hayle ,"Harvey's of Hayle," which became famous supplying boilers and pumping machines throughout the world. The Haarlemmermeer in the Netherlands was drained by a famous pumping engine called Cruquious which was made at Harvey's and can still be visited and viewed today.
I assume that John Harvey and his children were close acquaintances to the Stickland family.
The three Stickland brothers probably attended school in Camborne and were most possibly acquainted with Richard Trevithick the famous Engineer and inventor. The  Tenement of Coswinsawsin were they lived is located only about 1 mile from the small hamlet of Penponds and the cottage where Richard Trevithick lived and grew up in. Richard Trevithick was born in 1771, so he would have been just two years younger than David Rogers Stickland, in fact there is a very big possibility that Richard would have known and socialised with the Stickland family, as he eventually married in 1797 with Jane Harvey the daughter of John Harvey who as I mentioned  was also a good acquaintance of the Sticklands.
An invention that the Stickland family are sure to have witnessed or at least heard about was Richard Trevithick’s steam powered road locomotive which he called ‘The puffing Devil’. On Christmas Eve 1801 Trevithick successfully demonstrated his locomotive by carrying several men up Camborne Hill, this locomotive was the forerunner to the steam train. A few days later during another test drive, the locomotive broke down, so Richard and his friends decided to leave it by the roadside whilst they refreshed themselves in a public house with a meal of roast goose and drinks. Meanwhile the water boiled off and the engine overheated and the whole carriage burnt out destroying it completely, luckily Richard didn’t consider this episode as a serious setback but more a case of operator error.
The last years of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century were difficult times but also a time of great change and innovation, Cornwall became the centre of technological advance as inventors and engineers took up residence around the mines. Copper effectively made Cornwall the powerhouse of the English Industrial Revolution. Vast wealth was created by copper, merchants and bankers made fortunes, intelligent and able miners became mine captains and mine managers and everywhere the Cornish displayed enterprise and ingenuity unsurpassed anywhere in industrial history.
My Stickland ancestors were a part of this history, they witnessed the birth of the Industrial Revolution. Nowadays the village of Gwinear is so rural it is hard to imagine that so many mines were in operation and that thousands of people lived and worked in the area. Fortunes were made but they were also lost.

Fortunes gained and fortunes lost

Cornwall

 I have recently been catching up with the Poldark series which is based on the novels by Winston Graham and are set in the beautiful county of Cornwall at the end on the 18th and beginning of the 19th Century.  My Strickland ancestors were also living in this area at this time and also had investments in tin and copper mines, infact many of the names used in the Poldark series are names that I have come across whilst doing my genealogical research. In my blog of the 20th October 2016 I talked about my 5th great grandfather John Stickland who was a merchant but unfortunately died young as did his wife, leaving their five children to be raised by his parents Robert and Bridget Stickland.
Bridget outlived her husband and was 76 when she died in April 1788, thankfully her surviving four grandchildren were old enough to fend for themselves. At the time of Bridget’s death the economic situation in Cornwall had never seemed bleaker, in Paris a mob had stormed the Bastille, and by 1793 Britain had been drawn into war with revolutionary France, a desperate struggle that was to last until the battle of Waterloo a generation later. The consequent dislocation of trade and loss of markets intensified the depression, while rising prices added to the hardships of employed and unemployed alike, for there was little advance in wages.
A year after their Grandmother Bridget’s death her eldest two grandsons John and Robert Stickland were married, and that within a month of each other, and both to girls called Mary. John was married on the 22nd of February 1789 to Mary Gilbert in Gwinear church and Robert on the 14th March 1789 to Mary Penhale, also in Gwinear church. Nine months after their respective marriages both their wives gave birth to a baby girl, John’s daughter was named Bridget after his grandmother and Robert’s Mary after his wife and his mother.
A few years before Bridget’s death an Indenture was made in connection with the land which John Stickland had leased in 1772, it seems that it was still in possession of the family and was still being used to mine and search for tin and copper.
On the 8th of March 1792 another Indenture was made this time in regards to the tenement and premisses of Drannack Vean and Herland. An interesting fact from the Indenture is that as well as the Stickland brothers both John Harvey of Harvey’s Foundry in Hayle and John Edwards, manager of the Cornish Copper Company are parties in this contract. These two men and their companies were ardent rivals in the port of Hayle.
As the fortunes of the Herland mines seems to be so closely connected to the fortunes of the Stickland family, I think that it would be interesting to enclose a section about the mine from a book by A.K. Hamilton Jenkin, “Mines and Miners of Cornwall”. This excerpt describes the workings of this and the surrounding mines so well that it gives us an idea of how easily fortunes were gained or lost in mining ventures.
“After a period of idleness, North Herland was at work again by 1790. Output was then stated to be about 80 tons of copper ore per month, a quantity which could have been doubled if the mine had possessed a “Fire Engine”(steam pump). The terms of the lease, however were such as to discourage the adventurers from laying out the £2,000 to £3,000 which the latter would have cost, and the water was being drawn solely by horse-whims at an expense of from £150 to £200 per month.
In the following year a proposal was made to add Wheal Fancy and Wheal Pleasure to the North Herland sett, in return for which the North Herland adventurers stated their willingness to erect a Fire Engine of sufficient size to draw the water of all three mines........About this time the western part of Herland, viz. Wheal Fancy and Pleasure, was stated to be much improved. The lode when cut under the elvan was found to answer much better than it did above, and as this part of the mine was shallower by 30 fathoms than the bottom of Old Herland, it made the discovery all the more valuable. Prince George Mine also was looking up, a lode having been discovered at the adit level 100 fathoms west of the Engine Shaft which gave indications of making that mine as productive as it had been in its former working. Encouraged by this, the adventurers resolved to increase the power of the Old Herland Engine by adding a side-cylinder of 40 inch to the existing one. This, it was estimated, would enable the mine to be worked 40 fathoms deeper than its then bottom.
By May 1795, however, trouble was brewing in more than one quarter. “I was at Herland yesterday” wrote William Jenkin
“and from the report of Ned Bull and the Captains we were satisfied that the old fractured cylinder must be taken out, as the engine cannot keep the water in fork.  ........ By the earlier months of 1796, prospects appeared less favourable and William Jenkin was writing:
“It will be a terrible stroke on that parish (Gwinear) whenever Herland goes down as I believe there are not less than 700 men, women and children employed in that, and Prince George Mine adjoining, which both mines must inevitably fall together. The sacrifice made by the Lords will (I am induced to hope) keep her up till Peace is made, when we should find a great reduction in the price of powder, candles, coals, timber, boards etc - and I think an advance in the price of Copper and Tin. But if she goes down now I fear ‘t will be for ever”.
In 1798 an event occurred which not only gave a fillip to the
mine but focussed upon it the attention of the scientific world of the day. This was the discovery of a rich deposit of silver at and near the junction of the Manor E-W copper lode with a N-S vein known as the Convocation Cross-Course. The earliest mention of this find occurs in a letter from William Jenkin to George Hunt, dated 25th August 1798.
“There has been some silver ore lately found in Herland Mine at 100 fathoms deep. I have seen some of it and can discern the fine threads of silver that run through the stone. I have also seen a large lump of silver extracted from the ore......”
A few days later, William Jenkin wrote to his friend Capt. Sam Grose:
“A rich cross-course in Herland Mine in Gwinear, where Jo. Davy is chief captain, abounds with Silver and some valuable semi-metals such as Bismuth and, I much believe, Cobalt......”
During November 1798 Herland was stated to be not only
paying its monthly cost, but the expenses of erecting a fourth pumping engine, together with a second small Fire Engine for hoisting the ore. Altogether the adventurers had laid out nearly £16,000, and the value of the materials on the mine was estimated to be between £8,000 to £9,000. “If we could have a Peace the price of materials would be £ 200 a month less”.
A year later the outlook had changed:
"There are great apprehensions entertained for the fate of Herland and Prince George Mines, which are both much impoverished lately. As the monthly expense of working these two mines is about £3,000 on an average, the setting so many Labourers idle at once, and the want of circulation of such a sum in the neighbourhood is likely to be felt as a very serious evil. The adventurers in Herland are out about £15,000 and are apprehensive of being still more, as the ores do not defray the rising cost. All the little mines in the neighbourhood are dependent on Herland, and whenever that mine sinks, it will immediately carry them all down in its vortex. "
As you can see it was quite a gamble to invest in a mining adventure and Britain’s involvement at this time in the Napoleonic wars didn’t make matters any easier as many materials were difficult to come by and therefore more expensive.
 The draining of the mines was a costly but necessary part of a mining adventure so it is interesting to read in another Indenture which was made between John Harvey, and the brothers John, Robert and David Stickland and John Edwards with the mine agent Alexander Paull that an agreement was made to pay a compensation to the adventurers of Herland mine, here follows an excerpt:
“And whereas the adventurers in a certain mine or Adventure commonly called Herland adjoining or near to the said mine called Wheal Royal have lately erected at a considerable expense a fire engine for the draining of the said mine called Herland and it is expected and believed that the said Alexander Paull ... will receive considerable benefit from the working of the said engine and that large quantities of water will be drawn by such engine out of the bottoms of Wheal Royal mine. Now it is hereby covenanted, concluded and agreed and the said Alexander Paull doth hereby for the consideration aforesaid for himself ....covenant, promise and agree unto and with the said John Harvey, John Stickland, Robert Stickland and David Stickland and to and with the said John Edwards that he the said Alexander Paull shall and will make to the adventurers of and in Herland mine aforesaid a compensation and satisfaction for the benefit and advantage which may accrue to the said Alexander Paull from the draining of the water from Wheal Royal......”
The last years of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century were difficult times but also a time of great change and innovation, Cornwall became the centre of technological advance as inventors and engineers took up residence around the mines. Copper effectively made Cornwall the powerhouse of the English Industrial Revolution. Vast wealth was created by copper, merchants and bankers made fortunes, intelligent and able miners became mine captains and mine managers and everywhere the Cornish displayed enterprise and ingenuity unsurpassed anywhere in industrial history.
My Stickland ancestors were a part of this history, they witnessed the birth of the Industrial Revolution. Nowadays the village of Gwinear is so rural it is hard to imagine that so many mines were in operation and that thousands of people lived and worked in the area. Fortunes were made but they were also lost and in the following generation the Stickland men were no longer mining Adventures but miners and engineers themselves.

Gwinear Church

Gravestone of John Stickland 

Coswinsawsin, home of the Stickland family