Sorry it’s been a while…
Hi everyone, I hope you are well. I apologies for the delay since the last blog post. I finished uni for the summer back in May and I just crashed as soon as I finished! I think all the studying wiped me out. I have slowly been building myself back up, and doing some things I have wanted to do during my summer break.
One of my main goals is to make a start on writing my book. If you don’t already know, I plan to write a book about my 4th great grandmother, Eliza Lewington, who you can learn about by reading this blog post if you haven’t already.
As the book is based on real people, I want to make sure I have completed my research before I start writing it fully. I have been working on the first chapter, but there is still a few things I need to learn about her. For example, I cannot find either of her husband’s death certificates. I believe they may have died in Kingsclere workhouse, and there is a register of the deaths in the workhouse at the Hampshire Record Office in Winchester, which I plan to visit as soon as I can. I previously assumed that her first husband passed away in a workhouse in Salisbury, Wiltshire, but I now think it may have actually been in Kingsclere. I do know that Eliza lived in Salisbury for around a year, and I know the address she lived at too. I have been able to see the outside of the houses on google maps, and the inside on rightmove, which helps me to get a better insight into what her home would have looked like, making writing about it much easier.
I do hope to one day visit the town, and street, she moved to, so I can get a better idea of what it is like. I have visited Kingsclere on a few occasions, the main place she lived, and it has really helped me gain a sense of what life would have been like for her there. It is a small, tight knit village, that isn’t too far from big towns and cities.
My 21st birthday!
As for the month of June, I have spent some of it celebrating my 21st birthday, which is my golden birthday as it was on the 21st June. It is quite cool being able to say I turned 21 on the 21st. I had some great celebrations including spending time with family, visiting the Harry Potter studios and going to bingo. My family, especially my mum, have made it all so special and I am so grateful.
As well as celebrating my birthday, I have also been doing a bit more research into my family tree, especially my Irish side. I am visiting Ireland in July, where we will be having a big family reunion and I will be meeting a lot of my family for the first time. I plan to map out our family tree, including all the descendants of my great-grandmother. I recently learned that she was always very proud of the amount of children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and great grandchildren she had. The total number is somewhere in the 100s!
It is proving a bit more difficult to work out, as some were born in Ireland (meaning birth records aren’t as recent), but my aunt is helping me as best as she can which is brilliant. I am sure they won’t mind if there are a few inaccuracies such as missing middle names or incorrect birth years. There are just so many of us, which is brilliant!
I hope to learn a lot more about my Irish family history when I meet my family too, as everyone will likely have different bits of information that they remember. I recently saw a photo of my 2nd great-grandmother, which was really nice! I did assume there would be a photo of her somewhere, as she lived until 1970, so it was great to finally see one.
I did also learn that she wasn’t actually that keen on my grandmother and her siblings, which is strange! My aunt and I think there is a chance she may have disapproved of my great grandmother’s relationship as there was an 18 year age gap between her and my great-grandfather. However, my 2nd great-grandmother’s husband was 20 years older than her, so I am not entirely sure if that was the reason. It is strange, because there was only a 5 year age gap between my 2nd great grandmother and great grandfather!
Differences in generations
There are a lot of similarities between 2 of my great grandfathers, despite one of them being from Ireland and one being from England. They were both born in 1900, and joined the military at a young age. They both married at around the same age (40ish), and they both had their final child in 1957!
My other great grandfathers were born in 1912 and 1921, with the one in 1921’s father being born in 1898, just two year before my other great grandads! The years of the generations in family trees can be so different in each branch. Some branches, most people had their babies in their 20s, but others had their babies in their 30’s – every branch and every person is so different!
The age they had children can also impact how many generations you can go back. Here is an example of different branches in my family tree:
As you can see in the image above, there are quite big gaps between the years certain sets of great grandparents were born. For example, my 4th great grandparents have around 50 years difference, however they are technically the same generation in my tree.
The difference in generation can also impact how many generations you can go back. For example, if 1790 was the furthest I could go back, my Neale branch would end with my 4th great grandparents, but my Watts branch could potentially go back 1 or 2 more generations.
Some women had children over the span of 20 years, so sometimes your direct ancestor may be one of the older ones, or one of the younger ones. A key example of both of these are my 3rd great grandmother, Elizabeth (daughter of Eliza who I mentioned earlier) and my 2nd great grandmother, Jane. Elizabeth would have been in her early 20’s when she has Jane, and in her early 40s with her final child, Alfred. Jane being one of the first to be born means there is not much of a distance between the generations, however, she gave birth to my great grandmother, Kathleen, when she was around 45.
Family patterns in history vs the modern day
The age women started having children varies, but they were quite often on the younger side. Most being in their early 20s or even late teens. Nowadays, more women than ever are having their first child in their 30s. Historically, it was portrayed that the only thing a woman was to do with her adulthood was marry and raise a family, whereas nowadays women have more opportunities to take other paths. For example, it is more normalised for a woman to focus on her career, go travelling, have fun with friends, date different people in her 20s rather than instantly settle down and marry.
I think a lot of the expectation for women to settle down and marry quickly was to also help ease the burden off her father, and find a man who could financially support her. Nowadays, a lot of women financially support themselves, so there isn’t as much of a need to rush and find someone to financially support her.
There were also ‘rules’ around relationships, such as not being allowed to live with your spouse or have sex with them until you were married, so a lot more couples were in more of a rush to marry. Especially the ones who did have sex before marriage which resulted in pregnancy. You most likely have quite a few ancestors who walked down the aisle pregnant, without you even realising.
Nowadays, a lot of couples tend to stay engaged longer and some don’t even opt for marriage. Weddings are often quite expensive, and nowadays there isn’t much difference between a married and an unmarried couple. A lot of unmarried couples live together and have children, without judgement (or at least as much as there used to be).
I am aware that there are still some people out there who oppose unmarried couples, but the shame of being unmarried and having children is nothing compared to what it used to be.
The impact of less marriages on future genealogists
Less couples getting married may impact future research for genealogists. Typically, when finding the parents of an ancestor, I will look for their birth record to find their mother’s maiden name, then search for a marriage between the surname and mother’s maiden name to find the parents. I am usually able to confirm I have found the correct parents with a census record. However, in the future, this may be trickier for people to do as they may be unable to find a marriage record for the couple.
But, with things like the internet, social media and genealogy websites, the information may remain there for future generations to look at, which will be very helpful for them. This is something current genealogists didn’t have available, so it will be interesting to see in the future.
Modern census records
The most recent census in the UK was taken in 2021, and it asked a lot of questions about each individual in the household. This will be incredibly useful to people researching their family history in 100 years time as it is full of information that will really help them to build a picture of what their ancestors life (our life) was like and who they were as a person.
The census could be completed on paper, but could also be completed online, meaning there is no handwriting. On the plus side, it means you will be able to read the record clearly with no issues, but it can also feel slightly disappointing to not be able to see your ancestors handwriting. That being said, some people did indeed complete theirs on paper.
I believe each individual was asked 50 questions, relating to their relationship status, health, occupation and much more. This is in addition to questions about the household as a whole, including the building they lived in and the relationships between all household members.
They also ask for exact date of birth, rather than age, which makes it easier to identify your ancestors. This was always a feature I found very useful when it comes to the 1939 register, despite some people giving the incorrect date of birth.
I don’t think birth certificates were given out to people, as they are now, and people weren’t as aware of dates and things, meaning a lot of people weren’t sure of their date of birth, or had an incorrect date or year. Some families had a lot of children, meaning they had a lot of dates to remember, and they could easily make mistakes.
Nowadays, we are more aware of the current dates, thanks to radio, television, phones and more, and we are typically given our birth certificates, meaning we can check our date of birth if we are unsure, so the majority of us tend to know our correct birth date.
In addition to my Irish family history research…
I have been doing a bit more research into my ‘Durham’ side. I always refer to that side of my tree as my Durham side, as that is where the majority are from, however as I have gone back in the tree, I have learnt that some originally came from other places such as Yorkshire, Staffordshire and London.
I learnt that my Yorkshire ancestors lived in a place called Whitby which is a seaside town. A lot of my ancestors who lived there were ‘jet workers’. At first, I thought this actually meant they worked with jets and built them, which is strange considering this was in the 1800s, a time where jets probably didn’t really exist. I was talking to my aunt about it when she said ‘oh Jet, the thing they mine’ and that is when it clicked for me.
I actually hadn’t heard of jet before, but I learnt that it was a mineral and was specific to Whitby! (At least in the UK)
Quite a few of my ancestors worked in the jet industry, until my 3rd great-grandfather moved to Sunderland, in his early 20’s, and worked as a machine driller for a company called Osbourne and Graham’s shipbuilding yard. He actually lost his arm in an accident at work, when he was around 19 or 20 years old. Despite this, he still worked for them up until he retired/passed away.
With my ancestors links to the jet industry, I decided to purchase a necklace that contains Whitby Jet – as a way to be connected with them. I have attached an image below.
It is lovely to have this beautiful necklace, and to know that is gives me a connection to my ancestors. I love being able to learn about my ancestors lives, the things they did and the things they experienced.
I have somewhat been enjoying my start to the summer…
It has been nice to research my ancestors, without the worry of university deadlines hanging over me! I get my final result in July, while I am in Ireland, which I hope will be a good one! Then I can apply for my course which starts in October.
As well as researching my family tree, preparing to write my book and celebrating my 21st birthday, I have been struggling with my health – both mentally and physically. This has had a bit of an impact on how much I have been able to enjoy my summer so far. My mental health has been poor for the majority of my life, but I have been in quite a bad depression for well over a year now.
It can make it harder to want to do things such as researching my family tree, but I still try and do it as much as I can as I do thoroughly enjoy it. I must admit though, I have spent many days curled up in bed just doomscrolling. With feeling unwell too, it can make it harder to do things. I try to do as much as I can, but I do also have to accept that my body has its limitations.
I do still have a few months left until I start university again, and I do have hope that I will manage to fit lots of fun things in. I hope to visit the Hampshire Record Office soon, to view records which will help me learn more about Eliza’s life. I am also seeing Billie Eilish in July, which will be great! I have been a fan for many years. The last time I saw her was actually in 2019, so it is great to be seeing her live again after all these years.
I also hope to work some more on my health, lose some weight, so that I can feel better in myself and have more energy to do things. I want to continue posting and growing on social media, which has been very successful so far.
I have lots of hopes and dreams for the future, and most of them include being happy and healthy! I want to make my 21st year my best yet…
Grenfell Tower
Something I have also been dedicating a lot of my time to, is the Grenfell Tower fire. It would feel strange to not mention it in this blog post after how much time I have spent researching it, and learning the stories of the victims.
If you have the time, I very much recommend you watch the documentary ‘Grenfell Uncovered’ on Netflix, which was released recently. There is also an episode of a TV show on BBC iPlayer called ‘I was there’. There is an episode about Grenfell, where they interview survivors and they tell you about their experiences. I highly recommend watching them both, and doing what you can to help the victims get the justice they deserve.
If you happen to be reading this, and you were impacted by the Grenfell Tower fire, please know my heart is with you and will remain with you forever. I will always have you all in my mind, and my prayers. I will always do whatever I can to help you get the justice you deserve.
Overall
It has been fun, turning 21. I hope for a year full of positivity and good health. I hope to get a lot of genealogy research done in the next year, and to make great progress (or even finish) my book!
I hope you found this blog post entertaining, but also educational. If there are any topics you would be interested in hearing about, or you have any family history related questions, feel free to share in the comments below. All of the comments I get on these posts are from bots, so it would be nice to see a real comment!
Anyway, thank you so much for taking the time to read this and I hope you have a great rest of your day.
See you in the next one,
Jessica Jean
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