High Up Relations.....

[Liz Turner]

I think it's wee things about life and social history that make geneaology so interesting.

Liz

Me to. I have in excess of 300 letters now dating from 1880,s. Most of which thankfully my Uncle had rescued from my grandfathers house. 90% of them concern my gt gt grandmother - my gt grandfather and his two sisters.

Tracey - You're very lucky to have these letters they are a priceless first hand account of how life was; between us I think my sister and I have about 7 or 8 letters written by my gt gt gt grandmother and her family in the 1830s. They just tell of the lives of ordinary people in a time so completely different from ours.

Liz

[sheilajim]

Hi Liz & Tracy

You are both very lucky to have such old letters.
My oldest letters only go back to 1940, apparantly the older ones were tossed out, or lost in moving from one place to another.
Even these old letters are precious to me, giving me an insight into what was going on in those days.

I have one scary thought though, nobody today writes letters, we use the phone and the internet, which leaves no trace of our thoughts. Does anybody have any thoughts on this?

Regards

Sheila

[CatrionaL]

Hi Sheila

Yes, aren't Liz and Tracey fortuanate to have all these old letters?

In our family, the ease of use of the telephone has reduced the amount of written correspondance between the close family, brothers and sisters. However the advent of e-mail has resulted in a considerable amount of regular mail from cousins with whom I had little contact before (especially the males of the species)! These e-mails are kept preciously in a Family Correspondance File.

Kind regards

Catriona

[Liz Turner]

For those who are interested, here's an extract from a letter written by someone (relative) in the position of marrying his deceased wife's sister back in 1880.

"The report you heard that I had married my late wife’s sister is quite true and I do so conscientiously, openly, inserting it in our largest daily paper, and legally, according to the law of Scotland and will show below. Failing therefore to see how it could affect our work in any way I have never felt hitherto that I was called upon to give any information as to who the lady was any more than in any previous marriage even when advised to do so by XX a few weeks ago.

I have from the first, when my attention was directed to the question fourteen years ago, been on the side of the laye and ever increasing party who believe such a union is not contradicted by scripture, ... and becoming attached to the lady, I was prepared, could such a union be accomplished, to enter into it. Previous to contracting it I had legal advice as to the interpretation of the Scotch law of marriage which seemed to show that in our case marriage would be quite lawful. The law being that the law of domicile constituted legal marriage. Such a union being lawful in most of our colonies especially in the east, any domicile, and also in the United States the domicile of my wife, we were married in a church in France in the presence of an US Consul and registered by him in his official register.

I consider I have little to do with it not being the law of England, i.e. England separate from Scotland and the colonies. ... I am sorry, but at the same time cannot acknowledge that I have acted wrongly. My personal friends in Scotland both clerical and lay have unanimously congratulated me on the step – ... there is every likelihood of it becoming law to all the first time the question comes before parliament which may be any day now."

[nelmit]

Not one of mine but perhaps related to Isabel :

From the 1881 census -
Hannah WALKER Head W Female 49 Hinckley, Leicester, England Keeper Furnished Rms
William CHARSTONE Boarder M Male 40 Brit Subject, Norway Professor Of Music
Elizabeth CHARSTONE Boarder M Female 36 St Auchle, Cornwall, England
William CHARSTONE Boarder U Male 17 Plymouth, Devon, England No Occupation
Charles CHARSTONE Boarder U Male 11 Plymouth, Devon, England Scholar
John ROSSINI Boarder M Male 25 Scotland Champion Stilt Performer
Eliza ROSSINI Boarder M Female 21 Scotland

He sounds pretty high up to me.

Annette M

[CatrionaL]

Annette



Catriona

[Ina]

Good one Annette.

Ina

[ninatoo]

Here's one from my x husband's side....can't be confirmed however, and it isn't family, but interesting. Apparently his gg grandmother knew Ned Kelly's mother, and there is some story about a horse ride they shared. The gg grandmother used to tell the x's granny stories about the Kelly family apparently, and was of the opinion that they were good people. Family folklore, howver, as I have recently discovered, can turn into whoppers over time.

We did find a reference in a museum to one of the x's ancestors working for Robert O'Hara Burke as a police constable in Beechworth or Kilmore (I forget which) before the famous and fatal expedition with William Wills. He was quite interested at the time, but I think one of his sisters took over their family tree.

And as for speculation...well I have a Fleming from Ayr, not too far from where Alexander Fleming was born, and my Fleming also has Alexanders in the family. It would be nice to find a family connection, but at present it seems remote, and I am guessing that there were probable a LOT of Flemings. Well you never know. Trouble is, if I tell my Dad about my speculations, it magically becomes fact, so I am keeping it to myself at present!



Nina