A new stage in my life...................
- Thread starter Grannie G
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My paternal great grandparents left Poland in the latter half of the nineteenth century because of the progroms against the Jews. I've seen a photo if them and boy, do they look impressive tradespeople! They and their extended families lived in Shoreditch, then a very poor part of London but now very trendy. I've looked them up on the census records and they were always on the move....prejudice, family expansion or difficulties paying the rent.....or a combination of those??
Anyway their children and grandchildren lived and worked in the East End as tailors, hatmakers, lampshade makers, carpenters, and market traders. My dad's first work was as a stall holder with his Uncle Ike
Dad went on to be a successful amateur boxer, then joined the army in 1939 and spent six years fighting in the Far East. When he got back he used his fierce intelligence to train as an electrician and then become one of the first computer engineers.
Mum and dad married in 1947 - mum came from a rock solid Midlands family (who ran but didn't own a corner shop) and he always looked on her as his beacon of respectability!
Sorry no time to write more, but I love thinking about families....
Anyway their children and grandchildren lived and worked in the East End as tailors, hatmakers, lampshade makers, carpenters, and market traders. My dad's first work was as a stall holder with his Uncle Ike
Dad went on to be a successful amateur boxer, then joined the army in 1939 and spent six years fighting in the Far East. When he got back he used his fierce intelligence to train as an electrician and then become one of the first computer engineers.
Mum and dad married in 1947 - mum came from a rock solid Midlands family (who ran but didn't own a corner shop) and he always looked on her as his beacon of respectability!
Sorry no time to write more, but I love thinking about families....
Darling, there are no rules. No one is forcing us to move on. We will do this when we are ready. The human spirit has its own timetable. I loathe that stages of grief stuff. All fellow feeling, sweetheart.Geraldinexx aka kindred.
So do I @Lindy50, and I enjoy reading about other people's families. Do you do Family History Research? I started 13 years ago but it fell by the wayside when Henry went into the care home 8 years ago. What you write about your family is very interesting.
Since I was little I have been fascinated by 'family', loved when I stayed with my maternal grandmother and one of our favourite past times was when I said "Tell me about the old days Grandma". I learned a lot from her, then in later years was able to expand via FH Research.
On my father's side I knew my father's grandfather was born in Frankfurt, Germany, I was told that his surname was pronounced 'Mee-sh-ler'. Also that he had a German accent. Then I found his marriage in Glasgow to an Irish girl when he was 23. It confirmed his birthplace and gave his date-of-birth in 1833. But his name was anglicised on the marriage registration.
I discovered where to contact in Frankfurt for information and wrote - in German!. Eventually received a very brief reply, in German, they had no information.. A difficult country for family research, the procedure is not easy. The stumbling block, apart from the language barrier, was not knowing the exact spelling of the German surname as there are many variations.
My paternal grandmother had a German doll that had been sent from family in Germany, in beautiful condition, and I was allowed to play with it on visits and holidays with her. But she never spoke of family history - not to me, but I did get some information from my mother.
I used to say when I grew up I would go to Germany and find the family. I still think about and wonder about my great-grandfather and his German origins.
I did discover a lot about his life in Glasgow. He died in 1881 aged 48, of bronchitis. Little verbal history was passed down as his oldest son, my grandfather, died in the early 1930's soon after my birth. There had been many children, almost half died very young, and although I made contact with another great-grand-daughter of our German born great-grandfather, her father had been the youngest child. The age gap 20 years or more. She had never heard of the oldest child, my grandfather. Nor of the German connection. Family history lost in the mists of time.
I did learn much about my great-grandfather from research about his life in Glasgow. He was a glazier, but later became a roof slater. They had a very hard life in the early years. They were so poor. They moved often, each time to a slightly better area and in his later years he had his own slater's business in Glasgow, which passed to my grandfather.
Oops, much too long - and intruding on your thread Sylvia. Apologies - again.
Loo xxx
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I think we move forward in pieces, and in stages, @kindred . parts of me have continued to move on with life (after all, there is no other option), but parts still "belong" with William.
And I have, since writing that post that you responded to, got on and redecorated the bedroom! Just woke up one morning, and knew that "today's the day"! Although, in fact, it took several days. But it's done, and it looks wonderful. And on Friday, I did the hall. So, all my decorating is done for now. Which means I saved myself the €980 I was quoted by a professional for doing it!
Not too long and not intrusive Loo. You are contributing posts of interest to me and all other contributors to this Thread.
Even though this Thread is about me , I do not feel I own it. It`s part and parcel of TP.
Oh so well done, so well done. Really chuffed to read this, and that it looks wonderful. Brilliant! love and best, KindredXXX
Not too long and not intrusive Loo. You are contributing posts of interest to me and all other contributors to this Thread.
Even though this Thread is about me , I do not feel I own it. It`s part and parcel of TP.
Thank you Sylvia. That is how I feel about my Thread; that it is part and parcel of TP and all are welcome to write there.
Brief postscript re what I wrote about my German born Great-grandfather. Years ago we went to Strasbourg, France for Christmas and one coach trip was to Heidelberg in Germany, returning a different route through lovely German villages. We stopped in one, lunch pre-booked for the group, and with a lovely Christmas time atmosphere.
We were just into Germany and passing a group of industrial buildings I saw the name in large letters on one of them was Mischler. This was possibly the spelling of my great-grandfather's surname of which I only knew the family pronunciation, 'Mee-sh-ler'. It's the spelling that I had always given to his name - Louis Mischler.
Although Louis is the French form of the German Ludwig. Lewis is the English and the name he has in later birth registrations of his children, and his death registration.
Heidelberg is only 48 miles from Frankfurt am Main. The nearest I would ever get to my great-grandfather's birthplace which was meaningful to me. Such a coincidence, and also meaningful, to see the name Mischler in large letters on that building just as we had entered Germany.
Loo xx
Photos from the internet of Heidelberg, Germany. It was a beautiful sunny day when we were there, but bitterly cold. Well wrapped up, we enjoyed a lovely walk through the town and across the bridge, then along the other side of the river. Henry as always taking photos - which I do have somewhere....
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Possible because they are not on estates where all houses are of the same design.
Exactly! It's a matter of perspective. An FB friend posted pics recently of Wells, and it was just stunning, because she just showed the beautiful, old, historic buildings! I'm sure the outskirts of Wells has it's housing estates too!
@Loopiloo some fascinating posts
I'm sorry it's taken me so long to respond.Just wanted to say that no, I haven't really researched family history as such, just listened to stories and followed one or two things up via census data. Also I've been thinking about what family means to me. I'd always assumed it was mainly an emotional tie, to those I love and am loved by. But it's something else as well....it gives me a sense of myself, and of where I fit in in the overall history of the family.....of the trajectory of my life, if you like. Most obviously, my father was born in very poor circumstances, his father was a street fighter ( as well as latterly a jazz musician!) and his mother made lampshades. They never had a permanent home and my father left school earlier than the then official age of fourteen.
Dad had ambition, though. After the war he trained as an electrician, got a 'proper' job and eventually became a computer engineer. He was the first member of my whole extended family to get a mortgage to buy a house.
He encouraged me in my schooling, despite relatives and friends telling him it was a waste of time educating a girl (!) and so I became the first in the extended family to get 'O' levels (GCSE's as they are now). You can imagine the jubilation when I went on to university
!!Anyway my point I think is that achievement was always very important to dad and to me. Now that he's gone, and I'm retired, I often lose track of that sense of where I fit in life, of what my aims are or could be. So, remembering dad also helps me, in a way, to remember who I am
Anyway, not sure what that's all about, but it was on my mind and I wanted to share it.
Love to all and again, Sylvia, sorry for 'chatting' so long on your thread....even though you've said its okay!
Lindy xx
It`s so interesting @Lindy50. It`s interesting . It started with my post about having lovely visits from my granddaughter and has developed from then.
All our different family history makes me smile.
My son who is 54 has often made the comment, with reference to his attitude to his own children , that he is becoming his dad.
His dad would be so pleased.
I'm sure that the outskirts of big cities have similar estates to ours. I once managed to get Bill and me on a tram going in the wrong direction in Prague
! We ended up way out of the centre and in the middle of an estate that reminded me of one of the big sprawling estates in Dundee. The contrast with the beautiful buildings in the middle of Prague was striking.A warning.
Yesterday I was in the garden and the doorbell rang. I have a `polite` notice on my door.
No salesmen
No canvassers
No cold callers
It usually works but yesterday it didn`t.
Rather than go through the house, I opened the side gate to be faced by someone with a sheaf of leaflets over his arm who said , " We want to talk to people who live alone."
Rather rudely I said , " Well I don`t want to talk to you. Have you read the notice on the door."
I closed and bolted the gate while he was replying and could hear him muttering something very uncomplimentary as he walked down the drive.
I admit I was shocked. I would have felt much safer in the house behind the front door, than I felt in the garden.
Later, I phoned the police 101. I was concerned about this person assuming or knowing I lived alone. Did he know or was it a lucky guess.
The police took it seriously, took down all the information I supplied , his appearance, height, clothing, hair colour etc. but I was then aware there was more I could have done.
I`m telling the tale in case it happens to anyone else on the forum.
I should have noted where he went after leaving me. If I`d been in the house I could have watched through the window.
I should also have phoned the police immediately. By the time I phoned he could have been anywhere.
Lesson learnt.
Yesterday I was in the garden and the doorbell rang. I have a `polite` notice on my door.
No salesmen
No canvassers
No cold callers
It usually works but yesterday it didn`t.
Rather than go through the house, I opened the side gate to be faced by someone with a sheaf of leaflets over his arm who said , " We want to talk to people who live alone."
Rather rudely I said , " Well I don`t want to talk to you. Have you read the notice on the door."
I closed and bolted the gate while he was replying and could hear him muttering something very uncomplimentary as he walked down the drive.
I admit I was shocked. I would have felt much safer in the house behind the front door, than I felt in the garden.
Later, I phoned the police 101. I was concerned about this person assuming or knowing I lived alone. Did he know or was it a lucky guess.
The police took it seriously, took down all the information I supplied , his appearance, height, clothing, hair colour etc. but I was then aware there was more I could have done.
I`m telling the tale in case it happens to anyone else on the forum.
I should have noted where he went after leaving me. If I`d been in the house I could have watched through the window.
I should also have phoned the police immediately. By the time I phoned he could have been anywhere.
Lesson learnt.
That was unsettling and scary, Sylvia, but I bet it was a lucky guess. We had someone round recently selling ‘security devices to enable you to contact the police‘ !!! Couldn’t make it up.....
May have been something like that?
Hope you have a good day xx
May have been something like that?
Hope you have a good day xx
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