Week 20 (May 13-19): Taking Care of Business

Finding your ancestor worked for – or better yet owned – a business can be a gold mine of information.  Even knowing an ancestor’s occupation, if not the business they worked for, opens up information that fleshes out their lives, much more that basic dates and places.

The business itself may have left records behind – things such as reports, employee records, and more.  It may not have been big – if your ancestor had a trade or skill, they may have run a small business with just a few others, or even by themselves.

Old newspapers could be a gold mine.  Did the business advertise their services or products?  Did they advertise for employees?  Was the business ever reviewed or reported about?  In the article below my great great grandfather William Pummeroy, who ran his own small business as a plasterer, advertised for a labourer to work for him in the Argus on Wednesday 23 September 1864.

Similarly, my ancestor John Thompson Argent, of Newbridge Mill near Colchester in Essex, England, advertised for a new employee in the Suffolk and Essex Free Press on Thursday 22 June 1865.  Interestingly, the advertisement specifies that the applicant must be able to drive a steam engine, highlighting the direction in which the business must be moving.

Two men, years apart, taking care of business by seeking new employees.

Week 19 (May 6-12): Preserve

The prompt of ‘Preserve’ has me thinking about how we, as family historians, can preserve the documents, photographs and other items we possess for future generations.

As technology evolves and changes, new storage methods are developed and older methods become obsolete.  Many of us have come across old videocassettes, floppy discs and other obsolete storage mediums that we can no longer easily access – or access at all – that may hold family memories that are otherwise lost.  Maybe cleaning out an older relative’s house, or tucked away in an archive or repository, or even in our own homes.  A crashed hard drive or broken smart phone can also result in instant loss of treasured memories. 

Moving such treasures onto new storage mediums before the old once a completely obsolete or deteriorate beyond saving is something we should constantly consider.  Recently I spent several weeks of my space time converting an old box of slides and negatives into digital photographs using a device I purchased from a local camera shop.  While I still have the slides and negatives – now stored in more appropriate archival containers – also having digital copies will help preserve these precious family memories.

Can you imagine losing your treasured family photos, videos and documents? In the digital age that we live in, it doesn't just take a natural disaster to wipe your records.   How safe are your photos and other treasures?  How prepared are you for a fire, flood or other catastrophe?  How often do you back up your digital photos - and how safe are your backups?  As we accumulate photos and documents and records as we research our family history, it is important that we consider how we will preserve these items, even if they are ‘only’ copies.  One day the originals may no longer exist, so even copies need to be preserved.

So take some time to consider the preservation of the various items you have, physical or digital, and how you will keep them safe and accessible for the future.

Week 18 (Apr. 29-May 5): Love and Marriage

This week’s theme of ‘Love and Marriage’ closely echoes, for me, the previous theme of ‘Step’.

Throughout history, love and marriage has never been straightforward.  Marriage was often a necessary transaction which had little to do with love, and more to do with economics, bloodlines and necessity.

Frequently the death of a spouse had life-changing consequences for the family left behind.  A woman, the death of her husband could mean the loss of his income and protection.  A widow could be left virtually destitute, with little or no inheritance of her own, struggling to raise children without means to find employment to support them.  Remarriage could be an economic necessity, especially if she did not have family nearby who were willing – and financially able – to support or take in her and her children.

For a man, the loss of a wife could also be difficult.  Becoming a widower could leave him with young children he would struggle to look after, especially if he had to keep working.  Perhaps a spinster or widowed sister or cousin might be available to step in and help, or he might have the funds to hire a housekeeper and nanny.  Again, a swift remarriage could be a necessity to provide someone to care for the house and children while he was working.

Such marriage and remarriage could result in very tangled family lines.  In last week’s Step I wrote about my 3xGreat Grandfather Thomas May, who married 4 times, with his final wife being the widowed mother-in-law of one of his daughters.  A complex relationship in my family tree.

Another complex relationship was that of my Aunt, Mavis Pummeroy, and Aunt Thelma Clark.  Mavis, born in 1924, married Ernest Horton on the 15^th of September 1947.  Her Aunt Thelma, born in 1914, had married Clarence Horton, Ernest’s brother, on the 6^th of April 1935.  Thus these two women were not only aunt and niece, but also sisters-in-law.  Love and marriage could create complex relationships indeed!