OCCUPATIONS IN GENEALOGY - THE TGWU BADGE

                                                         OCCUPATION - THE TGWU BADGE

In amongst the personal items, removed from my late Aunts bungalow when she moved into a care home in 2010, I found this small non-descript union badge for the TGWU... the Transport and General Workers Union.

She herself had no recollection of where it had come from. It wasn't hers she was sure, (although by this time her memory was failing due to suffering with dementia). I could only think that it belonged to either my grandfather, who worked for a time on the Liverpool docks, or my uncle Johnny Erlis, who was an engine driver on the docks. 

The badge was photographed and put away in a cupboard, along with the rest of my 'family heirloom' items... but thinking now that I should begin to resurrect the many facts (and tales) connected to the Seaman Family History in Liverpool, I've decided to make an effort and see if I can find out exactly who the badge actually belonged to. 

I might, of course, fail.... but at least I will have tried. I can't quite believe it that I haven't started looking into this earlier, and its now spent around fourteen years locked in a cupboard!

I'll now add it to my 'things to do list' and start my research online... then possibly I'll have to make a phone call or two ( and possibly a visit) to the union HQ itself, wherever that now is.

Wish me luck, for this could take some time... but hopefully not fourteen years!  

 

FAMILY FOTO 35 - MURIEL FRANCES HOLMES (nee SEAMAN) (b.1920 - d.2006)

(Muriel Frances Seaman)

From today, the title of these posts are going to change. I'm moving the focus away from them being 'Friday' photos to 'Family' photographs instead. The past few weeks have been a bit frantic for me for a number of reasons, and I've found it impossible to keep to my weekly posting schedule. Hopefully, doing this now, I should be able to remove some of the pressure and leave me with a little less guilt than I have been feeling of late!     

The post today gives details of my great-aunt, Muriel Frances Seaman, who was related via my paternal side of the family.

1920 - Muriel Frances Seaman was born on 1 Nov 1920 in Liverpool, Lancashire. She was the fifth of six daughters born to Joseph Frederick Seaman and Sarah Ann Smith, my paternal great-grandparents. Only one of her sisters was younger than herself - Daisy - who was born in 1922.

1939 - In the 1939 register Muriel was found to be living with her parents, at their home in 4 Lily Grove, Wavertree. As well as Joseph and Sarah, her brother William and sister Daisy were also in residence. On the original register entry, her name had been given as Muriel F Seaman. This surname had been crossed out however, and the name 'Holmes' entered, with a date of marriage being written alongside of 3 January 1945. Muriel's occupation at the time that the register was taken was given to be a 'general office clerk'. 

1944 / 1945 - According to the marriage indexes, Muriel married Dennis E Holmes in the 4th quarter of 1944. This is contrary to the evidence of the note made on the 1939 register entry which states that their marriage date was 3 January 1945. This fact is also confused by the fact that she featured on the Electoral Register for 1945 by her maiden name of Seaman. The actual marriage certificate would need to be ordered to try and resolve this discrepancy.

1944 / 45 - The couple were reportedly married in St Cyprian's church, Edge Hill, Liverpool. The church itself is still standing, although it has now been converted into a modern block of flats for student accommodation.

1944 / 45 - Married Dennis Edwin Holmes in Liverpool on 3 January 1945 (evidenced by a note made in the 1939 register). The couple went on to have at least three surviving children.

2006 - Records were found in the Death indexes stating that Muriel passed away on the 13 November 2006. She was 86 years of age when she died.

Both Muriel and her sister Daisy were known to my father, Charles Seaman during his lifetime. He went to visit them on a number of occasions, although sadly I can't recall if he ever took my brother or I to meet them. I know that at least one of them used to live in Woolton village quite near to where we live now, in Cavell Close, which is off School Lane in the village, although unfortunately I now cannot be sure which sister it actually was.

FRIDAY FOTO 32 - TOXTETH, LIVERPOOL - WHERE I GREW UP

(Terraced houses in Hughson Street)

An official photo, taken around 1963 by the City Council, prior to the properties being purchased and subsequently demolished under a Compulsory Purchase Order.

Hughson Street in Toxteth, Liverpool was where I spent my formative years, up until the age of seven years old. 

Number 25 in the street had been the home of my grandparents, William and Elizabeth Welsh, prior to my birth. Following this, my parents, brother and I also lived in the same property, which only had two bedrooms - one front and one back - and a small back kitchen and front reception room on the ground floor. My aunt slept on a pull-out couch downstairs, while my grandparents had the front bedroom. My family, the four of us, all slept in the rear bedroom. 

There was no bathroom in the house, an outside WC being supplied instead which had been situated at the bottom of the back-yard. A large brick coal-shed also stood outside in the yard. This had formerly been built as a bomb shelter and used by our family during WW2 when German bombers attacked the city during the Liverpool Blitz of 1941. The gap between the two blocks of houses to the right of the photograph was where numbers 27 and 29 once stood. 27 took a direct hit from a bomb and 29 had to be demolished as it had been too badly damaged to repair. The subsequent 'bommie' which was created, (the bulldozed area of land where the houses had once stood), then became a play area for two generations of our family. 

This photograph brought back so many memories for me when I found it posted on one of the Liverpool Facebook pages, but it was to surprise me even further when I enlarged it and looked at the image more closely.

The front door of number 25, next to the bommie is open and there are children playing outside. The boy outside our home looks suspiciously like my brother Gary.  

Amazing to think that the official council photographer chose that particular moment to record the properties which were to be demolished in just a few years time, as well as recording my brother and his friends at play.     

FRIDAY FOTO 30 - A LIFETIME IN LIVERPOOL CINEMA

A tiny, grainy photograph of my father and a colleague in their 'office' - a cinema projection room in Liverpool.

Charlie Seaman (pictured left) spent his entire working life working in the cinema's of the North West, and I'm lucky to have a small selection of his photos in our collection to remember him by.

Dad was first employed as a trainee projectionist, aged only 16 years old. He worked initially in the Magnet cinema, which was situated in Picton Road, Wavertree and we have several photographs of him sitting on the roof of the cinema in the sunshine with some of his colleagues.

He went on to work in the Gaumont, Dingle-- along with my mother and aunt-- and I have many happy memories of attending the matinee shows which were played there.

He then went on to work at the Hippodrome in Everton and also the Odeon, Stanley Road, Bootle.

During one memorable Saturday, my father was full of flu and felt awful. He took me into work with him (I was around 16 years old at the time) so I could run the show for him, while he sat at the back of the projection room, reading his newspapers and drinking lots of tea.

During his time working as firstly a projectionist, and then as Chief Projectionist in the cinemas, Dad covered work at several of the key cinemas in the north-west including the main Odeon branches of Liverpool, Southport and Chester.

After more than 25 years service he finally retired from working for the Rank Organisation and obtained a projectionist job in the newly built Studios 123 in Mount Pleasant, Liverpool during the early 1970's.

The picture featured above shows Dad and another operator, identified as Jimmie, standing alongside one of the big projectors used at the Trocadero, Camden Street, Liverpool.

FRIDAY FOTO 29 - WILLIAM HENRY LAITE - 'Uncle Bill'

William Henry Laite was born in Liverpool on the 11 December 1915. He was the brother of my grandmother, Margaret Eleanor Graham Laite.

William is seen here in his uniform when he was serving with the East Lancashire Regiment. The date on the rear of the photo is 11 February 1945, alongside a simple message - 'To My Darling Wife with Love - Love Bill'   

Uncle Bill, as I knew him, had married his wife Madeline Milne in 1939. The couple helped look after my Dad and his siblings following the early death of my grandmother in 1947.

I remember them as a lovely couple. They both had rather deep gravelly voices and also had a keen sense of humour and laughter.

Bill, in particular, had the most hearty chuckle on him - I can just hear him now as he shared a joke with my Dad during one of their visits!

FRIDAY FOTO 27 - FAMILY HEIRLOOM - GERMAN BEER STEINS

Focussing on examples of some of the family heirlooms this week. 

In the photo are two German beer steins given to me by my Dad before he passed away. 

He was left them by his uncle, William Laite, whom he became close to after his mother died. Bill was in the Army and the rumour was that he brought them home after a posting over there. 

They are lovingly kept as heirlooms pride of place in our french dresser now. 

#BeerSteins #SeamanFamilyHistory #FamilyHeirlooms

FRIDAY FOTO 21 - LILIAN WELSH, TOXTETH, LIVERPOOL

(Lilian Welsh - b.1927 / d.1928)

Unfortunately, Lilian Welsh was the aunt I never knew.

She died when only an infant and the only information I had received previously about Lilian's death was that she had fallen in the street, hit her head and subsequently died of meningitis. It was also believed that she had died while in Myrtle Street Hospital, Liverpool.

This information had been passed to me from Lilian's older sister, Betty (Ellen Elizabeth Welsh), but I had no way of substantiating the data until I recently obtained the child's death certificate. However, this record proved that the original information from Betty had been in error.

Lilian had actually passed away on the 22 September 1928 aged only 20 months old. She died while resident at Alder Hey Hospital, in the West Derby district of Liverpool. 

The death was reported by her father William John Welsh on 24 September 1928. William was working as a labourer in the Liverpool docks at the time of his daughter's death. 

Lilian's cause of death was reported to be by her becoming ill with gastroenteritis, the death being certified by Doctor M.Gudwin.

I can't say for sure how my aunt had apparently misremembered the information regarding her sister's unfortunate death. But Betty had been only three years old when Lilian died, so it is unlikely that she had been aware of the event at all herself. More likely that the details of the death had become blurred for her over time, understandable perhaps when considering that it had been around eighty-one years since Lilian had passed away.

Lilian's death was undoubtedly a sad loss for all our family, but speaking as a family historian her story is also perhaps a prime example of why one should never accept such information as true fact, and should take it at face value only-- at least, until such time as there is hard documentary evidence to support it.  

FRIDAY FOTO 16 - MARGARET ELEANOR GRAHAM LAIT

Margaret Eleanor Graham Lait, my grandmother on my father's side of the family, was born in Liverpool in 1901. Margaret was the third child of ten in the family of Charles Graham Lait and his wife, Eleanor Kaye.

MEG, as I affectionately know her, married my grandfather Joseph Seaman in September 1928 in St Catherines Church, in the Edge Hill district of Liverpool. The couple had five surviving children, the sixth-- my aunt, Joyce Seaman-- unfortunately passed away as an infant.

In the 1939 Register, MEG's employment was listed as being 'unpaid domestic duties'-- in other words, she was a housewife in the family home. At the time the record was taken, the family were living in 54 Moorgate Street, Edge Hill... just across the road from the railway station. 

Margaret died in Sefton General Hospital Liverpool in October 1947 of heart failure. She was only young at forty-six years of age. 

According to information from my uncle, Margaret was employed at one point in her life as a confectionery worker in a sweet factory (see photo above). MEG is pictured here on the left with one of her co-workers. Two things stand out for me looking at this photo-- the first is the highly-polished shine on my grandmother's shoes, and the second is the woman sitting at the rear by the cart, who was basically photo-bombing the couple, around 80 years before the term was even invented!  

Finally... the name 'Graham' in my grandmother's name referred to the maiden name of her own grandmother-- Mary Ann Graham, who had been born in 1853 in Raithby, Lincolnshire. And both my parents agreed that I should be named Graham in honour of my grandmother.  

FRIDAY FOTO 11 - BETTY WELSH IN TOXTETH STREET, L8

(Toxteth Street, Liverpool 8)

Betty Welsh (right) and her friend Ruby out for a stroll in the sunshine. 

There is no date on the photo, but the presence of bunting and age of my aunt 

(around 19 years of age) seems to indicate that this was around the time of the 

VE day celebrations in May 1945. 

The location of the photo is believed to be Toxteth Street, 

which ran between Park Street and Harlow Street, Liverpool 8.

CHARLES SEAMAN - MY THANKS TO YOU

Philips EL3527 - the old valve tape recorder owned by my Dad...


CHARLES SEAMAN - MY THANKS TO YOU (SOUNDCLOUD AUDIO CLIP)


Recorded on a Philips EL3527 tape recorder, a precious sound byte of my Dad - Charles Seaman - playing his Egmond acoustic guitar. The recording must date back to around 1968/69 when he first bought the guitar from Hessys Music shop in Liverpool.

He plays and sings a simple rendition of 'My Thanks To You', a ballad recorded during the 1950's by artists such as Steve Conway and Connie Francis. So far it is the only song I have found in my archive of his, as he had the annoying habit of using the same tapes over and over again to record both himself and also my brother and I.

At the end of the clip, as he turns off the tape after finishing the recording, another clip is revealed - a quick snippet of yours truly singing 'My Old Man's A Dustman' by Lonnie Donegan. I have more of this from another tape thankfully...but I wish I had more of Dad.

Looking at photographs and movies is one thing, but hearing his voice is priceless

OCCUPATIONS IN GENEALOGY - HORSE COOK

One of the more unusual occupations I have come across while researching my family history has to be that of ‘horse cook’ (see below).

Birth certificate details - Joseph SEAMAN (1903)

When I first saw this occupation written on the birth certificate of my grandfather Joseph SEAMAN, I must say that I was a bit surprised, and at first drew the wrong conclusions as to what the job could possibly be. After all, I’m well aware that in certain countries it is perfectly acceptable for horse meat to be cooked and eaten, and I was not really surprised to find it is considered a delicacy in countries like Italy, China and Iceland. However, as far as I knew, even back in 1903 this notion had not as yet extended to these shores - the recent furore in the U.K. about unscrupulous meat processor’s adding horsemeat to burgers, being a prime example of this. With this in mind I took a breath, settled down with a mug of tea, and began to consider what the job could actually consist of.



Joseph Frederick SEAMAN

The description ‘horse cook’ was reportedly the occupation of my great-grandfather Joseph Frederick SEAMAN in Liverpool, England in 1903. He was 25 years old at the time of his son’s birth, and I had discovered evidence that he had been working previously as a carter on several occasions since the year 1900. At the time, the carting profession was one of the most important jobs in Liverpool to have.

Landing Stage, Pier Head, Liverpool

In this modern age where the car rules the roadways, it is perhaps difficult to imagine that this was a period prior to petrol driven transport being commonly available, and at its peak there were around 250,000 horses working in the city, shifting everything from freight to people around the cobbled streets. This might seem a staggering number when considered today, but in 1903 Liverpool was still acknowledged to be the second city of the British Isles next to London, and the amount of passengers and freight which passed through its many docks was huge indeed. Each of these items needed to be moved as quickly as possible either into the city, or away from it onto the ships. With this in mind it is certainly not so difficult to understand just why so much horsepower was needed to help shift these goods from site to site. 

Stables - Cains Brewery, Grafton Street, Liverpool - (c. PolkaDot Pink)

In the early twentieth century therefore, almost every neighbourhood in Liverpool would have had stable buildings situated within it. Such buildings would be used by private companies - breweries, coal merchants, and also individual horse owners - to house their animals between their periods of work. Stable-masters, and the men and women who worked with them, tended to the needs of the horses twenty-four hours a day. 
There is no doubt in my mind that it was in one of these stable blocks that my great-grandfather Joseph worked to help prepare the food for the horses, making sure that the animals received the sustenance they would need to help them through a long day’s work on the roads of this great city.

And so, after completing my research and considering all the evidence I’ve found, I think we can safely assume that Joseph was not cooking horses for a living. Indeed the occupation of ‘horse cook’ does not now seem so unusual at all!

#seamanfamilyhistory #josephfrederickseaman #familyhistory #cainsbrewery   

Text Sources:

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/nostalgia/look-back-memories-liverpools-carters-9167182

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/incoming/gallery/carters-9168102

http://www.scottiepress.org/sr2003/carters.htm

Cains Stable's photo: 

Donna @ PolkaDot Pink.com (http://polkadot-pink.com/2014/07/07/mark-it-liverpool-street-art-festival/)

   

THE 'DEADHOUSE', PRINCES DOCK, LIVERPOOL (1872)

I was checking over a burial record at Walton Cemetary, Liverpool, regarding one of our relatives and noticed this entry on the opposite page.

Princes Dock - place of death

It seems that on 18 December 1872, a person recorded as '---- Callaghan', approx 24 years of age, was buried in Walton Cemetary in a public grave, plot 693B. The burial was recorded as entry 53 in the ledger. On the line underneath, numbered 54, the burial of 'a woman unknown' was also registered.

The fact that the identities of the individuals appeared not to have been fully established is one thing, but the fact that both of them are said to have died in 'Princes Dock' seemed really unusual! 

I wondered what the backstory of this couple was? An accident perhaps, or maybe a suicide pact between lovers? I was intrigued and wanted to look into it a bit further.

Princes Dock, around 1835 (source: Chester Walls)

I ran a quick search to see if I could find any further information online on the deaths, from a newspaper or other source of that time perhaps, and instead found references to there being a 'deadhouse' in Princes Dock. In the crypt of St Nicholas' church near the dock site, there was a 'deadhouse' - a place where the bodies of people who had died from drowning were laid out; until they were claimed either by relatives, or were simply buried by the authorities.

In the end, this is exactly what happened to our couple. Buried by the council, in a public grave in Walton Cemetary. 

So maybe there was no real connection between the couple at all? All they had in common was the river where they died and the public grave where their bodies were eventually laid out to rest....

Out of the Deadhouse... near Princes Dock, Liverpool.  

JAMES & MARY DUNN - MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE - 1895

Another of the documents I discovered in my TTDL folder was this, the marriage certificate for my wife's great-grandparents, James and Mary DUNN.

They were married on 3rd November 1895 in the so-called 'seaman's' church in Liverpool - St Nicholas... the original parish church of Liverpool. The church is located at the bottom of Chapel Street, close to the Pier Head and Princes Dock, and for many years would perhaps have been the first ecclesiastical building to be seen by the crewmen as they disembarked from the ships.

The couple themselves lived in separate addresses in Vernon Street in the city centre, and although they had the same surname it does not appear that they were related - although a distant connection may still be discovered at some point. Jame's father, also called James, was born in 1853 in Liverpool. Mary's father Edward Dunn however, was born in Leeds, Yorkshire in 1852.

Marriage Certificate - James and Mary DUNN - Liverpool, 1895

LILIAN MIDWOOD ERLIS - The May Blitz

Right in the middle of one of the most intensive German bombing campaigns to hit Liverpool, the ‘May Blitz’ as it became known - seven consecutive nights from the 1 to 7 May 1941 - took the lives of over 1700 people from the city and its surrounding areas, and injured more than 1100 more. During this time around 680 Luftwaffe bombers flew overhead during the nights, dropping almost 2500 high explosive bombs and incendiary weapons onto the city below.

Unexploded Land Mine - (Liverpool Museums)

Bomb Damage (Liverpool Echo)

My own family lived in Hughson Street in Toxteth, and my mother can still recall the night when the house next door was blown to bits by a German bomb - the occupants of the house escaped injury as they were sharing my grandparents air-raid shelter at the time. I can’t be sure of the exact date when this occurred, but I would imagine that there is a good chance that it happened during this particular bombing campaign. However, I can pinpoint another tragic family event which is directly connected to this period of the Blitz.

Lilian Erlis (b.1923 - d.1941)

Today is the 6th May 1941 - 74 years to the day when 18 year-old Lilian Erlis was tragically killed during a bombing raid which took out the family home at 12 Gaskell Street, Toxteth. As can be seen by the map section below, Gaskell Street was situated just a few streets away from where my own family were sheltering in Hughson, and the record shows that the general area was hit quite a number of times - potentially a consequence of the close proximity of the nearby docks.

Gaskell Street, Toxteth, Liverpool (Godfrey - 1908)

Lilian herself would have been sheltering at home with her family at the time of the air-raid, either inside the house itself or in a purpose built shelter nearby. As well as her mother and father, Lilian had three sisters and four brothers - at least two of the brothers would probably have been away fighting for the British forces - the rest may well have been alongside her at the time the bomb fell. It is also likely that her mother, Frances Midwood Erlis, was also injured during the same raid… my mother remembers well that Mrs Erlis Snr (as she knew her), lost both of her legs during the war and ended up in a wheelchair.

Lilian has been remembered and listed within the lists of civilian war dead by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It is eye-opening indeed to look through even just a few pages of these documents, for it soon becomes clear that on occasion entire families had been wiped out during the raids - and the location of death involved everything from private homes to shops, mills, warehouses and dockland. Perhaps in hindsight, the remaining Erlis family (and certainly my own mother’s family in nearby Hughson Street), were very lucky to survive indeed.

But today - 74 years after the event - I’ll think about the little girl with the tennis racquet, and all those others who perished and were torn from their loved ones in such a tragic way.

As the lady once said... 'Bless 'em all'.

Commemoration (CWGC)

FAMILY HISTORY - HUGHSON STREET, LIVERPOOL 8

HUGHSON STREET - LIVERPOOL 8 (click for video)

This is a short segment of converted movie film showing some of our family in Hughson Street, Toxteth, Liverpool. As well as seeing a few of the family themselves, there are also glimpses of the area around my gran and grandad's house, with Northumberland Street at one end, after passing Prophet Street just seen on the right. Toxteth Street is at the other end, across Park Street which led up toward our school.

The film was shot around 1965 / 1966 and you can clearly see the 'bommies' - those empty spaces where houses once stood before they were blasted by the German bombs which fell during the war. One of them lies alongside our own house, the bomb falling as my Mum and parents sheltered in their bomb shelter, which stood in the yard just to the left of where my grandma was standing in the above photograph. My very existence being saved by a mixture of pure chance as to where the bomb fell, and also a few layers of sturdy brick. 

 Finally there are some shots of the cobbled streets, new housing being built and also our own back-yard - whitewashed to make it look as sparkling as the washing Gran used to hang on the line.  

Mr brother Gary playing my plastic 'Beatles' guitar, and also myself - on the same toy drum-kit I played on March 1st 1966 while sitting in front of their black and white TV, watching a broadcast of the Beatles live from Shea Stadium.

This is just a short glimpse of our lives back then... I only wish I had more. 

I hope you enjoy it...

GENEALOGY - TAPESPONDING

Before the days of ‘instant news’, ‘in-your-face’ data and the Internet, things happened at a more leisurely pace. Methods of keeping in touch with loved ones, even those who lived only a relatively short distance away in the next town, would include either a telephone call (if you had one), or more likely a card or handwritten letter to be sent by post. It was a lovely surprise when you heard the letter be pushed through the letter-box by the postman, and then even more so when you recognized the handwriting on the envelope or opened the letter to read the content. In those days people would take time out and sit quietly and take in all the latest news - absorbing all the details… who was engaged to who, such-and-such now had a baby girl, our someone-or-other had recently started a new job. This information would immediately transport the reader into the sender’s world, and in an instant they were once again reminded that they had not been forgotten and that their friends or family were thinking about them. But of course, things would eventually move on from this seemingly ancient form of communication.

Reel of quarter-inch tape sent from the USA to our family over in Toxteth. The date on it is 'Christmas 1962'.

The onset of technology brought about new possibilities, and the advent of the home tape-recorder becoming available worldwide ultimately brought with it a new phrase to the English language - everybody began to tapespond.

Tapesponding was simply a method of using the new home tape machines to communicate with your friends and family, as well as to continue to use the written word. Reel-to-reel tape was becoming more widely available and cheaper, so it was perhaps natural that someone should develop the idea of recording messages on it and then sending the tapes themselves in an envelope through the post. As well as recording messages themselves using the standard microphones which were provided with the machines, the sender might also record their favourite songs from either the radio or from record, and compile their own ‘playlist’ to let their friends or family hear. Each manufacturer had adopted the industry standard of using quarter-inch recording tape; also building the machines so that they could record and play at different tape speeds (19, 9.5, 4.8 cm’s per second), therefore there was little chance that the tape would not be compatible with another machine until stereo 4-track machines started to be introduced later and started to complicate things. Another big advantage of this method was that the tapes themselves could be recorded over and re-used, so the recipient could record their own message and send it back!

Later on we all did exactly the same thing but using cassette tapes instead of recording tape on open reels. This made it easier as the cassettes were more easily played and were generally more robust than the quarter inch tape reels which went before them.

The audio link below contains a clip of Nora and Pat Caputo of New York State, USA. They were related to a friend of my aunt who lived locally in Liverpool, and she visited them while over in the US whilst Nora visited us at my grandma’s house when she came to holiday over here.

From left - my Grandad Jack Welsh, my brother Gary, Nora Caputo, myself, Nora's cousin Kitty - front room 25 Hughson Street, Liverpool 8.

In 1962 our family received a tape from them containing music and messages spoken by them both. The spine of the box reads ‘Christmas greetings from U.S.A. 1962’ written in pencil, and on the back ‘A Christmas Message from Nora + Pat In America’. Underneath this, written in blue biro ‘To Betty + Mr + Mrs Welch, Charles, Joan + Boys’.

In between songs contained on the tape, Nora and Pat simply spoke about everyday events from their daily lives in the U.S., and I can vaguely recall playing on the floor in the front room while our family gathered around my Dad’s tape machine as he played the tape back in Toxteth.

My Dad recorded a short message from each of our family on a similar tape to send back to America. It involved my Gran and Grandad speaking; my Mum, Dad and Aunt; and also myself and my brother Gary… just six and three years old respectively. How I wish that tape still existed and I had a copy of it… at one time it would have been relatively ordinary and mundane, but now it would be priceless to someone like myself.

In reality, I count myself lucky that I have even this one.

https://soundcloud.com/graham-seaman-1/1962-a-christmas-message-from/s-3bpr8

FAMILY HISTORY - FOUND HIM!

I'm just so pleased!

I've found him! 

There was just this one priceless sound-clip, just a couple of minutes long which I'd mislaid in all my reel to reel tapes. 

My Dad, 1969 or so... the only recording I've been able to find of him singing and playing his guitar. 

Now I've got him back again and digitised him for posterity... but its got to be said, his guitar needs a tune though! ;-) 

#PositivelyEcstatic!

FAMILY HISTORY - CHOCOLATES AND COCKROACHES

(click here to enlarge photo)

The above photograph was taken in approximately 1954/55 and features my mother, Joan Seaman, when she worked in the sweet kiosk of the Gaumont cinema, Princes Park, Liverpool.

Mum was an usherette and worked alongside a team of other girls, and they all shared duties and took turns serving the cinema customers from the sweet kiosk. In those days apart from selling ice-creams, chocolate bars and drinks, you could also buy cigarettes to smoke while cuddling up to your loved one on the back row!

The short audio clip below describes my Mum’s memories of working in the kiosk, together with some of the more unwelcome visitors she used to have to deal with……

THE GAUMONT - CHOCOLATES AND COCKROACHES - (audio clip)

FAMILY HISTORY - EUREKA MOMENT

Capturing the moment when I first realised that I had proven the identity of at least one of my family members, who had recorded a list of names and dates into our family bible.

Prior to finding the book hidden away at the bottom of a wardrobe in my mother's house, I had previously very little information about my connections to the Lait family, save for an unconnected list of names compiled from the internet. On the inside pages of the book a list of names and dates had been written - both of birth and of death - and it is thought that at least three different members of my family compiled these lists. The identity of these people was not known and could only be guessed at, that is until the other day when the photo above was taken.

The left hand image shows a section of the 1911 census return from Liverpool, while the right-hand image shows a section of the page from the bible.

Comparison of both images clearly shows that the section highlighted was written by the same hand which had completed the census form... the signature on the form being Charles Graham Lait... my great-grandfather.

The discovery of this information was a revelation for me personally, and proves to underline the often repeated advice for the family researcher to 'keep on digging.' It is true that the varied tales from our family history are many, and this seems to prove that there are always new discoveries to be made, laying just beyond sight around the corner!

#familyhistory #genealogy #familybible

FAMILY HISTORY - UNEXPECTED CAUSE OF DEATH

Family History - Unexpected Cause of Death

I've recently been researching the Lait family, a branch of my father's family who originated from Lincolnshire and who ended their lives in Liverpool. In particular, I've been looking at details surrounding the life of my great(x2) grandmother, Mary Ann Lait (formerly Graham).

She was born in a tiny village called Raithby in Lincolnshire in 1853. Following her marriage to my great(x2) grandfather, Charles Augustine Lait, the family eventually moved to Liverpool and they had 8 surviving children.

Her death in 1904 was a tragic one, and one which surprised me when the death certificate was actually purchased and received. Instead of finding one of the more common causes for death (such as heart disease, malignant cancers, pulmonary disease and pneumonia etc.), her own was attributed to ‘shock and exhaustion due to burns received by her clothes accidentally catching fire on the 9th instant’. An inquest into her death had been held in Liverpool on 12th January 1904 but I have yet to find any further details about it.

I've since found that this was a relatively common accidental cause of death during those times, (both for adults and children), which is hardly surprising perhaps when you consider the widespread use of open fires, candles for illumination, and lack of flame-retardent materials for nightdresses and clothing in general.

Death Certificate - Mary Ann Lait

Considering the hardships my great-grandmother must have faced - a country girl who brought her family up within the bustling city, having to learn to survive within basic slum dwellings and yet successfully helping to raise 8 children - to end her life in such a way is a tragedy indeed.

In all my years of researching my family history, I've only ever had goose-pimples twice when I opened an envelope and read the contents. This was the first...