FELICE & MARY - THE D'ANNUNZIO FAMILY IN WHALE STREET, LIVERPOOL (1906)

The photograph above features the family of Felice Andrea D’ANNUNZIO, the great-great uncle of my wife, Sandra. Also in the photograph are his wife Mary Agnes DOUGLAS, and two of their children. The couple look to be approximately in their early thirties. 

There is no firm identification on the photograph for the names of the children nor an indication of when it was actually taken, but looking at the data I already possess on the family, I believe the older child would be their first surviving son, Henry Edward D’ANNUNZIO (b.10 June 1902). He is only young in the photograph, but Henry was reported to have lived to a ripe old age of 93, eventually passing in 1995, after having a family of his own. 

A previous son of the couple, Anthony D’ANNUNZIO (b.31 Dec 1900), survived for only a few months, and unfortunately passed in 1901. 

However, I’m finding that I can not be so certain of the identity of the younger child, in whose honour the photograph would seem to have been taken. 

The couple had a third son, Francis D’ANNUNZIO, who had been born in 1904. It is not known if he survived very far through infancy, as I have not been able to locate a death record for this child. However, if the baby was indeed Francis, then that would suggest Henry’s age to be around two and a half years old. In my mind this does not seem to correct as Henry appears to be a little older in the photograph - perhaps three to four years old.

If the above theory is accepted, then it might indicate that the baby could actually be the couples’ fourth child, Maria Eleanora D’Annunzio (b. 7 May 1906). It is known for sure that Maria survived into adulthood, again having a family of her own after marriage, although at this time no evidence of her death has been found. 

Furthermore, with the couples’ previous three children having been boys, the birth of a girl might also be imagined to be an excellent reason why the couple might employ a professional photographer to take the familys’ portrait. Which proud parent would not want a memento of such an occasion? 

With these facts in mind, for the time being in any case, I will identify the baby to be Maria in my records, until such time as I receive firm proof that I am mistaken. 

This highlights just how difficult it is to identify a persons ancestors from unmarked photographs. It is something we have all come across and each of us knows how virtually impossible and downright frustrating it can be at times, but it can also be so worthwhile if you can work out the details successfully by looking for the smallest clues.

Finally, one last snippet of information about this family.

While researching the various censuses, I decided a while back to try and find photographs of the properties or even streets, where our ancestors lived. As well as keeping the photographs connected to my local family dataset, I also upload them to Google Earth and fix place-markers into the locations where the properties once stood. 

In searching for the D’Annunzio family’s address on the 1921 census, which I found to be 7 Whale Street, Liverpool, I located the above image on one of the Liverpool Facebook local history groups which post old photos of the city.

Obviously, there are no property numbers to be seen in the photograph (above), but Whale Street itself is physically tiny. It can therefore be safely assumed that the family resided in one of the properties on the left of the photo, as the street possessed more odd numbers than even ones.

But a feature which caught my eye almost immediately was the small wall which stood at the very end of the street (see the enlargement above). 

I was already aware that the D’Annunzio family had been photographed out in the open in front of a similar brick wall, possibly due to a lack of suitable light being available within their own home. Looking at the family photo further one can just make out what appears to be the edge of the brickwork as it would frame a door or gateway. In addition, there is also what would appear to be a small step behind the child on the left, at the base of the wall.

It appeared to me that there was little doubt that, as in the enlargement of the Whale Street photograph above, one could clearly see the gateway which led to the rear of an adjacent property, and also the pavement kerbside (the small step in the photograph) laying in front of it. These small details almost certainly confirmed where the family portrait had been taken. 

Call me daft if you like, (my other half certainly did at the time!), but I was genuinely overjoyed to find this information just by chance - two totally separate photographs which could be linked together to show the actual location where the original family photograph had been taken.

For this might indeed only be a small unimportant detail in the overall history of the Liverpool D’Annunzio family, but I believe it is one which brings them a little closer to us, and gives us a clear indication as to how closely family history and social history can be related to each other.  

Sources: Ancestry, Find My Past, D’Annunzio ‘Generations’, Seaman Family History

FRIDAY FOTO 33 - LAURENCE D'ANNUNZIO - HMS DRAKE

My wife's grandfather - Laurence D'ANNUNZIO - seen here sitting second from left in the photograph, with his shipmates on the stoker training ship HMS Drake. The ship, previously known as HMS Marshal Ney, had been renamed 'Drake' in 1934 by the Royal Navy.

Laurence served in the Navy following his marriage to his wife 

Agnes SAUNDERSON in 1934. 

He was originally trained on HMS Eaglet, the shore-based training centre for the Royal Navy based at Salthouse Dock, Liverpool, before taking up his role as a wireless telegraphist, 1st class Petty Officer, as denoted by the ranked insignia on his uniform. 

FRIDAY FOTO 28 - ARTHUR & EDNA TEESE - OUT FOR A STROLL

Out for a stroll on an overcast Sunday afternoon perhaps?

I found this undated photo in the collection of my aunt, Elizabeth Welsh after she had passed away.

The young couple is Arthur Teese (b.1918) and Edna Irvine (b.1921) - and they are taking a walk through an unidentified park, possibly one of the local ones in Liverpool. 

The family connection to the two of them was through Edna, who was my mother's cousin.

I remember the couple fondly from when I was young, and I recall how my brother and I would need to be on our best behaviour during their visits. 

Edna would act as if she was a stern school-mistress. Gary and I would have to tidy the toys up in our bedroom prior to them arriving, just in case she decided to inspect our bedroom to see if it was untidy. Arthur, on the other hand, would follow along behind his wife... cheerily calling me 'Haircut' and showing me the hair-clippers which he had hidden away in his jacket pocket. He'd walk past us and give us a friendly wink, and then pull a face and throw us a gurning smile, leaving my brother and I doubled up in stitches laughing.

I can't recall seeing this photo prior to finding it in Betty's archive a couple of weeks ago, but I'm so glad I found it. It brought back nice memories for me of the couple - especially to see them so young and apparently carefree together.

A lovely couple... and a nice photo of them both to treasure.

FRIDAY FOTO 25 - MRS ERLIS & THE KIDS OF GASKELL STREET

The above photograph, specifically set up by the photographer, shows Frances Midwood Erlis (nee Walter), pictured in a street in Toxteth with a group of the local children. Frances is the older lady standing on the back row holding a small child, near to the centre of the window. Frances was born with the surname Walter in 1880 in Liverpool. She married her husband Thomas Erlis, on 5th August 1901 in St Gabriel's church, Toxteth Park. The couple went on to have 10 children together.

At least three of the youngsters pictured in the photo can be said to be members of the Erlis family, identified from other photographs we have of them in our possession. 

Someone has written on the base of the picture 'Kids of Gaskell Street'. Gaskell Street was situated between Park Road and Mill Street in Toxteth, just north of Essex Street. The couple's home was near Hughson Street where I lived with my own grandparents in my formative years (see map below).

There is no date on the photograph of the children itself, but we can estimate that it was taken at some point during the mid-1930's, just prior to the second world war breaking out in 1939. 

Following the outbreak of the war, the Erlis family were living at their home in number 12 Gaskell Street. This property was damaged after it sustained a direct hit from a German bomb on the 6th May 1941, and Mrs Erlis lost both her legs during the attack. She was to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair until she finally passed away in 1950.

Tragically, their daughter Lilian Midwood Erlis (b.1923) was killed during the same air-raid. She was just 18 years of age at the time. Lilian is pictured in the above photograph standing on the back row of the children, second girl from the left. 

Further details of Lilian's story can be found on a separate post <here>.  

FRIDAY FOTO 20 - A NEW WORLD (Leaving Norway)

My post this week is not a single family history photograph, but rather a video made up of a selection of photos which we have in our family archive.

(click above for video)

I have already written a couple of posts here on the website about my great-grandparents, Peder Ingebretsen and Elizabeth Douglas, featuring a couple of photos we have of them in our possession.

This video is an attempt to tell Peder's story in greater detail; pulling together photographic resources from our collection and also using other material freely available off the Internet.

For my 50th birthday I was taken by family members on a five-day Norwegian cruise holiday, making my first visit to the beautiful homeland of my ancestor. During this visit I saw first-hand the type of community he would have grown up in; seeing for myself the mountains and fjords, together with the types of towns, villages and farms with which he would have been familiar. I have used some of the photographic and video footage I shot during that visit to illustrate this video.

The video attempts to recount a short version of Peder's story; presenting images of what his life would have been like growing up within his Norwegian homeland, and his subsequent journey to England. 

Working as a mariner on ships which regularly sailed between Great Britain, Europe and the America's during the late 1880's, my great-grandfather found himself in Glasgow, Scotland. It was here that he first met my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Douglas, and her family who resided within the city.

The family eventually moved to Liverpool in England, and the couple were married in the city in 1890 and ended their lives here-- but not before founding the family groups from which myself and some of my cousins are descended.

The soundtrack is the beautiful ballad 'Into The West', as featured in the movie 'Lord of the Rings: Return of the King'. The music was written by Howard Shore with lyrics by Annie Lennox and Fran Walsh. I've always loved this song above all the others which appeared in the film series, and at the time I was putting this video together, I felt that the majority of the lyrics seemed to fit the story I was trying to tell.    

     

FRIDAY FOTO 19 - ROBERT LAYTE BURIAL PLACE - 1785

Combining a business trip with family history research, a few years back I made a visit to St. Mary's church in Haughley, Suffolk as I'd discovered that my great-grandfather (x6) had been buried here on 11 December 1785. 

Robert Layte was born in 1708 in Suffolk, England.  

He married his wife of German descent, Sarah Kurtz, in 1732 and seems to have lived in the small village for the majority of his life as most of their children were born in the area.

In total, the couple had at least 11 children-- with our immediate family being descended from their sixth-born child Timothy, who was born in 1742.

Over the years, the surname of the family was altered slightly-- either by choice or by it being transcribed incorrectly. Early iterations of the family name used by the branches who lived within the Suffolk and Norfolk areas, were spelt either Layte or Laight. 

By the time our branch of the family left the East Anglia area to move north to Lincolnshire, and to subsequently end up living in Liverpool-- the spelling of the name had changed once again to become Laite or Lait. 

There is a family legend, so far unsubstantiated, that the name is derived from France, and that the family came into England as part of the Huguenot community of immigrants who fled religious persecution in the late 1600's.

Research into this branch of the family continues, but I won't be taking any bets at the moment that the legend will actually be proved true... even if the word 'lait' stands for 'milk' in French!    

FRIDAY FOTO 14 - MARY SMITH (m/n DUNN)

(Mary Smith b.1903 - d.1990)

Born on the 9th October 1903 in Liverpool, Mary Smith was the seventh child of nine, born to Michael Smith and his wife Bridget (nee Seary/Seery).

Mary was baptised in St Augustine's church, Vauxhall, Liverpool on 17th October of the same year.

Later in adulthood, her occupation would be officially listed as a machinist in a local factory making sacks. These would then be used to carry goods (perhaps coal or grain etc). 

On the 30th June 1925, Mary married James Patrick Dunn when she was 21 years of age. The couple went on to have nine children, five of whom survived into adulthood.

Mary died peacefully at home on the 24th October 1990 aged 87 years of age.

Mary will be remembered fondly by her family for many things. For example, for many years she enjoyed a drink of bottled Guinness in her local pub with her friends in the 'Snug'. Also, anyone who visited her home was asked to help prepare her 'tags' - lacing loops of string through blank parcel labels - a job which earned her a few extra pounds to subsidise her pension. 

(Mary - at home, working at preparing her parcel tags...)

Mary was undoubtedly a party animal - a lady who was full of life, full of fun, right to the end. And she also had a wicked singing voice, which can be heard <here> singing 'Lily of Laguna' at a family Christmas party...

FRIDAY FOTO 13 - FAMILY PARTY - 1971 / 72

A photo, taken by myself using with my trusty Kodak Instamatic, 

of a family party which we had in our flat at 22 Childwall Heights, Liverpool.

The picture features Mal, Eric and Marion Taylor who had come to visit. 

Also pictured are my brother Gary, Aunt Betty and Mum Joan.

Just why they had to pretend to form a band; being pictured with our two guitars, a Bontempi organ and a couple of tape-recorder microphones, I don't recall. But what I do remember is that such events were a regular occurrence in our house. We would be visited often by friends and family, and these events would always end the same way-- food and drink would be consumed, music would be played, and everyone would generally have a fab time. 

I also remember that I had an extension speaker my Dad brought home for me from the Hippodrome cinema where he was working at the time. It was an unwanted piece of kit he rescued after the cinema sound system had been upgraded.

During these parties, I would place the speaker in the living room and play music from my gear in our bedroom. I played both records or tapes-- playing whatever artists or albums had been requested by those present. Then, once the dancing was over and the conversation and general chat started, I would plug the speaker into the microphone input of my tape deck and sneakily record some of the conversations which ensued. 

After a while, I would fess up and playback a section of the recording to the audience. Once everyone had realised what I'd done, they'd listen to themselves speaking and even more laughter would take place. For some, it might have been the first time they had heard themselves talking on tape; quite a strange occurrence for some of them back in the 1970's.

It might just have been a family party... but the photo reminds me of such magic moments! 

How I wish I'd kept those tapes. 

I would just love to listen to them now. 

FRIDAY FOTO 12 - ELIZABETH ENGLEBRETSEN (nee DOUGLAS)

(Elizabeth Douglas b.1873 d.1928)

Elizabeth Douglas was the daughter of John and Elizabeth Douglas, 

who was my maternal great-grandmother.

She was born in Glasgow, Scotland on the 16 May 1873 and was one of three sisters who came with their father to Liverpool from Scotland.

It is believed that she had met my Norwegian great-grandfather while living in Glasgow. 

Peder Gerhard Ingebretsen, (...his Anglicised name Peter Gerard Englebretsen), worked as a mariner on ships which carried goods into and out of the ports of Britain. The exact circumstances of their meeting is not known, but it is believed that the couple met and started a relationship while Peder was on shore leave from the ship.

Elizabeth's mother passed away, and her father brought the family to Liverpool. 

On 1 November 1890 Elizabeth and Peder were married in Holy Trinity Church, Toxteth, Liverpool. The couple went on to have at least eight children. Three daughters survived - Hannah, Elizabeth and Martha. 

Elizabeth Douglas died in Sefton General Hospital, Liverpool in 1928. 

She died of mitral stenosis - a valvular defect in her heart which led to heart failure.  

FRIDAY FOTO 8 - JOSEPH FREDERICK SEAMAN

Back once again after a blip of a couple of weeks - hectic family life and a stinking cold are just two of my excuses, but apologies nevertheless!

Anyway. Here we have a photograph of my great-grandfather on my Dad's line - Joseph Frederick SEAMAN. 

Joseph was born in the Everton district of Liverpool on the 18 September 1877. He was the third eldest son of Joseph SEAMAN and Mary RAVENSCROFT of North Wales.

Joseph Frederick married Sarah Anne SMITH of Liverpool in St Dunstan's church, Edge Hill on the 15 April 1900. 

Joseph Frederick and his wife Sarah Anne SEAMAN

After what appears to be quite a long and happy life, in which the couple had at least ten children,  Joseph finally passed away on 17 June 1958 in Newsham Hospital, Liverpool. He died of congestive cardiac failure.   

FRIDAY FOTO 7 - ELIZABETH WELSH (nee ENGLEBRETSEN)

 

Two photographs of my grandmother, Elizabeth Welsh (nee Englebretsen).

The first photo shows her photographed in a professional studio in Liverpool. It is estimated that she was around nineteen years of age when the photo was taken, which-- with Elizabeth's year of birth being 1895 --would put the date to be around 1914.

In the second photo, my grandmother is pictured standing on the steps of one of the large houses she used to serve. It is believed that she worked with an agency who provided service staff to families - for example, cooks, maids, cleaners, housekeepers etc. My aunt also informed me that she had been directly employed to at least one family as a general maid.

The houses were said to be those in the Princes Park area of Liverpool, which at the time were owned by prosperous businessmen and their families.

I'd love to be able to trace the property itself and see whether it is still there.

#familyhistory #genealogy #englebretsen    

FRIDAY FOTO 4 - D'ANNUNZIO - AN ITALIAN CONNECTION

Felice and Mary Agnes D'Annunzio

Above is a photograph of Felice D'Annunzio and his wife, Mary Agnes (formerly Douglas) with two of their children, dressed in their Sunday best clothes. The photo was taken at the beginning of the twentieth century, probably in Liverpool, during the early 1900's.

It appears to show one of their children dressed as if ready for baptism, the other-- slightly older child-- dressed smartly, his boots polished and shining.

On checking our family records, I believe the older child to be Henry Edward D'Annunzio, who was born on the 10th June 1902 and lived until he was ninety-four years of age. He married a lady called Jane Lloyd, but at present no further details of the family are available. 

Judging by his probable age in the photograph, it is likely that the younger child could then be his sister, Maria Eleanora D'Annunzio, born in 1906. She later went on to marry Thomas Fitzsimmons and had at least four children. 

Felice was brought to Liverpool by his parents, along with his siblings, after leaving the ancestral home in Atina in Italy. The collective families then established themselves in Liverpool, where some of their descendants still live to this day.

One of his siblings, Filipo (also known as Puche) Annunzio, is the great-grandfather of my wife, Sandra. Felice is, therefore, her great-uncle.

FRIDAY FOTO 2 - THE ENGLEBRETSEN SISTERS

Hannah, Martha & Elizabeth Englebretsen

Pictured in the back garden at the new house in Lordens Road, Huyton, the three Englebretsen sisters - Hannah, Martha and my grandmother, Elizabeth.

The photo is not dated, but we estimate that it was taken shortly after WW2 ended when Hannah, her husband Charles Irvine and their family were living in a property built in Huyton - in what were then the suburbs of Liverpool.

A couple of other photographs from this day exist in the family archive, and there is no doubt that the family were enjoying a party - there is a wind-up gramophone pictured on one, another shows some of the family dancing in the garden. Unfortunately, the reason for the 'do' hasn't been recorded. 

However, my mother fondly recalls visits up to the house with her parents when they lived in Toxteth. At the time, the young teenage girl used to feel that Huyton was 'out in the country', being situated on the edge of the main city conurbation at that time. The area was surrounded by greenery and visitors from Toxteth needed to catch two trams or buses to get up there. It was a house she remembers fondly and with love.

The house was home to succeeding generations of Hannah's and her daughter's family, until relatively recently when my aunt (also named Hannah) passed away.

The house was then sold to a local family, who will hopefully find as much love there as they all did. 

PEDER & ELIZABETH ENGLEBRETSEN - WEDDING PHOTO?

One of two possible photos which could have been taken to record the wedding of my great-grandparents, Peder Ingebretsen (Englebretsen) and Elizabeth Douglas.

The couple were married in Liverpool, England on the 1st November 1890, at Holy Trinity Church in Toxteth.

Peder's actual Norwegian surname of Ingebretsen had been 'Anglo-fied' by this time to Englebretsen, the name which then carried on down to their three surviving daughters - Hannah, Elizabeth and Martha. 

95a SMITHDOWN ROAD - BIRTHPLACE OF CHARLES SEAMAN

One Sunday morning, a few years back, I decided to go and take a look along Smithdown Road, Liverpool to try and see if I could locate the place where my Dad had been born.

On arriving and parking the car across the road, I found this sight before me.

95A, the flat where my grand-mother gave birth to him, is the one with the missing front wall. 

Not only had I found the property where he had been born, but I could actually see into the rooms themselves!

The location didn't last long after this, for the area was scheduled for redevelopment and the property was demolished. I think only a few weeks afterwards!

I can't help but think that someone was behind my decision to go out with the camera on that day.

It had been my last opportunity... and I'm so glad that I took it. 

BRIDGET SMITH (nee SEARY) - DEATH CERTIFICATE / BURIAL RECORD - 1928

I updated my records yesterday with respect to my wife's great-grandmother, Bridget SEARY, and processed the two documents which I'm including here for the use of other researchers. 

Bridget's married name was SMITH, after marrying her husband Michael SMITH in 1890 in St Albans Church in Liverpool.

Bridget was born in Celbridge, a small town in County Kildare, Ireland, in 1873. Her husband was a Scouser, born in Liverpool in 1870, and after considering the birthdates and birthplaces associated with her siblings, it would appear that the SEARY family had emigrated and settled permanently in Liverpool between 1875 and 1876. 

Following their marriage, Micheal and Bridget had at least nine children between 1891 to 1909.

As can be seen by the information on the certificate above, Bridget died on 5 March 1928 in Walton Hospital, Rice Lane, Liverpool. She was said to be 53 years old on the death certificate and had died of a cerebral haemorrhage - otherwise known as a stroke.

Bridget was buried in Ford Cemetery, Liverpool - one of the main Catholic cemeteries in the district - on the 9 March 1928 in grave number 654. Above is a copy of the burial register for that period. 

WEDDING WEDNESDAY - UNKNOWN LIVERPOOL WEDDING

The photograph below was discovered in a selection of photo's which were in the possession of my aunt, Ellen Elizabeth WELSH (aka. Betty), when she passed away.

They obviously depict a wedding group, but only a few of the people on it have been identified. The actual location of the wedding is also a mystery, but it is assumed that the church was located somewhere in Liverpool.

The gentleman second from the left is my grandfather, William John WELSH. The lady on the back row next to him is his wife, my grandmother, Elizabeth ENGLEBRETSEN. She is the lady wearing the glasses and the flower on her hat. On the front row, the young girl on the left is their niece, Marion Erlis.

The rest of the people have not as yet been identified.

I have shared this photo with family members and we still have not been able to identify the others in the group. It is a bit of a mystery... and there is no way of telling if the photograph shows some of our relations, or perhaps friends or neighbours.

Only time will tell... although possibly with the help of some kind soul on the Internet who may recognise them!

MAPPING MONDAY - USING GOOGLE MY MAPS FOR GENEALOGY

One of the more useful features of Google is the ability to use its Mapping facility to keep track of your genealogical data. For the 'Mapping Monday' article, I thought I’d cover a few of the features available which I use.



Above is the shared version of my Seaman Family Burial Site data. This is the default view which I have chosen to share with the general public, but the view - like the levels of security which you can build into the page - can be tailored exactly as you wish. For example, the base image can reflect Earth data as it is here, or configured to show a more simple map graphic. A selection of different colours can be chosen for this as you prefer.
As you can see, each of the cemetaries listed has been given its own layer on the image. These can be turned on and off using the checkboxes to the left of the menu. Selecting either the name of the relative on the left hand menu or on the icon itself on the map, displays an image and other details of the grave site which have been recorded (see below).
 

Editing the maps is great fun and can be achieved using the ‘Edit’ option, (which is only accessible to the map owner and any defined collaborators), to access the Google ‘My Maps’ view (below).


The styles and format of each of the layers is configurable separately… allowing features such as the icons, icon colour, text, grouping of labels, level naming conventions etc. to be changed as required. All changes made are saved to Drive, so unwanted changes can be undone if required. Additional items such as new icons, line drawing on the map, and also distance measurement are also available. New layers can also be easily added as required.


As can be seen above, there is also a direction facility which allows you to include this information on a separate layer on the map if required. This information will feed through to the shared map view (so you could include directions to the grave location from the nearest railway station for example), but this data is not configurable to view only users.


Finally, as can be seen in the example above, if images are captured using a smartphone or digital camera with built in GPS, then the exact location of the graves are recorded against the images. When these are placed into the software, the grave locations can be recorded almost exactly, allowing subsequent researchers to the site the best chance of finding the graves for themselves. 


One final example of how these maps can be most useful is to track the migration of families around the country at various times. The example above shows graphically how my LAIT family relations originated in Norfolk with my 5x great-grandfather, Timothy Lait, and finally ended up in Liverpool with my grandmother Margaret Eleanor Graham LAIT, who I am named after. They made a total journey of 409 kms, which took in excess of 159 years, and crossed six generations (eight if you include myself and my father).

So next time you get a little disheartened trying to break down those brick walls in your core data, open up Google, grab yourself an account, and start mapping those ancestors! 
I guarantee that you’ll 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 - 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)