WALTER LAIT... an unknown Great Grand-Uncle....

Walter Lait... my great grand-uncle

This is a photo of Walter Lait, seventh child of Charles Graham Laite and Eleanor Kaye - my great-grandparents. Walter is a younger brother of Margaret Eleanor Graham Lait, my grandmother. 

He was born in February 1911 when the family lived in Moorgate Street in Wavertree with his parents and five older siblings. Walter was baptised in St Catherines Church, which was just a little way up Tunnel Road. This has since been demolished and replaced by new housing. 

He appeared in the 1921 census when the family were residing in 23 Moorgate Street, and was ten years old... his occupation given to be a scholar. By this time his parents family had grown with two further children, so Walter was living with seven siblings - two younger than himself. 

In 1938, now living at 48 Uxbridge Street, he married Susan Margaret Wardrope... a twenty-two year-old laundry presser of Swallowhurst Crescent, West Derby. Walter was twenty-seven years old and was working as a window cleaner. When the 1939 register was taken however, prior to WW2, Walter could not be found. This could be because he had signed up to go off to war. His wife however was living back at her parents address in West Derby. She was recorded as being married and employed as 'unpaid domestic duties'... another way of saying she worked as a housewife.

In the end, the couple are reported to have had at least four children - two girls (their names unknown), a girl Jean and a son called Frank. This information had been entered into a tree on Ancestry and I have yet to substantiate the data, so this has been flagged for further investigation in my records.

Walter's entry in the Lait family bible (bottom of page) - the date of his death was entered by an unknown family member in blue ink.

Walter died on 22 June 1977. No record has yet been found to substantiate this, but the date has been recorded into the Lait family bible against his name. One day I'll pick up the research on his family to try and fill in some of the gaps.

(c)2024 Graham Seaman

FAMILY FOTO 36 - THE WELSH GIRLS (undated photo)

The Welsh Girls

This photo was one which came into my possession from my Aunt's collection, and found when we had to clear her bungalow for her to go into a nursing home in 2010. 

I gave the house clearance team (i.e. the other family members), a clear instruction - "....anything that looks remotely like 'family history' keep to one side, and then we'll put it into a box with 'DO NOT THROW AWAY!' written across its sides in big red letters. This unknown photo was only one of many  lovely items I came across in that box which I had never seen before.

I'm assuming the photo would have been taken by my grandad, William John Welsh, on his Kodak 'box brownie' camera, which I remember being brought out on a few occasions. The location is not at all clear, but I'm assuming that it will be one of the parks in Toxteth - Princes Park, which was a short walk from where the family lived in Hughson Street - or perhaps Sefton Park, which was a little further away. I don't think it is anywhere near their home, for I don't recall ever seeing a green space such as this anywhere near Hughson Street, which was surrounded by terraced houses and large tenement and court property. No... it is clear to me that the photo was probably recording a Sunday day out for the family... one that many families would have taken at that time.

My Mum Joan is the child standing in the front of the group. Aged about three years old, she is dressed in her 'Sunday best' dress, with a hairband holding back her tousled auburn hair. As she was born in 1933, this would place the date around 1936/37. Betty, her elder sister, is standing behind her... and potentially aged between 11 and 12 years old.

My grandmother Elizabeth Welsh (or Lizzie as everyone tended to call her) is also dressed in her Sunday best dress, just like her girls. 

Lizzie was employed 'in service'... working as a maid in one of the larger houses in Toxteth or Aigburth for an affluent family. Her duties might include cleaning or cooking... the latter of which she was really good at as I recall, but I have little hope of finding out which. There is a photograph of her in her younger years, with a team of other girls in uniforms, which implies that her services would be hired from an agency. One of my regular genealogical searches is to see if I can find any such local agencies whose books might have been transcribed and placed online somewhere.... I certainly haven't found it yet, but I'll just keep on searching - just in case. 

    

(c) 2024. G.Seaman

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!