FAMILY TREE

The story starts, as family history always does, with the researcher and works back starting with family documents and talking to relatives.  At present I'm going to stick with the Smale side and later add Askhams etc.

The main queries were -

1  Why did my father and grandfather both have the middle name of Hodgson, where did it come from?

2  Was my grandmother illegitimate?

3  Where did the Smales originate?

4  Who was Mary G Smale? I have two books of poems copied out in beautiful script which came from David Carter.

We all thought the family came from London or perhaps Hampshire but to my surprise the furthest I can go back on the Smale side takes us back to Plymouth - where I was born and know very well.

Father and Daughter

From talking to family members over the years I knew that my father, John William Hodgson (Jack) Smale  was born on 5.7.1919 in Charlton, his parents being John Henry Hodgson Smale (Pop) and Violet Florence Gasper (Bunty), born 2.4.1898.  Grandfather John HH Smale (14.2.1898 - 1956) was born in London with parents William Joseph Smale and Eliza Morey.  These were the in-laws who my grandmother was so fond of. William Joseph Smale who had been a doctor and a Tory Party Agent in Hampshire, and his father John Henry Hodgson Smale, had been a seafarer.  Not a bad start really, compared with many family historians.

With the easy access of information on the internet and help from documents from David Carter (see Genealogy - In the Beginning) I've been able to find out lots more.

However, there is one down side of genealogy - the more that is found out, the more questions there are.
1   I have not yet found out where Hodgson came from.
2   Yes, my Grandmother was illegitimate - and so was her own mother, so there the research ends unfortunately.
3  As far as I can go back, the Smale family comes from the Plymouth area.
4  Still no luck finding a Mary G Smale.  There is one date in the book, 1832, our only clue.  I do hope that someone who reads this blog may be able to help.