Old Family Photos

Lots of old family photos are stuck in boxes in the loft or storeroom and no-one ever looks at them. Many are  tiny, grainy and faded.

With Picasa (which can be downloaded, free from the internet) I've been able to bring many of these old photos to life and in the process been able to pass them on to other family members.  
There are several ways of improving photographs.

One way is to use the cropping facility to look at the part of the picture which you're interested in, whilst still keeping the original photo on the computer.

Here's a good example - a photo of my grandmother (Bunty) staying at a friend's caravan back in the 1960s.  It's such a long time ago that no-one knows who the friend is so, apart from the retro caravan, the important part of the photo is  Bunty herself.

So it's been cropped and now we see Bunty and in greater detail:

When I become more adept  I'll learn how to delete the friend's shirt and tie - but that's for another day!

Another advantage is shown by next photo (taken about 1929) which was so faded that no-one could see what it was.  The photo was imported into Picasa and then I pressed the button 'I'm feeling lucky' and lo and behold my mother's parents appeared in their motorbike and sidecar:

Before (above) and after (below) 

Not as clear as today's photos but what an improvement!


Another very useful feature of Picasa is being able to straighten pictures. Take this photo from our living room window:

A great pic but the sea somehow doesn't look right. After applying straighten, the photo is a great improvement:

and it's less likely to make me feel seasick. As you can see, when a picture is 'straightened' it does lose part of the sides, so this can't be done with every picture.


Web Albums - coming ...

Cornish Inn, Gunnislake

My parents Jack and Dorothy Smale bought The Cornish Inn, Gunnislake, in the middle of 1971.  At that time it was sadly run-down and needed updating.  They set to and modernised the bar and, whilst building up the trade, my father, together with David Cutts the builder next door, did up the bedrooms and made the large function room, over the original stables, into four bedrooms with private bathrooms.  This was long before anywhere in the area was able to offer ensuite facilities.  They made part of the back garden into an overspill car park as parking in The Square at the front was limited.

But to delve into the past, The Cornish Inn has a long history, being well over 200 years old, I've been investigating it's history and give some details below:

Links found which mention The Cornish Inn:
1856 Cornish Inn - John Sanders (http://www.calstock.info/census/kellys_1856.htm#1856)
1883: Cornish Inn: George Adamson (http://www.calstock.info/census/kellys_intro.htm#1883

I've had this photo for years, showing that long ago the Cornish Inn was known at the Commercial Hotel.  From the name written on the front of this postcard and links below the photo was taken in about 1923.

Links re Commercial Hotel:

1893 Commercial Hotel and Posting House:  Abraham Bond (http://www.calstock.info/census/kellys_1893.htm#1893)

1902 Commercial Hotel, Samuel Nile: (http://www.calstock.info/census/kellys_1902.htm#1902)

1910 Commercial Hotel, Bedford Brewery Co: (http://www.calstock.info/census/kellys_1910.htm#1910) This ties in with the document reproduced below (copy of a document found at the Cornish Inn):

Cornish Inn in about 1980.

 The Cornish Inn, mid 1970s - showing Dorothy, Jack and Margaret

Copy of Menu at Cornish Inn about 1978 - 1980
(note prices - and VAT at 15%)

Taken from the Gunnislake Festival - Scarecrow Map

Years ago someone told me that at one time Gunnislake was a boom town Williamstown.   The site below bears this out and gives background history of Gunnislake:  http://www.historic-cornwall.org.uk/cisi/gunnislake/CISI_Gunnislake_report.pdf.  

From the site above: 

"In 1901 Venning’s Directory described Gunnislake as a settlement which ‘seems to have grown up rapidly without any well-defined plan; with no architectural pretensions it seems to  have been designed in a nightmare, built in a whirlwind, and is capable of being made orderly only by a succession of rythmic [sic] earthquakes’. This very astute observation helps to explain the difficulty in pinning down the centre of Gunnislake, and defining its character; this arises as much from its setting and topography as from any distinctiveness in its built fabric or townscape"

Sportsman's Arms, Menheniot

The Sportsman's Arms, Menheniot, Liskeard, Cornwall - where
the Smales lived from 1952 to 1959.

Front View of Sportsman's Arms, Menheniot Station, taken August 2011

 Sitting on the wall at the bottom of the car park, with Sooty and an American visitor

 The public bar (right hand side of the front door)

Lounge Bar (left hand side of the front door)

View from just above the back car park

The back door

Sooty by the back door (Dorothy behind, in the kitchen)

Gateway leading down to a magical field

The website to see The Sportsman's is:

http://sportsmansarms-menheniot.co.uk/

Would you like to research your family tree and don't know where to start?

Well, here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Get yourself a good-sized notebook
• Write down what you know already: births, marriages, deaths, names of any relations, places they lived, their occupations, any other snippets which may seem unimportant.  The more you write down now the less there'll be to remember . . . .
• Talk to family and friends, especially the older members, noting all details, even tiny ones which seem irrelevant at the moment.
• Obtain certificate for all events about which you are certain.
• Back-up everything - 'just in case'.
• Use the information gained from the above to start looking further afield.
• Start a file making a note of which details you have about each person.
• Look on the internet - a good place to start as it saves shoe leather and petrol.  Various sites are given to the right of this column and in a separate spot on this site. Also see my article Recommended Sites from the April pages.
• To be continued .....

Example
I remember my grandmother (Violet Florence Gasper) saying that her husband was born on Valentine's Day in the same year as her, that her mother had the same first names as my grandmother but reversed and that Violet and her husband had been in a terrible accident in the mid 1930s on the way to a family funeral.

I had Violet's Death Certificate (above) from 1987 which gives information about her date of birth, and her husband's name.  This Death Certificate say that Violet was born in 1898, so I knew her age and could then look up her birth on http://www.freebmd.org.uk/.

I went onto this site, pressed on the word 'search'.  On the next page I keyed in my grandmother's maiden name and the approximate year of her birth (as some ladies have traditionally been economical with the truth about their ages) and then highlighted the word 'birth' in the top left hand corner.  Then I pressed on the word 'find' in the bottom left corner.

Up popped Violet Florence Gasper, born Hackney, in the quarter ending June 1898, volume 1b, page 508.  This gave me the information needed to send off for her birth certificate from: http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/default.asp.

On the first page which came up on this site I clicked on 'order a certificate online', to register with them.   Then typed in my email address and chose a password.  This saves giving my address details every time I order.   Then when asked I give the details gained from freebmd: name, year, which quarter, volume and page.  This service costs just under £10 for each certificate and is very prompt.

Here is a copy of Violet Florence Gasper's Birth Certificate 

ordered from gro.gov.uk (see above) . 

When it arrived we had a big surprise - there was no father mentioned: so my grandmother was illegitimate.   Well, at least it gave details of her mother, mother's job and place of residence and where little Violet  had been born.  I looked up on the internet and found a photo of, and some information about the place:

The Mother's Hospital (above) was a Salvation Army Maternity Hospital at 153-163 Lower Clapton Road, Clapton E5. It was opened on 18th October 1913, replacing an earlier Salvation Army hospital at Ivy House 271 Mare Street, Hackney E8, which had been opened in 1884. 


The next thing to do was to start the file, so there would be birth, marriage and death certificates, plus any other documentation and photos.  I like to keep a photocopy of everything so the originals can be kept somewhere safe. Then, if I go to the library or to visit someone the originals won't get lost or spoilt as I don't need to worry about the photocopies.

There are several ways to file information.  I like to have a ring binder with plastic pockets so everything can be seen at a glance.  Then I have tabs to separate each part of the family.


At present I have a different colour binder for each part of the family and start with the latest generation (me) at the front.  On the front inside cover I put a family tree, so I can easily see who is in that particular binder and where they're likely to be. 

Family Tree to go on front inside cover

On the back inside cover I put a tree with the oldest person first, cascading down to me and all my cousins.


I also started to do a page for each person, giving the following: name, date of birth, parents, spouse, children and death.  To this page I added census information when  located and any other details, pictures or references.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now that we've covered how to start saving all this information that's accumulating, I must warn you that researching your family tree is somewhat addictive and the more you find out the more questions you'll probably have.  


Family history seems to seep into every subject: geography, history (of course), then there are the occupations of your ancestors, the wars in which they may have been involved.  Then there were the social conditions of the time, how some women had so many children which died in infancy, or indeed some mothers themselves died very young.  


Also you may well find relatives who've crossed continents and researching them may be not quite as straightforward as those who've stayed in one village all their lives.  Having said that, my husband's family mainly stayed in one place but unfortunately there are many people in the same village with the same name - so which Robert Fry are we to look at!?

SMALE - Family Tree

My family tree

Since this was uploaded, we've found some more on the Gasper side.  The person who we've called Florence Violet Gasper was born Florence Gasper Greenslade.  I sent off for her birth certificate and her mother was given Annie.

When Florence died in 1962 she stated that her parents were Thomas Greenslade and Mary Gasper - but was this for respectability and difficult to prove wrong from over 10,000 miles away in England?  (For more information about the Greenslade side, see link on right hand side here)

William Edgar Askham (1889 - 1961) My Grandfather

Born: 17.3.1889, Huggate, Pocklington, S Kirby 

Parents: Joseph Moore Askham and Emma Jane Greenfield.

Married: 27.10.1920 Bar Church, Scarborough to Hilda Mary Briggs. At time WEA living Loftsome Farm, Selby, HMB living 52 Aberdeen Walk, Scarborough. Witnesses May Askham and L(?) Askham.  HMB: married in suit: ankle length skirt, long jacket, wide brimmed hat with deep crown, ermine tie.

Children:

Dorothy May b 11.3.1922, (m  Smale)

Muriel b 8.3.1925, (m Fearnley)

Kathleen Brenda b 2.10.1930 (m Thomson)

1891 Census: White Apron Road, South Kirby, living with parents.

1901 Census: living with parents.

1911 Census: Living Howden

Farmer, also Auctioneer and Valuer, with L Kirkman, operating from Newsholme, Howden, he did office part.  I have bill from 1930.  First lived at rented farm, Loftsholme Farm, now an hotel.

Lived there with his sister May as housekeeper until he got married.  Between the wars (prob 1920s?) hosted shoots for Lord Leconfield and the Lord’s friends with his wife doing the catering.

Car: WF87, bought 1925 motor show by father in law Arthur Briggs, black citroen, cloth hood.  In war pulled round farm by horses with top removed, it had a thermometer at front.  From end of road bus to Scarbro, took 3 hours (car took 2 hours) 60 miles.  Then had standard (s): FAT 59 and EBT.

Picture of Muriel and Ring: Ring was Airdale cross, the house dog not farm dog. He used to walk to Howden and beg a bone off the butcher, one day we was walking home and was knocked down by a car. Dorothy went with WEA to get the dog and WEA was very upset as it was his very own dog.  In picture pump behind (soft water for washing hair etc, hard water pump was inside the house), next to back door, Loftsholme Farm.                                                        Moved to Beech Tree Farm in late 1931.  bought beech tree farm in 1940s/50s for £9,000 – as sitting tenant.  Quiet, musical.  Bought bungalow at Bempton in 1949, I have photo.  On all sorts of Committees, pres Farmers union, water board, river board, parish councillor.  Methodist.  Westover Lodge, 8 Westover Road, Scarborough.

Died: 30.6.1962 Address: 9 Westover Road, Scarborough, Farmer (retired), pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis left leg.

Hilda Mary Briggs

Born: 20 November 1891, 38 Chapel Street, City of Graham, County of Bourke, Va, Australia.

Parents: Arthur Briggs and Minnie Temple

Died 9.10.1974, Cornwall/Devon.

1891 Census: presumably in Australia.

Returned to England about 1895.

1901 Census: Living 64 Castle Road, Scarborough with parents.

1911 Census: Scarborough with parents.

Went to Catering College in Leeds (about 1906?), didn't finish - ill?  Ill after having Brenda therefore no Christening.  After widowed stayed living at Westover Lodge, until moved down to Longmeadow Road, Saltash, Cornwall in late 1960’s after having had breast cancer.  Sewing, crochet, music, cooking. Disabled – what was it?  One of the first women to have a hip replacement, long convalescence in Harrogate.

John Henry Hodgson Smale (1898 - 1956) My Grandbather

Born: 14.2.1898, Gosport, Hants. (B Cert says: Father: W J Smale, Fishmonger. Mother: Eiza Smale, formerly Morey. Born/living 29 Clarence Road, Gosport.)

Parents: William JOSEPH Smale and Eliza Morey.

During WW1: JHH Smale is back row, right hand side

Married: 19.9.1917 The Register Office Greenwich to Violet Florence Gasper, 19, Spinster, no rank/profession, address: Marquis of Granby, New Cross Road. Father George Egerton Gasper (deceased), Clerk.

John Henry Hodgson Smale, 19, Bachelor, Gunner RFA no 70578, Cambridge Barracks, father William Joseph Smale, Political Agent.

Witnesses: F W Adams and G C Buckthorp.

Children

John William Hodgson, b 5.7.1919 Miller Hos, Woolwich. Charlton.

Frank Douglas, 23.12.1921 London;

Vera Dorothy, 21.1.1925, London.

1901 Census: living with parents.

1911 Census: living with parents

1919: Living 213 Queens Road, Peckham, SE

Joined Army as boy soldier in 1912/13, enrolled in Personnel Ordnance College at Woolwich, trained as highly skilled practical engineer. In Army during WWI, in 1916 sent to Athlone in Ireland to help quell the uprising.  British Army War Pension Records, JHH Smale, 1919, Reg No 70578. Tel:0208 392 5225. Discharged 22/10/1919 unfit.

Left Army, no job, made sox. Worked for Merryweathers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merryweather_%26_Sons).  
Moved to Trenython in 1925 to be maintenance person.  Good at mending things, eg cars, didn’t communicate such skills to his children.  They had a car long before other people and used to travel all over Cornwall between the wars, boat, beach hut.

Took over Edgecumbe Arms, Cremyll, in 1940, then after the War Fountain Hotel in Liskeard (sophisticated in those days), then bought the Sportsman’s Arms, Menheniot  in early 1950s from Earl of St Germans.  Too fond of rich food, drink and sedentary lifestyle.

Died: 1956 Menheniot, Liskeard, Cornwall. 

VIOLET FLORENCE GASPER                                            (after WW2 known affectionately as Bunty)

Born:  2.4.1898, Maternity Hospital, Mare Street, Hackney. Subdistrict: South West Hackney.  Informant: F Gasper, mother, 28 Devonshire Road, Hackney. 

Parents: mother:  Florence Gasper Greenslade, b 19.10.1879, Queen Charlotte's Hospital, Marylebone, London.  Father not known - see below

Bunty's Birth Certificate

Brought up by the Jewish community in East End of London. Lived in a flat in Holloway. Didn't do much work at school used to tell the children stories during needlework, although in later life was good at sewing.  
As a child, Violet used to go to Lady Lethbridge 21 Cornwall Terrace, Regents Park for tea (on her own, special dress) (http://www.thepinnaclelist.com/blog/directory/78-million-lethbridge-house-20-cornwall-terrace-regents-park-london-england-uk/) - any relation?  If so, then, through the Roper side of the family is one of the descendants of King Edward III).  
Worked in handmade choc factory on leaving school, then huge pub (6 bars) in London (prob Marquis of Granby, New Cross Road - or White Hart).   

1901 Census: Florence Gasper, with her mother.

1911 Census: St Pancras: Francis Williams Adams, b 1880;  Florence Adams, b 1881. Violet Florence Gasper, b 1898; Francis Alfred, b 1907.


See another article on this site regarding her admittance to the workhouse in 1916.

Miscarriage (1918, daughter) as stood on rickety table to take down curtains to wash them as her in-laws (who she adored) were visiting, toppled over. Husband was away in Army peacekeeping in Ireland.

Jasper

Jasper the spaniel: Violet took the puppies she'd bred up to Crufts (by train).  When she arrived they said the puppies were too young but as she'd come so far she was allowed to exhibit.  She sold Jasper (above) and he sailed to America in April 1939.  In 1941 it says on the back of the photo that he was American Champion "Trade Winds". 
Violet started and ran Fowey (and District) or Tywardreath Dog Show before WW2, getting donations of cups and other help from local businesses.

 On board Antelope

Jenny, Dorothy and Bunty going to a wedding in the 1960s

Died: January 1987 Plymouth. 

Info from Bunty told to me in the early 1980s:

MRS GREENSLADE: 6' tall, kept guest house and had riding stables, Oakleigh Gardens, Monmouth Road, Bayswater, London.

Actors in guest house. (Was she at Hendon?)

WHO IS THIS?: George Egerton Claremont, killed WWII", mother Mrs Golding Bright last at 75 Ridgemont Gardens, Gower Street, London

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.

Some poems from long ago

Nursery Song handed down the generations

This is a song my Granma* taught me years ago.  As it was handed down verbally it may not be 

completely correct, but here goes:

There were six little cots in the nursery

And six little children too

And every night when the light grew dark

They would all know what to do

With their nighties on they would frolic for a while,

'Til the nurse appeared unexpectedly

And she said "now children this will never do,

There's a ........ downstairs

Looking for a few

Little disobedient children

Who are awake."

Creep, Creep, can you hear him creeping

Up and down the stairs;

Sleep, Sleep, if you are not sleeping

Every babe he scares;

Hide, Hide, hide your little faces

'Neath the bedclothes white.

When I have tucked you safely in

Just say Mr Teddy Bear, Goodnight.

* Bunty, otherwise known as Violet Florence Smale (nee Gasper) 1898 - 1986.

On the Garden Wall

How dare you sit up there and look so smug,

You smirking, mangy, lop-eared bit of rug?

Oh, how I'd love to shake you - and I'd try

If this disgusting wall was not so high.

I would, d'ye hear me? Don't be so absurd

And look as if you hadn't heard a word.

 Who killed the sparrow? Yah, who pinched the fish

Out of the larder and upset the dish?

(And Cook blamed me!) You green-eyed ball of silk,

Don't purr at me, I'm not your blessed milk!

Come down you coward, don't sneak off like that!

(She's gone - the other side - just like a cat!)

Said by a Jack Russell to a Cat (any sort will do)
From 'My Dog and Yours' published 1929.