Quiet days

It is another summer passing over and as usual things quieten down.  I keep up with relatives and other genealogy contacts sporadically.  It is a matter of keeping the pot stirring - one never knows when some item might spark off something of interest.  I am exchanging emails with an 80 year old who is a related to  an employer of my great grandfather.  The unusual spelling of a surname and geography in common were enough to make the connection  when I came across her name in a historical website.  This employer has an interesting story that I am happy to borrow to weave into my family tree.

Clue in Photograph

Down the years, we have used an old christening gown and understood it to have been that of my father also.  Only recently I found a photograph of  him on his christening day that I had never seen before. It had come back to the family from the household of a great aunt.  I thought to put a copy of this photo in with the robe.  But on closer examination, it seems to be a different robe!   Now there are three mysteries, what became of the robe my father wore and from whence did it originate and also what is the provenance of the gown that we have?

This is not the first time a photo has thrown up avenues of research.  In another one, I had it coloured to enhance it and when this was done the detail of a badge was more apparent and this was a significant detail that had previously been missed.

Good to chat...

Sometimes things go quiet and peter out.... maybe there is an end to our searching?  then meet up with a pal and chew over things.  Thank you Hugo for a few points of interest from our recent coffee date.  I hope he also found something useful in my chatter.  For the moment I must try and get back to general browsing of ancestry website to follow up new leads.

Serendipity

The wonder of family tree research where if you keep digging unexpected items turn up!.  My grandmother was reared in a house of certain name.  I spotted an article of same name in a local history society gazette.  I explained my interest in the property and was fortunate to have email attachment sent to me. It turned out not to be the correct house.  But the society secretary thought I might be interested in two older article published 10 years ago.  They were family reminiscences of our family written by distant cousins.  Lovely to have personal accounts to weave into the fabric of a family tree.