The Cottage Smallholder

My father dressed as a page boy with an unknown bridesmaid

Do you remember these words?

“Fred Jesson: You’ve been a long way away.
Laura Jesson: Yes.
Fred Jesson: Thank you for coming back to me.”
Brief Encounter 1945

Yes, I’ve been a long way away. Not in the arms of Trevor Howard. And Danny was actually quite happy about my circuitous journey.

I’ve been researching some of my family history. Particularly my Scots grandmother, Jean Fletcher Taylor. I know very little about her except that she was beautiful in her prime and managed to hook a rich husband and marry him at the age of 34. In 1914 that was a real coup, as generally ladies got married much younger in those days.

Her family were from relatively humble origins. Her father and mother worked together as seedsmen and eventually market gardeners. Their daughter, Jean was their only child. Imagine their delight when she hooked the attention of a wealthy army officer. His parents were no so happy about this liaison and instructed the commander of their son’s battalion to transfer him Egypt.

My great grandmother and Jean were not to be pushed aside. They took a boat to Egypt and the romance flourished.

Unfortunately Jean’s husband was killed in1918 – during the WW1. They had no children. She married my grandfather, Jim in 1920. Jim’s first wife had died in childbirth. My aunt Pickles was their one surviving child. My father was born in 1921 and was a surprise!

Unfortunately my grandmother Jean fell under the spell of Ivor Kreuger’s Match King Scam – the shares are doing so well, why not buy more?  When they crashed she lost a lot of her fortune. My father could remember her announcing the news as he watched my grandfather being shaved. He didn’t understand the amounts of money involved but the tremor that went through the room indicated disaster.

Tracing ancestors is fun and I’ve found it totally absorbing. It’s like a vast game of pelmanism, searching, looking, noting and then suddenly things begin to pair up. Which line shall I continue with? Is the initial on the marriage list misheard – could it be D or T rather than C? What happened to the children that they were suppose to have had, were they adopted?

On a good American ancestry site – http://www.familylink.com – I found a report of my Grandmother Jean’s wedding in the Daily Mail. This was alongside some wonderful advertisements and some marvellous articles which included, why women should not be trusted with cheque books and a steamy murder trial.

Generally I’ve been searching through lists with the minimum necessary information and this somehow crudely highlighted how short our lives are. On the other hand, piecing together all these tiny scraps of information suddenly makes distant ancestors suddenly come alive. I’m hooked!

The other sites that I think are good are http://www.ancestry.co.uk and the sister site Http://www.ancestry.com.

Discount vouchers are a major component of online shopping. Why pay full price for an item when you can get a cut-price offer if you know where to look? We scan this site weekly to keep an eye out for items on our shopping list. If we can save £10 or more, why can’t you? Click here

Lamb shanks are perfect for long slow cooking. The price has shot up over the years and now they are expensive to buy. Luckily Danny found some on the Tesco *CFC and I came up with this recipe. Lamb shanks actually have quite a bit of meat on them so we managed to get six Read More »

Yesterday I motored down to Newmarket to fetch our medications, visit Waitrose and pick up The Contessa’s trays of diabetic prescription diet from the vet. This food is salmon and rice based as she is extremely allergic to any sort of chicken from breast fillets to derivatives. I suspect the latter are ground up beaks, Read More »

Beef in beer used to be a big hit in Bistros in London in the 1970’s. Although I ate out a lot in those days, I can’t remember actually sampling beef in beer. All that I can recall now are hummus and taramasalata starters with slim cut warm pitta bread – still a favourite with Read More »

I’ve just written this post: “When cauliflowers start to go to seed all is not lost” There is nothing better than a home grown cauliflower. The flavour is sweeter and curds snap away from the main stem with a satisfying crunch. If you grow your own the entire plant can be used too – the Read More »