In the 1970s, my father took me to the City of London Cemetery in Manor Park, to clean an old tombstone belonging to a family grave. It was a cold day and I remember retreating to the shelter of the car and being grateful to escape the chill.  I wasn’t interested in what we were doing but I knew that it was important to him. At some point, I recall that Dad had correspondence with The Stage newspaper regarding another person in our family tree. These memories stayed with me but it wasn’t until decades later that I fitted the puzzle pieces together.

As my parents aged and became less active, they became interested in my research and discoveries. I uncovered facts and people that they didn’t know but they were happy to fill in details of those that they could remember, including their personality, their likes and dislikes, hobbies, work and family life.

The more I discovered, the more I wanted to know. People from the past became real to me. I uncovered their hardships and tragedies, their triumphs and successes, their deceit and their cruelty. Some facts are hard to reconcile with. I built a character profile around each person and decided how they might have reacted to each event that occurred to them. I didn’t enjoy learning history at school but have since become fascinated by social history, particularly during the Victorian period.

So why: “awful rigours and wretched pay”? A 1900 article in the Music Hall and Theatre review used these terms in respect to the role of the academic dancer. My three times great aunt, Eleanor Ann Bridge, responded with a stinging retort claiming that the role was a worthwhile occupation and that the statements in the article were untrue. The phrase struck with me because others in my family certainly were toiling for wretched pay in awful conditions. Work could be precarious and many of my family were self-employed. However, they were flexible and could turn their hand to several ventures. Some were seasonal, such as trading firewood, others were year-round trades such as selling cats’ meat.

A number knew the inside of a workhouse and some largely grew up there. Examination records provided details of dates and addresses where my ancestors had lived as well as names of living relatives. My grandfather’s siblings were scattered around the UK after their parents had both died of Tuberculosis. The Board of Guardians Records of Children also provide very useful information of living relatives of orphans as well as where they were sent for education or training.  

Most of my family gravitated towards East London although I have discovered origins in France, Germany, the Netherlands and various parts of the UK. I aim to travel around to try to visit as many of the places where they lived and to find out more about their lives.

I’m fairly certain that I will also become distracted and post other random topics too. We all have to endure awful rigours at times but hopefully this blog will bring some joy too.