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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: Matt R on Wednesday 19 November 08 18:44 GMT (UK)

Title: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Wednesday 19 November 08 18:44 GMT (UK): Hi guys...

I have had an idea. Whilst researching my family history, I have discovered a wealth of information and since I have always been a bit of a storyteller (true ones I'd like to add!!), I thought I could start a blog, telling my family's story.

I think you will agree that if you put something like this in story format not only does it seem more interesting, but it offers a more personal insight into their lives.

The story centres around my maternal great great grandmother, Mary Ann Owens. I have researched her life now for 2 years and have all the info I need, although I have traced her back to Ireland. Also, her story is one of grit and determination to overcome the cruellest of life's obstacles...I feel compelled to tell her story. Although depressing at times, I reckon there's a few lessons to be learned from her story.

I will add to the story whenever I can, if not every day then certainly within the week, so if you are interested in the story please keep reading. I will post the first part in the next few hours!

My gran asked Mary Ann (her grandmother) about her life in ireland...and the response she got was that she didnt want to talk about it. She said it was "Nothing But Bad Times". For this reason, this is what I am calling this story. Hope to hear from you soon.

Matt from the chatroom.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Ann Baker on Wednesday 19 November 08 18:49 GMT (UK): Matt

Please do. In my view these stories should be told because they shaped history for our families.

Best wishes

Ann
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: mrs louis on Wednesday 19 November 08 18:53 GMT (UK): ohhh Matt

This sounds really interesting, you got me hooked all ready and i aint read first chapter yet

good luck to ya hun

lou xxxxx
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: JDC on Wednesday 19 November 08 18:57 GMT (UK): Interesting title... that's a gr8 start Reaybo. Looking forward to reading the rest.

JDC
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Gaie on Wednesday 19 November 08 18:58 GMT (UK): Hi Matt!

Your audience awaits you...... :)

Sitting patiently on the mat, legs crossed, all agog :)
Gaie
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: AnneMc on Wednesday 19 November 08 19:04 GMT (UK): Hi Matt:

Waiting for the story to begin..

Anne
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: lil growler on Wednesday 19 November 08 19:07 GMT (UK): Hi Matty

Wonderful idea. Waiting with interest ;D

All the best with it

Cheers

lil
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Pels. on Wednesday 19 November 08 20:01 GMT (UK): What a very good idea Matt .. ! :D

Just marking my spot .. this is one I'll look forward to reading .. ! :) :)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: oldtimer on Wednesday 19 November 08 20:34 GMT (UK): Just bookmarking :D :D
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: IndisVanyar on Wednesday 19 November 08 20:36 GMT (UK): Feels like circle time - I am waiting with baited breathe.

Nell
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Lydart on Wednesday 19 November 08 20:37 GMT (UK): Me too ... tell us where we can find the blog please !

I like blogs ! Especially those of people I know ... you see a whole different side to them ...
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Wednesday 19 November 08 20:48 GMT (UK): Here goes guys...
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: cheekylauren on Wednesday 19 November 08 20:52 GMT (UK): Hello,

What a great way to honour your family and make great use of your research.

Looking forward to the story that awaits.

Lauren
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: craizi daizi on Wednesday 19 November 08 20:54 GMT (UK): Hey Matty

Just marking my spot to , for the story ....

Daizi
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Wednesday 19 November 08 20:55 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter One, Part One

This story starts in 1858, in a small Irish farming village in County Tyrone, called Aghaloo. In the small, stone church there on the third of November, a Roman Catholic couple made their vows in front of God to live the rest of their lives together. Their names were Bernard Owens, a farm servant born in the neighbouring parish of Carnteel around 1839, and his bride Elizabeth Ann (Eliza) Fox, born in Cravanagh, in 1842. It was a very small ceremony without any celebration. The great famine of the 1850’s and the events that followed had claimed both of Bernard’s parents (Richard and Margaret) and Eliza’s father William and his wife Ann also perished.

This marriage is the start of a story that spans 150 years and will continue long into the future.

Soon after the marriage, Eliza fell pregnant and on March 22 1860, she gave birth to a daughter, whom they named Catherine. Baby Catherine was baptized in the church her parents married just hours after coming into the world. It was custom to have a child baptized very soon after birth, for if the infant died after, it would be religiously entitled to a formal burial. Bernard and Eliza now had begun to make a family of their own. The families they had been born into had all but ceased to exist.

Catherine was followed two years later by another daughter, named Mary Ann, born on the eight of May 1862, also in Aghaloo. It is Mary Ann that the later chapters will concentrate on, as she is my great, great granny, and it is her story that is the most interesting to tell. It was around this same time in 1862 that Bernard became unemployed and the family decided to move on and attempt to resettle. Bernard found work and shelter in a farm just outside of Dungannon, in a place called Clonavaddy, which exists now in 2008 as a street lying below 10 houses and a petrol station. The name Clonavaddy is barely recognized in the area, as I found when I visited in August 2007.

Life must have been unimaginably hard going for Bernard and Eliza, who, by late 1864 was heavily pregnant with her third child. Early in the New Year of 1865, Eliza once again gave birth, this time to a son. The first born son was Peter, named after the biblical disciple, who later became the first Pope. Bernard now had the task of having to provide for his wife and three children. As one can guess, being a farmer in 1860’s Ireland must have been an extremely difficult job. Bernard had to play his part to try and at least, in some way, rebuild a country devastated by famine and starvation. Religious persecution also began to grow, tensions between Catholics and Protestants flared up in violence up and down Ireland. My granny tells me that Bernard and his family were thrown out of the farm, after it was taken over by a Protestant man and his family. I don’t know if this occurred at this point in the story, and I have no reason to doubt my granny, for she has been correct in most of the information she has given me about her own granny, and her parents. I personally think that the eviction happened sometime here in the 1865-67 bracket, for Bernard, Eliza, along with their children Catherine, Mary Ann and of course Peter, had moved out of County Tyrone altogether by 1868. This was the time when perhaps Bernard thought that the place that had been his home for 30 years was no longer a place he wanted to raise his children in. The Owens family moved out of County Tyrone, and seemed to head any direction that favoured them most. They chose East, and headed for County Armagh…

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Wednesday 19 November 08 21:01 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter One, Part Two

The journey to County Armagh was a long one. They walked and walked everyday through the tracks and conditions seen before only in the Middle Ages. Eliza cradled Peter in her arms and Bernard stumbled in front with a stick in one hand attached to a bread filled bag that hung over his shoulder, and holding Catherine’s hand with his other. Catherine in turn held Mary Ann’s hand as they made their ways out of County Tyrone, never to return.

The family stopped in Armagh briefly, for about five or six months. I don’t know this for sure but again a family member tells me that the family had a farm in Armagh, which a descendant of Mary Ann visited in the 1950’s, the farm still being in existence. For an unknown reason, the family left Armagh too. Armagh was the Roman Catholic capital of Ireland, so I am taking an educated guess that they were safe there, in other words it seems that persecution had not yet reached them there. It is likely they moved again due to the need for more money and a more secure job for Bernard. Therefore, the family headed for County Down.

Travelling through night and day in the winter months almost killed the Owens family, but they survived. I don’t know how they did it, but they survived. However, fate was to deal a cruel blow to Bernard and Eliza. One evening in 1868, Peter, now nearly four years old, was starting to fall ill due to the worsening conditions and the cold nights spent on the dirt ways. Bernard carried Peter and searched for help, the first he could find out on the roads, but it was too late. Peter was not breathing. We don’t even know if he found anybody. Even if he had, it was hopeless. Peter died aged three in County Armagh, somewhere along the roadside. He is buried somewhere in the county, unlikely the family could afford a proper burial for him. We’ll probably never know where Peter is buried.

At the ages of eight and six, Catherine and Mary Ann probably had no understanding of what was happening. They knew no different than the awful conditions beset on them. The knowledge that their brother had died probably didn’t really register until they saw Eliza’s arms were empty, and wondered where he had gone. The fact too that they must’ve seen their parents bury their brother, is something I personally struggle with.

The seemingly ghoulish concept of naming a future child after a previously deceased one is never seen nowadays. However, back in these times it was quite common, if the father or mother wished for the name to be passed down. By the time the Owens family had reached County Down sometime in mid 1869, they had to stop there for a while, for Eliza had become pregnant again. After Peter’s death just months before, it was perhaps a blessing that Bernard and Eliza’s fourth child was a boy. Of course, in memory of their dead son, they named the new born Peter. Tragically however, Peter later died at just a few weeks old, and is buried in Downpatrick. He died sometime in 1869. It seems the name Peter was cursed.

The Owens stayed in Downpatrick for more than a decade, and as Bernard began to find work, it seems that the family had left the worst behind them. Bernard and Eliza now settled down with their three surviving children, and there were more on the way. In 1870 Eliza gave birth to John, followed by Bernard in 1871, Elizabeth in 1874, Ellen in 1876, and Joseph, who was born two days after the Christmas of 1879.

By this time (1879), Catherine and Mary Ann had also found work as Domestic Servants, working in a manor house on the outskirts of Downpatrick. It was here that the people who owned the house taught Mary Ann how to write, and they grew particularly fond of her, as they did with Catherine, so much that they paid the two sisters very well, or so Mary Ann later told her children. It was around this same time that Catherine met a ferryman called Charles McMillan. He was born illegitimate in 1858 in Campbeltown, Scotland, and took passengers in and out of Ireland. He was based at the River Clyde. He was the master of a boat on the Clyde called a Clutha’s, one of 12 built in total. On March 10 1880 at Belfast, Catherine married Charles, and immediately, she decided that there was a better life for them over in a bustling Scotland. Catherine and Charles left Ireland for Charles’ hometown Campbeltown, and arrived there in early 1881, early enough to be recorded there with no children, on the 1881 census. Bernard, Eliza and there remaining six children remained in Downpatrick.

However, this was not the last Catherine would see of her family. One day, Catherine arrived with Charles, back in Downpatrick from across the sea, and offered her parents and siblings the chance to come over to Scotland, and break free from Ireland altogether. After all, there was nothing left for them on the Emerald Isle, and like so many others, they had had enough. They agreed. It seemed that this really was the turning of their fortunes. The Owens family packed what little they had with them, and left their farm in Downpatrick, and headed for the boats leaving for Scotland. It seems at last, they had some hope to cling onto…

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Lydart on Wednesday 19 November 08 21:07 GMT (UK): ... all agog here ...

Are you going to actually have a blog, on the net, with this ??

Blogger is good and very easy to use ... and more people would read it ...
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Wednesday 19 November 08 21:14 GMT (UK): I havent done anything with this yet apart from posting it here...its not long enough really to put on the net anywhere else but here.

I just thought its a good piece to show rootschatters, and share what I have found...me putting this together is sort of a "success story" on just what i have found out...

Hope you found it interesting, part two next week :)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Lydart on Wednesday 19 November 08 21:19 GMT (UK): I think its worth blogging it .. you can then add little bits or longer bits just as you wish ...

... but its good to know we are getting the first viewing !
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: craizi daizi on Wednesday 19 November 08 21:20 GMT (UK): Matty

This is great.....GIVE ME MORE .....i want part 3 now......
dont make us wait.....................LOL

Daizi
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: mrs louis on Wednesday 19 November 08 21:33 GMT (UK): well done Matt

very interesting

but i cant wait a whole week for part 2

i need more now lol

lou xxxx
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Wednesday 19 November 08 21:35 GMT (UK): I knew the day would come when a woman would shout more at me...

Hmmmm, oh alright...

Chapter Two coming up tomorrow night same time :)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Gaie on Wednesday 19 November 08 21:38 GMT (UK): Matt

Thanks, great start, can't wait for more (but we'll be good while we have to.... ;))

Kind regards
Gaie

........ and a married woman at that ..... ;) ;D
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: BuddysMummy on Wednesday 19 November 08 21:44 GMT (UK): What a fantastic story. And what a terribly hard life. But only too common in those days.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: craizi daizi on Wednesday 19 November 08 21:48 GMT (UK): Quote
I knew the day would come when a woman would shout more at me...

In your dreams, matt.....hahahahahaa ;D

Daizi
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Wednesday 19 November 08 21:55 GMT (UK): Unfortunately buddys, they were not alone :(

You will see what happens to them in scotland soon...thats one reason why im posting this, really makes you think how good we have it...

See you tomorrow guys! and ty for comments
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: lil growler on Thursday 20 November 08 00:26 GMT (UK): You have a way with words............Beautifully written :)

Are you serious!!!!! we have to wait!!!! come onnnnnnn ;D ;D ;D

Patience is a virtue I wasn't blessed with LOL

Cheers Matty, enjoyed the read.

lil
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Ruskie on Thursday 20 November 08 00:48 GMT (UK): bookmarking ... I'm reading it too ;)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: madpants on Thursday 20 November 08 00:58 GMT (UK): Please Sir......can I have some more ? ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: AnneMc on Thursday 20 November 08 01:22 GMT (UK): Matt:

Can't wait to read the rest of the story. This is wonderful, you have done a good job of writing this story.
Cheers
annemc
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: blodwen on Thursday 20 November 08 07:34 GMT (UK): Bookmarking too :)

Viv
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: trish251 on Thursday 20 November 08 12:14 GMT (UK): Quote from: Lydart on Wednesday 19 November 08 21:07 GMT (UK)
... all agog here ...

Are you going to actually have a blog, on the net, with this ??

Blogger is good and very easy to use ... and more people would read it ...

I enjoy the blogosphere as well - there are many genealogical bloggers around. Many folks also use these stories as an introduction to their family history websites - it is so much more interesting than just having the names and dates listed online.

I'm probably a blog addict, so many off topic things can be discussed & no-one can complain (except my spouse of course, when I bypass the chores for the blogs) ;D

Trish
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Thursday 20 November 08 20:26 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter Two, Part One

As the sun rose above Downpatrick on the morning of March 25 1884, the Owens must have thought a thousand thoughts. At last the day had come, they were leaving their homeland, a homeland that had been blighted by famine, death, and heartbreaking religious prejudice. It is all too clear, why they accepted Catherine and Charles’ offer to hop across the sea for Glasgow.

Everything was in place. Catherine and Charles were to move from their home in Campbeltown, and were to settle in Richard Street, in the Anderston district of Glasgow. Don’t ask me how, but Catherine and Charles had managed to find three apartments for Bernard and his family to live in. The plan was that Catherine and her own family would move into 41 Richard Street in Anderston, and her parents and younger siblings were to live in numbers 44 and 45. This was a stroke of luck perhaps, that the family was all together within whispering distance. Number 44 and 45 were in fact one house, separated into two separate living spaces, and number 41 was a house on its own. As the eldest single child, Mary Ann was taken in by Catherine, and obviously there was plenty of room for any man Mary Ann should marry, and in turn, any of their children. Catherine had even arranged for Mary Ann to work in Kelvingrove as a domestic servant, and John and Bernard Jnr also were to work as a shoemaker’s apprentice and an errand boy.

Catherine and Charles were good friends with a Mr. Garvie, also of Richard Street, who was a grocer, and he offered to take Bernard on as his messenger boy for four shillings pay a week. Not bad considering he was only thirteen. As you can see, everything was set. All the family needed to do now was get across the Irish Sea.

It was around midday on March 25, when the Owens family arrived at the dockside, waiting on Charles McMillan to appear from the horizon and take them to their better life. You can imagine the scene, and the nervous smile on Bernard’s face under his red moustache. This was to be a whole new setting, a new life, completely different from what he had known before. His daughter Catherine had also found him a new job, as the janitor of a Glasgow school. He must have felt very proud of Catherine, and indeed very pleased that his children were now going to have the life that he would have wanted them to have. It wouldn’t be easy, but it would be better. He must have turned to his wife Eliza and smiled, whilst she held the hand of her youngest, Joseph, now four. Despite the vicious cold that he had, Bernard must have felt very happy for his family.

The family had just finished eating, when suddenly on the horizon, Mary Ann spotted a grey blob coming towards the docks. There were around ten people standing with them by now, another family also planning to go over the Irish Sea, their bags packed, shivering in the cold spring air. As the vessel (which in itself was no more than twenty five feet in length) came closer, the steam it secreted through the chimney clouded the sun briefly. As it pulled in to the dock, Charles waved out to the Owens family, and greeted them kindly. He took their belongings, little more than old clothes wrapped in sheets, and the Owens family set foot off Irish soil forever. Charles told all of them what they were to expect. He told them about Glasgow and how it was full of all sorts of different people, and the River Clyde that ran through where they were to make their new homes. He told them about all the work there was in the mines and the factories, and the massive railway lines that were being built. A life very different to growing crops and living in damp stone cottages. The youngest of the children must have been completely amazed by his words, and they were looking forward to meeting their sister Catherine, for the first time in three years.

It wasn’t long after Charles had finished before he set off across the sea. Bernard would have slept if he could, but the journey was admittedly uncomfortable. He simply coughed his way through the day. It seemed the damp wait for Charles to arrive had brought on a severe cold in him.
The family chatted away and in particular Mary Ann would try to keep her brothers and sisters occupied. It was now over to her to be the head of the children. When they got to Glasgow, it would be time to settle into a new life, perhaps even the youngest kids could even go to school and learnt o write. Mary Ann had managed to learn herself, heaven knows how! So at the point that they left Ireland, she was the only one in the family who could sign any papers or more importantly, and birth or death certificates. And let’s not forget, that when they reached Scotland, Bernard and Eliza would see Catherine and Charles’ children for the very first time…

The journey over to Scotland lasted about three to four hours, and it had taken a noticeable toll on Bernard’s health. By the time the shores of Scotland were in sight, Bernard was shivering frantically, and hardly spoke a word. It became of great concern to Charles and Eliza, who took to wrapping him in a sheet they had brought with them. It was clear that Bernard was suffering from some form of pneumonia. He was not a well man...

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Thursday 20 November 08 20:29 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter Two, Part Two

As Glasgow came closer and closer to view, the Gothic architecture, intriguingly intertwined with factory chimney’s and scaffolding, made sure that all heads in the boat were firmly fixed facing upwards. It was fascinating to be in such a place, and the Owens’ were feeling bittersweet. This was it; this was the place they had left home for. Their new life waited here for them, yet, on the other hand, would Bernard survive. He seemed likely to last the journey, but would he last the week?

Arriving at Richard Street, the family must have been amazed to see two story houses on a cobbled street. It was not a small street at all, it was quite busy, something quite on the contrary to the fields of County Down and Tyrone before that. Sanitary conditions were not desirable at all, but this was better than before. They knew that. Of course they did. They would make do; after all, Catherine and Charles had worked for nearly three years to give them this new life.

When the family met up with Catherine again it must have been a shock for her to see her father in such a frail state, spluttering his words and blue in the face. It wasn’t a very good reunion at all. Despite this, she smiled and hugged her parents, and then her husband, and lastly her siblings, John, Bernard, Elizabeth, Ellen and Joseph. Then of course Catherine introduced her family to her children, Charles, who was three, Eliza who was one, and Margaret, only a few weeks old. Catherine and Charles would continue to have more children, John in 1886, Catherine in 1888, Christina in 1890, Thomas in 1894, Peter in 1896, George in 1899, and Bernard in 1901.

Bernard did stay in his new home for the first night. It was decided that if he got some rest, he may get better, after all, they thought he simply had a bad cold. These were the days before hospitals, before the medical profession really took off, in regards to proper diagnosis and treatment. The germ theory had only been published twenty three years previous. Nevertheless when Bernard did not respond the next morning (March 26 1884), he was taken into the Western Infirmary. There was nothing they could do for him, and he died there on March 27, at 00.30. He died aged 45.
For Bernard, the vision was over. The new life he hoped for in Scotland crumbled, and as for the rest of his family, it must have devastated them. All of Catherine’s work, and now this? It just didn’t seem fair, but nothing really was back then. The family’s faith had taught them not to question God’s will. Things were alot worse than they are today. The family now lost its head just hours after setting up their new life. Bernard was gone, and to this day, I haven’t been able to find where he rests, although he may be buried in Lochburn Catholic Cemetery, Glasgow.

Bernard’s death must have put quite a strain on his family. Number 45 Richard Street was now home to a widow and her five youngest children. It was the first loss Eliza felt since her two sons, in Ireland. Perhaps, Scotland wasn’t going to be the great relief she thought it was.

Moving on from Bernard’s untimely death, this is where the story shifts, from Catherine, to Mary Ann, my great, great grandmother. For shortly after her losing her father, she seems to have found some comfort. She began a relationship with a man named Francis McDonald, a seaman of Irish birth, like her. He was from Mullingar and was born around 1860 to a policeman called Henry, and his wife Agnes. Very soon, Francis was seen to be Mary Ann’s pillar of support, and the two married in St Patrick’s Chapel, Anderston, on November 20 1885. After a long period of grief and uncertainty, the family had reason to celebrate. Things were starting to look up...

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Ruskie on Thursday 20 November 08 21:29 GMT (UK): :'(

(sad, but what a great story, well told, Reaybo)

What happened next? ...
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Thursday 20 November 08 21:32 GMT (UK): Ahhh that you will find out tomorrow :D

Thanks for reading :D Its good to know peeps are interested.

Matt.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: GAYNOR WILKINSON on Thursday 20 November 08 21:35 GMT (UK): Matt,
A sad, moving but beautiful story so far. You are a true inspiration.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Gaie on Thursday 20 November 08 21:42 GMT (UK): Matt, you're a great storyteller :D

Looking forward to the next installment.

Kind regards
Gaie
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: craizi daizi on Thursday 20 November 08 21:49 GMT (UK): Matt

This is just fantastic, you are really good at this, cant wait till tomorrow, what do you have to do to get an 'advance copy' LOL

Congrats on your work - excellent

Daizi
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: prophetess on Thursday 20 November 08 21:56 GMT (UK): Just pulling up a chair Matt,
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: lisa407 on Thursday 20 November 08 22:08 GMT (UK): wow matt thats really good. cant wait for next part. well done

lisa x
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Pels. on Thursday 20 November 08 22:22 GMT (UK): I think we're all enjoying it Matt .. well done you .. ! :) :)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: redspookhunter on Thursday 20 November 08 22:23 GMT (UK): good one matt ;D
no licking windows i hope ;)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: prophetess on Thursday 20 November 08 23:41 GMT (UK): Fantastic Matt so glad the electricians worked around the PC without me having to put away, cant wait until tomorrow.

you sure have a talent there, you should be thinking of writing and publishing this, :D :-*
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: lil growler on Thursday 20 November 08 23:54 GMT (UK): :( :( :( I didn't get any notification

Daizi girl , wait your turn ;D ;D ;D LOL

Matt, this is really terrific reading, sad, adventurous and intriguing.

Shall be waiting for more :)

Cheers lil
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: KarenM on Friday 21 November 08 02:41 GMT (UK): Matt, what a great story you are writing.

Karen
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: oldtimer on Friday 21 November 08 16:10 GMT (UK): can't wait for the next instalment!!
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: EmPea on Friday 21 November 08 18:42 GMT (UK): Is tomorrow here yet?
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: jesstidd on Friday 21 November 08 18:59 GMT (UK): Just great Matt, you really have a way with words. More, More. Jesstidd
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Friday 21 November 08 19:03 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter Three, Part One

After the union of Mary Ann Owens and Francis McDonald, 41 Richard Street must have been quite a busy place. Not only was it home to the newlyweds but it also played host to Catherine and her husband Charles McMillan. They had had two more children also in the years since Bernard’s death, so the place would have been anything but quiet and peaceful. With mum Eliza just on their doorstep, the family had a matriarch.

The next part of the story begins three months after Mary Ann and Francis got married. It is January 1886, and Francis has some worrying news for his new wife. Due to his job, he had been called away to work at Greenock for thirteen months. He would still be back, but not often at all, probably once every two months.

Meanwhile, at number 45 Richard Street, Eliza, now in her 45th year was struggling to provide for her two youngest, Ellen and Joseph. With no husband to support her now for nearly two years, and no support from her eldest kids due to their own financial strains, she took the last option on her list. She made an application for poor relief. The application was made at 1pm on February 9. An inspector came to see her the next day, and after seeing the state of the family and their well being, he recommended that they should not receive help, but should simply “go back home” to Ireland. Eliza refused to do this, and made a point of applying for relief again the very next day. Again, she was refused.
This is where things get really tough. The years 1886-89 were extremely busy for the Owens children. So much happened, I will try and get through it as best I can...

In March 1887, Mary Ann received a shock knock at the door, and found a man in a cap standing there in front of her, who told her that Francis was being brought home due to a condition he had come down with whilst at Greenock. He explained to her that he had phthisis, the old term given to what we now know as tuberculosis, and was a degenerative condition that would slowly kill him. For a woman of 24 who had been married barely five minutes to a man now suddenly registered as wholly disabled, this must have been crushing. It is crushing to think about. This was another obstacle in her path.

After thirteen months out of work, like his mother- in- law, Francis too had to apply for relief. Perhaps another reason he decided it was time to take the last resort, was that Mary Ann had dropped a bombshell on him. She was pregnant! For a man who is listed as wholly disabled he seemed quite fit to make babies! Nevertheless, with a little one on the way, money was needed, and quickly. This money was granted, the inspector saw for himself that Francis was in delicate health and approved relief. He was given medical relief from June 21, until July 31, although it is not stated how much. By this time, Eliza, Ellen and Joseph had been evicted on account of not having the money to pay rent, and were forced to stay at number 41, with Catherine, Mary Ann, and their growing families. Number 45 Richard Street was now home to twelve people spanning three generations.

As I mentioned, everything was happening at this point in time. But not everything was doom and gloom. There was a light relief in September 1888, when John Owens found love. In keeping with an Owens tradition, he married a spouse of Irish descent. She was Rose Ann McCann, and although born in Lanarkshire, he father was an Irish farmer. They married in a place now very familiar to the family, in St Patrick’s Chapel, Anderston, on September 22.

With her own struggle to feed Ellen and Joseph, on top of Mary Ann and Francis’ uncertain future, and her son’s wedding, Eliza was constantly thinking about what lay ahead for her kids. On top of this, news broke that her 18 year old son Bernard Jnr had also found himself a girl, named Elizabeth Carey, and had got her pregnant. To avoid scandal of an illegitimate birth, they quickly arranged to be married in April 1889. After all, they were a pious Roman Catholic family. But Ellen and Joseph were becoming poorer by the week, and Eliza needed to act. She decided to apply for relief, for a third time in as many years. By this time, Eliza, Ellen and Joseph, had moved out Catherine’s house, and was taking residence in 32 Cheapside Street, with her newly wed son John just down the road at number 70.

Ellen and Joseph were a priority. The other children were doing well (enough) at this time. Bernard Jnr was about to marry, and was being trained for the Navy at Hamilton, and Elizabeth was a servant for the O’Connor family, at 61 Clyde Street. Eliza, this time, afraid of being rejected again, put her and her two youngest up for poorhouse entry. Eliza was accepted, whilst Ellen and Joseph were refused. Eliza was entered into the poorhouse on February 13. However, her experience there was short-lived. Just eleven days into her working there, the news came that Mary Ann had given birth to a healthy baby boy. Francis, although an extremely ill man, unable to hold his son, was now a father, and Eliza was a grandmother for the sixth time. Sadly, at this time also, her youngest daughter Ellen was ill, suffering from severe rheumatisms, and needed caring for. Therefore, Eliza put forth her nine year old son Joseph to go into the workhouse, alone, in her stead. This he did from March 1-12 …

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Friday 21 November 08 19:05 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter Three, Part Two

If you thought that was hectic, wait and see! Joseph came out of the poorhouse on March 12 1889. From hereon, things move at a dramatically brisk pace. Less than 24 hours after Joseph came out of the poorhouse, Bernard Jnr’s fiancée Elizabeth Carey had given birth to an illegitimate son, and had called him Bernard. Baby Bernard was hidden from the public and given to Mary Ann to look after briefly, in order it to look as if she herself had given birth to twins. However this cover was only brief, as Bernard and Elizabeth married on April 25. Also, in this time, Eliza had applied for the fourth time for some sort of relief, and was again refused. After this, she must have simply accepted that nobody could help her, and struggled on. Her daughter Elizabeth, who was a servant to the O’Connor family, gave most of what she earned to her mother and siblings. The young Elizabeth saved and saved for months and eventually, she managed to get enough money together to move them out of Cheapside Street, and into number 77 Piccadilly Street, still in the Anderston District of Glasgow.

Back at 41 Richard Street, things were getting worse for Mary Ann. She struggled to look after her new born son Francis, and his dying father of the same name. Francis felt that he should again ask for some relief, and again, was granted some, this time from the St. Vincent de Paul society. They gave him two shillings a week: all they could afford. This occurred in May of 1889. Yet, Francis was declining rapidly. So much so that Catherine sent for Father Condon of St Patrick’s Chapel to administer the last rites. Father Condon was a close family friend to the Owens’. He, like them, fled Ireland after persecution and famine tore his parent’s lives apart. He married all of the Owens children, and had buried Bernard. It seemed that very soon, he would be burying Francis, whom he had married to Mary Ann just three years before.

On June 26 1889, after two years of unbearable pain and wasting away, Francis died in Richard Street at four in the afternoon. He was 29.The last thing he is likely to have seen was his wife holding his crying son in her arms. Baby Francis, only four months old almost to the day, would never remember his father’s face or his voice. Mary Ann was a widow at the age of 27, and all of a sudden, she was alone again. In all the hype that Scotland bore, all the future she hoped to have, she found that it was a mirage. The two most important men in her life were gone. All that was left was her God, and her birth family.

The tragedy was not the first to befall the Owens family and it would certainly not be the last. It was decided that as her sister Catherine once again fell pregnant in November 1889, it would be best if Mary Ann and baby Francis moved out. They both went to Piccadilly Street to live with Eliza, Ellen and Joseph.

After the death of Francis, the family had decided to leave Richard Street behind them. By time of the 1891 census, the Owens family now looked like this:

-Eliza was living at 77 Piccadilly Street, Anderston, with her widowed daughter Mary Ann and her own son Francis. Joseph Owens was also living at this address, and was a hammersman’s apprentice working for a man called John Devaney. His name will reappear later in the story.

-Catherine, Charles and their still growing were residing at 21 Catherine Street, Anderston.

-Bernard was away at sea, and so his wife Elizabeth Carey and their illegitimate child Bernard were living in Blackfriars with Elizabeth’s father Patrick. Bernard and Elizabeth had another son, in 1893/4, and named him John. After this, the family disappears. I don’t know what happened to Bernard Jnr, or his family.

-Elizabeth was a sixteen year old servant, still living with the O’Connor family in 61 Clyde Street.

- Ellen Owens had recovered from her rheumatisms and was in good health. She was now an adopted servant, living at 55 McIntyre Street, Anderston, with the Cathie family.

I am pretty sure in myself that 1889 is a year that the Owens children would have remembered until their dying day. After Francis’ death, Mary Ann was shattered. How could she possibly go on? As her great, great grandson, I cannot possibly understand how she managed to do what she did next. She refused help of any kind. She did not apply for any relief; she somehow managed to get by without a single farthing’s worth of help. I’ll save my own personal opinions of her until the end of the story…but I really have a lot of respect for her. Apart from the family she had around her, her own life was now in pieces. All she had to cling onto was her first born child. After what she had been through, she must have stayed awake day and night looking after him, making sure she wasn’t going to lose another part of her family. It is here around this time I think, that she starts to develop the grit and resilience that seems so much to define her…

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: craizi daizi on Friday 21 November 08 20:51 GMT (UK): Matt - dont stop now, what happens next......................................

Daizi
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Blondie1 on Friday 21 November 08 21:52 GMT (UK): WoW Matt,

What a wonderful story and so well written. I cant wait for more Please Please Please.

Val
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: prophetess on Friday 21 November 08 22:47 GMT (UK): Matt, You have Left us just hanging on a thread, :'(

what happend .............like the phone ringing and missing the end of a movie
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Gaie on Friday 21 November 08 23:00 GMT (UK): Matt

Great stuff!!! When we consider what our forebears went through, what have we got to moan about?

Kind regards
Gaie
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Paul Caswell on Friday 21 November 08 23:09 GMT (UK): Inspiring!!!

Thank you so much for this Matt.

Paul
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: elaine447 on Friday 21 November 08 23:14 GMT (UK): this story is like a good book
you can't wait to see what happens
but you dont want the story to end
Brilliant :)
ever thought of writing a book Matt
Elaine
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: mrs louis on Saturday 22 November 08 00:37 GMT (UK): matt

your story is excellent cant wait for what happens next

you have us all on the edge of our seats and begging for more

hope we wont have to wait long for next episode

lou xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: AnneMc on Saturday 22 November 08 02:09 GMT (UK): Hi Matt:
I am hooked, can't wait for you to tell the rest of the story.. You are a brilliant writer.

Annemc
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: jesstidd on Saturday 22 November 08 10:08 GMT (UK): A writer in the making. Beautiful story! only wish I had the ability to put pen to paper. This lovely true story will go down in history. jess
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: JDC on Saturday 22 November 08 13:54 GMT (UK): More specifically it will go down in family history :-) Keep up the gr8 work matt.

JDC
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Pinetree on Saturday 22 November 08 14:32 GMT (UK): Really enjoying the story - thank you ;)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Saturday 22 November 08 14:37 GMT (UK): Just wanted to drop in a line to say thanks for all your comments. I am pleasantly surprised at the feedback I've been getting over the last few days.

Pleased to say too that tonight I will post TWO chapters, because tomorrow I am travelling back to university, so won't have time to post.

Hope you all keep reading! Whether a good or a bad thing, this story is barely half way into its telling!

Matt :)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Saturday 22 November 08 14:40 GMT (UK): PS - For those who haven't noticed yet, the lady in my avatar is Mary Ann Owens, the same Mary Ann from the story.
Everytime I look at her facial expression, I can almost see her life story.

Lots more to come guys...
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: dollylee on Saturday 22 November 08 15:12 GMT (UK): No No No No ...... you can't have a life. You can't travel to University. You can't leave us hanging..... you must not eat, sleep or do anything other than finish your story.

I have been checking for an update almost hourly .....we are all just chomping at the bit to read more of this wonderful story ..... think of your adoring public !!!

dollylee

;D ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Saturday 22 November 08 16:10 GMT (UK): LOL!

Ahhh but good things come to those who wait...I'd hate to prove the age old saying wrong now!

Only a few more hours to wait!

At this rate if it proves to be this popular I may have to keep running the story up until the modern day ;)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Mum44 on Saturday 22 November 08 16:47 GMT (UK): Fascinated 8) Bookmarking ;)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Saturday 22 November 08 17:56 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter Four, Part One

The Owens family had now been in Scotland for five years. In that short space of time, everything had changed. The tragedy of Bernard and Francis’ untimely deaths had left the family feeling not quite the same as what it should have been. By this time, Eliza had seen four of her seven children marry, and her second, Mary Ann, become widowed before the age of thirty. Five years on from Bernard’s death, Eliza was now accustomed to living the widowed life. She now was stable enough not to rely on outside help, as Elizabeth, Ellen and Joseph were bringing in some income. However, unbeknown to them both at the time, Eliza’s life was about to change again.

Joseph Owens, the youngest of the Owens children, was now holding a job as an apprentice hammerman, and was taken under the wing of a man called John Devaney, born in County Leitrim in the 1850’s. One day in 1891 whilst Eliza was visiting Joseph at his new work, she and Devaney (as he was known) met for the first time, and something started to blossom. Eliza, although in her late 40’s, began to fall for a man ten years her junior and the two soon arranged to be married. Maybe, Eliza thought, this was what all her pain and suffering was for. Maybe, her God was testing her, to see if she was worthy of this happiness she now avidly pursued? After what she’d been through, would you let this chance pass you by? Once again, Eliza’s children found themselves flocking to St. Patrick’s Chapel in Anderston, and on December 10 1892, Eliza and Devaney were married. The wedding certificate infers that both Eliza and Devaney may have been economical with the truth when recording their ages! A 49 year old Eliza suddenly became 40, and a 40 year old Devaney, was suddenly 36. It seemed Eliza was a bit concerned about her own age.

Here also in this story, a new chapter begins for Mary Ann. For her, Anderston harboured too many bad memories, and she wanted out. She wanted to raise her son in an environment that was fresh and in which she could feel like she had left the tragedy of 1889 behind her. What had happened to her father and husband, she firmly wished never to revisit. Therefore, in 1893, Mary Ann decided her future lay outside of Glasgow, and headed for Motherwell. She had managed to get herself a house in the village of New Stevenston, which is now part of Holytown District. Her new address was 63 Napier’s Square.

Perhaps it had been decided by a power unknown, that Mary Ann had suffered too much too soon. In August 1893 she met a man called Michael Hughes. He was a strong Irish Catholic man from County Armagh, and had moved over to Scotland to contribute to the railway industry by laying plates all over Lanarkshire. After both of his parents had suffered under the famine, and ultimately perished, Michael came over to Scotland around the same time as the Owens’. If her father was alive, he would have almost certainly have approved of him. Michael and Mary Ann seemed to have found something special in each other, and although they planned to be married in late 1894, this was brought forward, as Mary Ann had fallen pregnant. She must have been ecstatic. Having him living on the other side of Napier’s Square (number 10) was also a blessing in itself. Michael and Mary Ann married on New Years Day 1894, in the chapel of Francis Xavier, at Carfin, a town that half a century later would be the site of the world famous Grotto, which to this day brings pilgrims from all over the UK to its gardens. The water in the stream there was brought over from Lourdes, in France. However until this time, Carfin was simply a very small town which was home to miners and their families, like much of Motherwell at this time.

Seven months after the two were married, Mary Ann gave birth to her first child with Michael. She was delighted when the midwife told her she had given birth to a healthy baby girl. Michael gave Mary Ann the choice to name the baby as she wished, and the new addition to the family was named Eliza, after Mary Ann’s mother. Despite this though, she was and has always been known in the family as Lizzie.

In this period of bliss for the Owens family, it seemed life really was looking up, after it was announced that Ellen had also arranged to marry. She had found herself a military man by the name of William Charles Chamberlain. He was born in 1871 at Hamilton Barracks, and his father was a Chelsea Pensioner who had fought in the Indian Mutiny and in the war of 1860 in China. At this point in time, Mary Ann was the only one of the family who had left Anderston. All others remained there, and Ellen married William in St Patrick’s Chapel (surprise!). This happened on October 31 1895. This was followed one year later by Elizabeth’s marriage, to a man called James Rice, who was a railway platelayer. Things were looking up…

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Saturday 22 November 08 17:57 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter Four, Part Two

The story now moves to 1896, when Catherine, Mary Ann and Ellen all gave birth to sons: Catherine was now on her ninth child, Mary Ann had provided Michael with a son of his own, and Ellen and William had their first child. Catherine gave birth on February 28, calling her son Peter. Mary Ann called her son Patrick after Michael’s father. He was born on October 27, and Ellen and William named their first born John, who was born on November 10. The life/death ratio in the family was beginning to balance itself out again.

The Owens family now had a handful of descendants, and they were growing, fast! It would have made a humbling and emotional recovery from what had befallen them in the years before 1892. Heartbreakingly, this was as good as it was ever going to get, for all of them.

Shortly after the birth of John Chamberlain, Ellen and William realized they needed to move to a house that could accommodate their growing family. In March 1897, they moved into Govan parish, to a house that suited their needs, at 29 Ardgowan Place. In moving, William found that he could not find a job. He had been a warehouse porter all his working life, but could not find anything in Govan. For some reason, he was simply unemployable. He was forthwith listed as “idle”.

Switching sisters for a moment, Elizabeth and her new husband James Rice, had had word from Mary Ann that James might want to think about coming to Holytown, because he too was struggling with work, and there were lots of workers needed in her area. Therefore, the two newlyweds moved to Holytown in summer of 1897, and soon after Elizabeth gave birth to their first child, and named him Patrick Rice.

Back on Ellen’s doorstep, things were getting worse. Her husband could no longer provide for her and her newborn son, and to make William more anxious, Ellen was now pregnant again. She begged her husband to ask his father for some help, as he received a Chelsea Pension. However, William would not. He insisted things would get better. Ellen was also a proud woman, she would not ask for money from anyone if she could avoid it. It seems that the declining state of Ellen and William’s situation also took a toll on their relationship. It is believed the two separated numerous times, but never divorced. However on October 29 1897, William began to have severe convulsions, and was taken into the eleventh ward of the Western Infirmary, in Anderston. This put Ellen back in close contact with her husband, and indeed her own family. Ellen, however, had to let her pride take a step back hereafter. She made an application for relief on November 2. She was rejected, on account that her father in law was able to give her some money, at least enough to support herself. He was a widower himself, and could spare his pension. She was also given eight shillings and eight pence a week from the Gardner’s Society, and ten shillings a week for general relief, due to being pregnant.

Meanwhile, whilst all this was going on, things took a worrying turn for John Devaney, Eliza’s second husband. They had been now married just under five years, and one day Eliza noticed Devaney in some discomfort. It was discovered that he had burst an ulcer, previously unseen, on his right leg. The doctor was called, and in a crushing blow for Devaney and Eliza, he was told that his leg was so bad, that it had in fact developed into carcinoma (cancer) and he would never work again. Eliza must have been devastated, like Devaney must have been, for she could see herself going down a road she had been down before, a road that nearly killed her. Despite this, she knew what was happening, and she persuaded her husband to apply for relief in her stead. Suddenly, Eliza was suddenly a pauper again. On November 8 1897, Devaney acted on his wife’s plea, and he applied for relief. The best they could offer him was the Poorhouse, and he had to take it. Although crippled by an ulcer that was slowly eating his leg, he knew he couldn’t put his wife in the poorhouse again. Devaney was entered, and he would work a painful two years away there…

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Saturday 22 November 08 17:59 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter Five, Part One

Elsewhere in Lanarkshire, Mary Ann and Michael, along with her two children, Lizzie and Patrick, were doing what can only be described as “okay”. They were not struggling, but were by no means sorted financially. They had made a lot of friends (mostly connected with the Church), and the close Irish community in New Stevenston had welcomed them, and by now they had truly settled into their new life. Mary Ann was stable again, and Michael was good enough to raise Mary Ann’s son Francis as his own. Whilst the entire struggle was going on with Eliza and Devaney though, something happened to Mary Ann and Michael that would leave a mark on them forever. Mary Ann awoke one morning to find her daughter Lizzie lying motionless in her cradle, and immediately, the nurse was called. It was the morning of October 27 1897, Patrick’s first birthday. Oblivious to what was going on, he was crying continuously as a tearful Michael and Mary Ann struggled with the nurse. They must have pleaded with the nurse to make her baby better. There was some comfort for them both when they saw the nurse administer some medicine, and soon after Lizzie began to itch and wriggle in the cradle. The nurse warned them however, that although Lizzie was seemingly now looking healthy, she was breathing heavily and told them to watch out as she was starting to develop a winter cold.

The cold December chill had now set firm into 63 Napier’s Square, and the nurse visited several times. Michael and Mary Ann were told that they had to consider the possibility of seeing Christmas without their daughter. From what my grandmother says which she heard from her mother, the two of them were inconsolable. The story goes that Mary Ann would stand by the cradle for hours and hours, trying to give her dying daughter some warmth. Mary Ann also found new strength in her faith, still hoping and praying, praying so fervently, that her daughter would be spared. After a two week fight with pneumonia, Lizzie Hughes died in the house she was born, on December 11 1897. Although her parents must have expected it in some shape or form, it was still a massive blow to a family only just settled, and for Mary Ann it seemed, she was never going to be allowed to have any happiness in her life, without sacrifice. Lizzie’s death made her ill too, and Michael was off work for two months afterwards. And to make things even worse, Patrick was starting to develop a winter cold aswell…

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Saturday 22 November 08 18:01 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter Five, Part Two

With anything that happens in life, the key is that we must always move on. We must once again find heart, and keep it. It seems that through her faith in God, Mary Ann and Michael did just that. For little more than three months after Lizzie has died, Mary Ann was pregnant again. The key was to survive, and to have children that would survive. I cant help but think Eliza had a lot to do with Michael and Mary Ann’s recovery, for Mary Ann did go back to Anderston to stay there for a couple of weeks. Perhaps it is fortunate that for the next year or so, things started to settle for the Owens’. When Mary Ann gave birth on November 11 1898, she must have that God had answered her prayers, albeit a little late. Michael and herself had been blessed with another daughter. They chose to call the new arrival Margaret. Two weeks later, Ellen had given birth to a daughter too, she was named Sarah. However, William Chamberlain was still in the Infirmary and now she really was struggling, despite her father-in-law’s weekly donation to her survival.

As we approach 1901, the Owens family has a different face to what it did in thee first years of migration. It had now flourished and intertwined with many different families. The term “branching out” seems to sum it up relatively well, methinks. But, we mustn’t forget the heartache that still ran through the family’s veins. Struggles that were still transpiring, such as the turmoil that had now engulfed Eliza Devaney and her husband, who’s condition was worsening. In autumn 1899 he was transferred from Glasgow Poorhouse to Barnhill, and was now on crutches. Just two weeks later, he was deemed unfit to work, and removed from the poorhouse. He was thought to be near death, so much so that his relief ceased. Devaney and Eliza, it seemed, were simply left to rot. It didn’t matter that they were both alone and had no income at all now save that of Joseph, if they couldn’t work, that was that. They had very much been abandoned. It looked like, for a moment that Eliza would have to go back into the poorhouse. Yet, so scarred she was from the previous circumstances that forced her into that dreadful place, she was simply too frightened to go. We will probably never know what experiences she had there except what we can gain from historical sources, but one thing is very clear: Her time in the poorhouse had scarred her for life. Fortunately, she managed to avoid it, and never went back there again. But what would become of her husband?

At the exact same time as the above occurred, Eliza learned that her daughter Elizabeth, who was now in Holytown, was expecting her second child with husband James Rice. At the turn of the century, she gave birth to a beautiful girl, whom she named Mary Ann, after her sister. Funnily enough, at this point in time, Mary Ann herself had fell pregnant again, and on October 15 gave birth to another son, calling him Bernard after her father. Bernard Hughes was born in Craigneuk, but at the time of the 1901 census, Mary Ann and her family were living as such:

-Eliza, her son Joseph and second husband John Devaney were living at 69 Piccadilly Street, Anderston.

-Catherine, Charles, and their family (Charles, Elizabeth, Margaret, John, Catherine, Christina, Thomas, Mary, Peter and George), were living at 13 Kinning Street, Tradeston. Another child, Bernard, was on the way. I am starting to think Charles and Catherine loved each other very much!

-Mary Ann, her second husband Michael Hughes, and their children Patrick, Margaret and Bernard were living at 31 Wishaw Road, Holytown.

-Elizabeth and her husband James Rice, along with their two children Patrick and Mary Ann, were living two houses down at 27 Wishaw Road, Holytown.

-Ellen, at this point was separated from William Chamberlain (he was in Western Infirmary), was living with their two children, John and Sarah, at 14 Baker Street, Stirling.

Maybe with the break of the century, things would get better for the family? Surely, things had to ease up, if only a little…

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Blondie1 on Saturday 22 November 08 18:14 GMT (UK): Matt,

This makes wonderful reading as sad as it is. It's like reading a book you can't put it down.

I await the next part anxiously.

Val
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: elaine447 on Saturday 22 November 08 18:39 GMT (UK): absolutely brilliant Matt :)
(sniff sniff) ;D
Elaine
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: lil growler on Saturday 22 November 08 19:26 GMT (UK): Look after your fans matty ;D

This is brilliant and gives you an appreciation of the conditions and life at the time.

Keep it coming :)

lil
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: jesstidd on Saturday 22 November 08 19:31 GMT (UK): If only the younger generation on social and refusing to work could read this Matt and how our ancestors must be turning in their graves. Keep up the work jess
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: madpants on Saturday 22 November 08 21:04 GMT (UK): Don't stop now!!! We want more!!! Come Baaaaaacck!! (http://bestsmileys.com/crying/5.gif)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Gadget on Saturday 22 November 08 21:05 GMT (UK): Hi Matt

This is brilliant.

Please continue :)

Gadget
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: craizi daizi on Saturday 22 November 08 21:44 GMT (UK): Matt

BRILLIANT, is all i can say, keep it coming, this is the first place i go to when i wake up , to read the next installment.

Daizi
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: mrs louis on Sunday 23 November 08 11:50 GMT (UK): Matt

When is the next installment? You cant leave to go back to uni not now

none of us are going to let you.

we need more more more

lou xxx
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: JDC on Sunday 23 November 08 13:07 GMT (UK): Morning Matt,

Best wishes for you at uni. I'm sure you'll meet all of the challenges they throw at you with flying colors.

Keep up the family story telling when you can :-) We all all looking forward to "hearing the rest of the story". We awaite with anticipation.

JDC
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Sunday 23 November 08 19:45 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter Six, Part One

If one is to look at the 1901 census, one can clearly see that the Owens family had now started to split geographically. From the outset, they had all stayed in the same place, all existed within a close bracketed community. Their makeup, was that of a model family. This was not so anymore. Whilst the majority of the family were still in Anderston, Mary Ann had moved to Holytown, and Elizabeth had followed. Catherine and her family were now in Stirling, and Eliza's eldest would find that 1901 would be a year her life would change forever.

Catherine by now had given birth to a total of eleven children, and had spent just less than half of her time on earth in a state of pregnancy. She was now just over forty years old, and soon, her eldest children would begin to go out into the world and find spouses. Charles, the man who had introduced Catherine and her family to Scotland, was a very well loved man indeed. His time on the ferries and Clutha's of the River Clyde had earned him many friends. Be that as it may, In May 1901, Catherine's seemingly smooth run at life stopped at a shockingly abrupt pace. Around early May, Charles complained of back pain and thus had to leave his job of nearly thirty years. He found himself vomiting and came down with a severe fever. He was taken to the Victoria Infirmary in Glasgow, where to everybody's astonishment, he died suddenly on July 12 after a routine monitoring. Catherine was mortified. She felt as if her world had ended. How could she posibly go on? Charles was the only man she had known, and he had left her alone now with more children than shillings in her pocket. He was the man, who had made all this possible? I think that if this story were ever to be made into a film, his character would be one who would take a lead role, for his role in the story is paramount to everything that had happened, and was to happen next.

Three weeks after Charles' death, Catherine applied for relief to support herself, and to pay for Charles' burial. She was approved by the board and given five shillings a week, as well as twenty one pounds from Charles' will. But that money would not last her long at all...and Charles wasn't the only shocking death in the family that year either...

It was December 30 1901, and Catherine's sister Elizabeth was an anxious woman, as her husband James Rice had not come home that night from working on the railways. He was working with Michael Hughes all day, but became worried when Michael came home to Mary Ann, and James was not with him. Michael's face was as white as a sheet, he looked as if he was about to vomit. Elizabeth asked him where James was, and Michael told her to go inside, he would talk to her in a moment. Five minutes later Michael knocked at the door, this time Mary Ann was with him. Michael had devastating news for Elizabeth. James had been working on the Caledonian Line at Motherwell Station all week, and was on his way home with Michael, when he stepped onto the line in the way of a cargo train passing swiftly. I am not sure how Michael and Mary Ann would have put it to her, but the impact of the train had torn James to pieces. His death certificate states that his cause of death was "compound fracture of the skull, loss of right leg, fracture of left leg, loss of right arm, and loss of fingers on left hand". This gruesome and truly devastating death must have shattered Elizabeth, only into her fifth year of marriage. Poor Elizabeth must have sobbed her heart out. To make matter even worse for her, she was five months pregnant with their third child, who turned out to be a son, born on April 7 1902. She called him James in his father's memory. James Jnr would also have a short life and a tragic end. He died on his twenty second birthday (1924) of influenza.

For Catherine and Elizabeth, the news that their little brother Joseph was to marry would have provided little balance. Catherine found herself struggling to make ends meet, and Elizabeth too was distraught and a widow aged twenty seven. However, despite these twin tragedies, their mother Eliza now had just given up her last child, Joseph, who married a woman called Rose McGinty, in Anderston, on December 31, 1902. Unable to have children of their own, they adopted a boy called John Dougan, sometime soon after their union...

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Sunday 23 November 08 20:18 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times, Chapter Six, Part Two

The following year seems to have gone by with little happening in this story. It can be viewed as a good thing, for it gave the family little if any restbite from events of the last eighteen months. However, it was short lived. Catherine had applied again for relief, and was refused this time, due to her children being able to provide for her. Her eldest son Charles was now 22 and he had an income of his own, as he had not yet married. Elizabeth seems to have got by without any relief, which I find hard to believe, but there is no record of her applying for parish relief.

Around this time (late 1903), things were taking a turn for the worse again at 69 Piccadilly Street. John Devaney had begun to feel the effects of being refused relief now, and had become depressed, and had turned to the bottle. Eliza felt her husband slowly slipping away from her, and found that she couldn't talk to him anymore. He told her that he felt like he had failed her, and that he had not been a good husband of late. She comforted him, but it seems that a row broke out between the two of them. Devaney, now severely drunk, stormed out of the house, and headed for the relief application office. On entry, he was rowdy, waving his crutch at the inspector, swearing at him. He collapsed onto the hard wooden floor of the office and tugged at the inspector's cloak, in an almost pathetic plea for help. "Please help me" he drooled. "For God's sakes, I cannot work, I cannot eat. My wife is losing faith in me". Devaney was aided to his feet, and was now in tears. "Help me" he screamed. This was the last desperate plea of a man completely fed up with life, completely finished, so it seemed. His life was slowly draining away, and Eliza's future was on a knife edge. The result of this plea was that his case was reviewed, and Devaney was told to wait weeks before he would be sen by the insepctor again.

In this dark hour, we see a glimmer of light. Back in Holytown, Mary Ann had given birth to her fifth child, and chose to call her after her younger sister Ellen. Ellen is my own great granny. She was born on November 17 1903 in Napier's Square.

If we now return back to Devany's struggle with both himself and the poor inspectors, we see them perhaps giving in to his pursuit. On May 3 1904, he was approved to receive three shillings for four weeks, to support Eliza. In a cruel twist of fate, the very next day, Devaney was rushed to Stobhill Hospital, suffering from what is suspected to be a heart attack. Two months later he was taken to Gartloch Asylum in Glasgow. He and Eliza knew now, it was unlikely that he would ever get out alive.

For Catherine, things had gotten much worse than before. She, like her step father, ws refused relief time and time again. In the months from July 11 1904 until September 1905, she applied seven times, and was refused every time. It doesn't make any sense why, but she was. She had been very much abandoned aswell. She lived in severe poverty, for the majority of the next twelve months. In September 1905, she wa given some relief to pay for her children's clothes and schoolbooks. That was all she got. A whole four shillings, for one week.

Surely, this was the worst things were ever going to get? Think again...

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Blondie1 on Sunday 23 November 08 21:29 GMT (UK): Blimey Matt where are the tissues. Come on what happened next????????

Val
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: mrs louis on Sunday 23 November 08 21:51 GMT (UK): Matt

I really dont know how on earth you do it but this is excellent material

cant wait for next bit ..... i need to go to the shops to purchase more hankies.

lou xxxx
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: craizi daizi on Sunday 23 November 08 21:57 GMT (UK): Matty

Why do you always stop and leave us hanging,

Come back...............................

Daizi
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: JDC on Sunday 23 November 08 22:12 GMT (UK): Good job of keeping up the suspense for us Matt,
keep it up :-)

JDC
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: lil growler on Monday 24 November 08 05:08 GMT (UK): We want more ;D

lil
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: majm on Monday 24 November 08 13:01 GMT (UK): Matt, please send this to a publisher, even in this raw format. Tis the very best work I have ever read. I read avidly.

Many Cheers, GGD of Mary Ann (Hunt)

Tis just the very best, Matt. T h e V E R Y B E S T
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Monday 24 November 08 17:18 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter Seven, Part One.

Twenty years had now passed since the Owens famly had left the shores of their homeland, in search of better fortune. That had bore them little fruit in their pursuit. In fact, as 1906 approached them, things had sunk to an all time low. It is interesting to note that the male children were seemingly well off. John, Bernard and Joseph were settled and married, and although I have not managed to track Bernard down yet, if he was suffering, it would be known by this point.

It's always been a taboo subject in my family when I talk about an accident that happened in early 1906, concerning Mary Ann's daughter, Ellen (Nellie). Nellie, who is my great grandmother, was by this time just over two years old, and something that is still unclear happened which resulted in her losing one of her legs. I am told two different stories by two different relatives. One tells me that she had a nasty accident when her leg was caught in bedding that was attached to the wall in the household, another rellie tells me that simply her leg became infected and her blood would not circulate. Either way, it must have been very hard for a two year old girl to recover from such trauma. For Mary Ann and Michael, it was another severe trauma involving one of their children. It brought back horrifying memories of Lizzie's death in 1897. Maybe I'll never know how the accident happened?

At this very same time not too far away in Anderston, Mary Ann's sister Catherine and her step father John Devaney were at a wits end with regards their financial situations. Although Devaney had received some - though very little relief to support his wife Eliza - Catherine had been refused more times than one might think to be ethically tenable. Devaney had been in decline for the best part of nine years now, and was suffering terribly from his carcinoma. Eliza knew it wouldn't be long before she would become a widow for the second time.

John Devaney had been transferred to Gartloch Asylum and had been in there now for eighteen months. After declining rapidly and consequently only just stopping short of actually lunging himself at the poor inspectors, he had pleaded and begged for them to help him and his wife. He was now exhausted, and he died on February 18 1906. Eliza was a widow once more, and just three weeks later on March 8, a shock came from Stirling. Her first born child Catherine had collapsed and died in her home, leaving her eleven children orphaned. Eliza now found herself burying her husband and eldest child in the space of a month. The majority of Catherine's children were taken in by her eldest, Charles, and other elder siblings. Some went to live as servants with family. It was now up to Mary Ann to bring her family together. She was now beginning to take on her mother's role as head of the family. She took in her widowed mother, and also Catherine's son, Peter McMillan, the same age as her son Patrick. She did this also whilst pregnant, and found that with another little one on the way, she and Michael needed to find a new place to live. They moved from Napier's Square into the newly built miner's row houses, known as Nimmo's Row. The family actually came to inhabit three houses in this row, also occupying numbers 7 and 18 at different points in time. 2 Nimmo's Row's would be Mary Ann's last home. She never moved again. After the birth of her sixth and final child in September 1906, Mary Ann named her after her recently deceased sister, Catherine...

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Monday 24 November 08 17:19 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter Seven, Part Two

Perhaps it is true what they say, that for every death in the world, there is also a birth to replace it. It was certainly true in 1906, and Mary Ann had made sure that Catherine's name would live on in her own daughter. However, unbeknown to my great great granny at the time, she would have to face another tragedy just two years later. Her daughter Catherine died at just sixteen months old, on February 8 1908, after a battle with pneumonia. Mary Ann and Michael had lost another child. The Hughes' could not afford to bury Catherine in a Lair of her own, and she was buried with James Rice, in the Globe Cemetery in Motherwell.

On April 26 1907, Elizabeth Rice, whose husband James had been killed six years previous on a railway line, reamarried, to a man called James Carey. They married in St Francis Xavier's Chapel, in Carfin. I am not entirely sure yet if they had any children, as Scotland has yet to allow acces to birth certificates for this period.

After this light relief from again more and more tragedy, it seems that the next year was somewhat peaceful, until in April 1909, two more deaths brought Ellen Owens life to a grinding halt. On April 3, after battling a long illnes that had put him out of work for nearly a decade, her husband, William Chamberlain died in the Western Infirmary, Glasgow. In the folowing November, William's father John died. With him, died any financial support that she had previously been receiving. However, Ellen didn't find herself on her own for long. In July 1910, she remarried, this time to an irishman called James Donnachie. By this time she had moved to Holytown. They had two children, Bridget in 1912, and Lizzie n 1915.

For a family that had now grown as the Owens' had, it is no surprise why things are so busy...the pace of events is almost nonstop, and for the next two years, things slow down...alot. Be that as it may however, Mary Ann had a nasty urprise in store. Sometimes I wonder how she really got through these things. If her faith did it, she must have been second to a nun to still have belief in her God. For in the summer of 1911, something would happen that would bring back heartbreaking memories for my great great grandmother. God was not finished with her yet...

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: mrs louis on Monday 24 November 08 18:17 GMT (UK): yet again we are left in suspense . . . lol

cant wait for next chapter

the title does say it all ..... how much bad luck can 1 family have and still keep going?

matt you need to seriously think about getting this published hun its an awesome read
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Blondie1 on Monday 24 November 08 18:18 GMT (UK): Oh Matt don't stop there please ??? I must get some more tissues

Val
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: jesstidd on Monday 24 November 08 18:29 GMT (UK): Wow! jessie
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: EmPea on Monday 24 November 08 18:33 GMT (UK): more, more, more! we want more!
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: jethorp on Monday 24 November 08 20:06 GMT (UK): This young man is a credit to Mary Ann,and an inspiration to us all.Thank you sooooo much Matt, and hurry up with the next piece!!
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Monday 24 November 08 20:28 GMT (UK): At this rate I'm gonna have to stock up on tissues. Recession? What recession?

Thankyou all for your wicked comments :)

Next piece along tomorrow!

Cheers again, Ive been overwhelmed by the responses I never thought it would go down this well!

Matt.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: JJbeech on Monday 24 November 08 21:06 GMT (UK): Blimey
Mum told me this was good but :o :o :o
This is what i set out to do, raeybo, but ending up typing a mills and boon!!! :'(
Yours soo much better!!
Send this to a publisher TODAY!!
Ask me mam, she got some info!! ;)

Truly wonderful!!!
;D
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: brendam on Monday 24 November 08 22:50 GMT (UK): Matt,

Excellent storytelling here - you have talent my friend and so many are enjoying this wonderful tale. I agree with the rest of the rootschatters, get it published.

Now, my question, like everyone else, WHAT HAPPENS NEXT???????? I got home from work, threw some food at the kids, quickly shovelled that nasty snow and ran to the computer.

Come on now, one more chapter tonight, you don't really need to eat or sleep or study do you :P

looking forward to the next chapter, take care and be well rested, we are all anxiously waiting.

cheers
Brenda
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: prophetess on Monday 24 November 08 22:50 GMT (UK): Quote from: jethorp on Monday 24 November 08 20:06 GMT (UK)
This young man is a credit to Mary Ann,and an inspiration to us all.Thank you sooooo much Matt, and hurry up with the next piece!!

Cant agree with you more jethorpe, and I am proud to say i have met this young man, Just hope he remembers that when he is rich and famous ;)

Matt JJ is right I have stuff I got at an open day while talking to a local author, will send the infor when i can get to it
Sybil
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Josephine on Monday 24 November 08 22:52 GMT (UK): Bless your heart for telling your family's story, Matt. You're an excellent storyteller; they really come to life through your words.

Would each family have had a garden, a cow, some chickens, etc., to help them survive?

Regards,
Josephine
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: margaretspearin on Monday 24 November 08 23:08 GMT (UK): Quote from: Reaybo M on Thursday 20 November 08 21:32 GMT (UK)
Ahhh that you will find out tomorrow :D

Thanks for reading :D Its good to know peeps are interested.

Matt.
this is a great story Matt i hope you are going to put it in book form. Well done
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: ukdescendant on Monday 24 November 08 23:11 GMT (UK): Loving this, I had a major panic because I forgot to bookmark it yesterday and spent ages looking
for it tonight but I'm glad I persisted .

Can't wait for tomorrow.
Gill
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: crimzontide on Monday 24 November 08 23:22 GMT (UK): this story really makes me appreciate how good things are for us today.keep up the good work matt
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: mazwad on Monday 24 November 08 23:27 GMT (UK): I just started reading this tonight and its kept me up way past my bedtime. What a fantastic story and brilliant telling of it. It makes one feel very humbled sitting here will a full belly, nice and warm and with a comfy bed to get into. The tragedy is that not enough people realise how hard it was and not so very long ago either. Definitely a case of count your blessings.

I can't wait for the next part and thanks for sharing this with us.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: jellybeans on Monday 24 November 08 23:57 GMT (UK): Bookmarking for later. Started to read but work has interrupted. Love what I have read though!
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: majm on Tuesday 25 November 08 01:17 GMT (UK): Tis wonderful, tis tis tis.

Matt, well done, and Mary Ann would have been so proud to know you lad!

As a great granddaughter of one Mary Ann to you Matt, well done, and keep up the good writing. Get to a publisher, GET YOUR WORDS credited with YOUR NAME, these are worthy of copyright protection.

Cheers,

MA
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Tuesday 25 November 08 15:21 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter Eight, Part One

The death of their daughter in February 1908 had left Michael and Mary Ann Hughes feeling somewhat drained. After all, it was not the first time they had lost a child, a daughter. The Owens clan, I find, are very much defined by loss, but also a determination to prevail through this loss, in a manner reserved and silent.. Its something quite overwhelming. Of course at the times in which they lived, it was nothing out of the ordinary at all.

2 Nimmo's Row's was now a house full to the brim. Mary Ann, Michael, Eliza, Patrick, Margaret, Bernard, Nellie, and Peter now called it home. Peter had lost his father Charles aged five and his mother Catherine aged ten. Eliza was now no longer entitled to receive Devaney's posthumous relief, because she had entered her seventieth year, and was on the roll for an Old Age Pension. She was an elderly woman now, living her final years in the company of a comfortable but drastically reduced family unit.

At this time in Scotland, the railway industry (particularly in Lanarkshire) was colossal. Michael Hughes, in being a railway plate layer, was a key cog in the industrial machine that swept across much of the country. However, in the summer of 1910, he had been struck down with a fever, and have also began to suffer from convulsions. Something wasn't quite right with Michael, and Mary Ann spotted something in it, too. She had seen this sort of thing before, whilst caring for her first husband, Francis McDonald. Michael was now suffering from the same symptoms as he had, and although probably not diagnosed until after death, Michael was indeed suffering from pththsis (tuberculosis). There was no treatment for this disease at the time.

With his five children growing up around him, Michael now stopped working and as Christmas 1911 approached, he became bedridden and skeletal. His face has lost all it's life and colour, and his clothes shrank about him. He was dying. Mary Ann was losing her second husband, and my great great grandfather, to the same, horrifically degenerative disease that had haunted Mary Ann ever since 1889.

Mary Ann now had to care for her ailing husband, as well as her frail mother and her children. Yet, when Michael called her, she would always go, she would always drop everything to tend to him. It seems that she did truly love him. Normally people married for other reasons back then, but they appear to have been truly in love. She would cradle him, when he became so ill that he lost the power to thank her. Michael knew that as he lay dying, she was always going to be the last thing that went through his mind, before drifting to sleep every night, not knowing if he would awaken the next morning. They had been through the mill together, and come out fighting.

As autumn set in, Michael waned and deteriorated chronically. The disease seemed to set upon him quicker than it did Francis. The eldest of the children were now reaching the age where they were beginning to understand what was happening to daddy. Who knows what was the last thing Michael thought about, but for the last few days of his life, he was a breathing shell. Motionless. His loving wife cared for him and embraced him as the end drew near. With his head perched in her arms, Michael now had minutes to live. Mary Ann whispered a prayer into his ear whilst clutching his hands and positioning them as one would if one were to pray. Not long, before she finished, Michael stopped breathing... Yet she did not grieve, she did not weep uncontrollably. She was no longer a stranger to grief. It is almost as if, she had become tired of grieving. It was the children who would grieve ferociously, not her. She knew how to quell the numbness inside of her. After Michael died on December 1 1911, it was simply Mary Ann on her own with her mother and children. No more working men to bring money into the household. Mary Ann was now given a widow's pension, and Eliza was comfortably catered for with her Old Age Pension.

Michael was gone. The man who arguably (and without any bias opinion) had given Mary Ann hope when she had none, and strength when she was weak. He had left her to care for the children, and to protect them at all costs. Yet, in the face of global events of the next decade or so, Mary Ann found again that she could influence very little in her life. After Michael had died, everything seems to have calmed...of course, the calm before a storm. Mary Ann had been tested and tested and tested and had always managed to come out of the other end fighting. Yet, after war was declared in 1914 against Germany, she found herself being tested in a way nobody in the family had ever seen before, or has seen since. Nobody could have anticipated the heartache to follow...

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Tuesday 25 November 08 15:23 GMT (UK): Hope you guys keep reading, and thanks for the comments...Part Two will follow later tonight...

What a great audience you are ;)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Mum44 on Tuesday 25 November 08 15:30 GMT (UK): What a great Work we're hearing performed :-*
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: JJbeech on Tuesday 25 November 08 15:32 GMT (UK): :o I have to wait??? :'(
That's cruel Raeybo!
Well done, it's simply wonderful and has inspired me to pick mine up again, though it pales in comparison!(mines that is!! ;))
Wont be switching pc off till next installment!
:) :)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: jethorp on Tuesday 25 November 08 15:34 GMT (UK): No Need to thank us Its you we must thank, I think everyone of us reading have often wondered just what things were like,and we all have I suspect family members who have been left alone through death to face to future,and wondered how you go on from there especially in the 1800's.You have provided insight Matt and for that I thank you.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Blondie1 on Tuesday 25 November 08 15:35 GMT (UK): Hi Matt,

What faith Mary Ann had. How did she manage to carry on?

Mr Blondie is now following this and thinks it is really good.

Val
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Tuesday 25 November 08 15:37 GMT (UK): Thanks guys...

I think I have inherited her grit...I am pleased to say! Michael's death was only half of what she later had to endure.

Promise you won't have to wait long, lol...next bit will be up tonight :D
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: prophetess on Tuesday 25 November 08 15:49 GMT (UK): Matt, Where do you want the Kleenex bills sent :'( ;)

Thinking we will have to start a Matt Fan Club ;D

hope your typing up the next bit
Sybil
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: mazwad on Tuesday 25 November 08 15:59 GMT (UK): Another enthralling episode bringing history to life for us. You have such a talent Matt, I wish I could write even half as well.
Mary Ann would be proud to have her history recorded so eloquently, she sounds like a very strong woman who took what life dished out and dealt with it bravely.

What a lovely way of recording your family history, can't wait for the next part.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Josephine on Tuesday 25 November 08 16:52 GMT (UK): I've had challenges in life but I've always had food in my belly, clothes on my back and a roof over my head.

Thank you, Matt.

Regards,
Josephine

Quote from: Reaybo M on Tuesday 25 November 08 15:23 GMT (UK)
Hope you guys keep reading, and thanks for the comments...
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: ankerdine on Tuesday 25 November 08 17:23 GMT (UK): Here's another avid reader of your story, Matt. I shed real tears reading about Michael's moving passing.

I agree with everyone on here that you should get this published. In time too, there should be a film or at least a BBC drama, if you don't mind me saying. This is REAL LIFE and the story should be told,

I am addicted now......

.....thank you for the chance to learn about your family.

Judy
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: AnneMc on Tuesday 25 November 08 18:26 GMT (UK): Matt:

once again I have to say what a wonderful writer you are.. As I read lots of books this is as good as any I have read.. You make it come alive. What a wonderful thing you are doing. Can;t wait for the next chapter

cheers
annemc
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: craizi daizi on Tuesday 25 November 08 20:37 GMT (UK): Matt

Where is the next part........you promised ??

Daizi
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Tuesday 25 November 08 21:06 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter Eight, Part Two

The years after Michael's death passed quietly for Mary Ann and her family. This so, for her children however, the grieving for their “daddy” was long and painful, as one expects it would be so. Yet, with the outbreak of war in August 1914, the world suddenly became an uncertain place. For Mary Ann and her family, this meant nothing at all. They had spent most of their lives living in constant fear of what might happen next. It was an uncertain time for all. The nation rallied together in a united act of patriotism, to go out and fight for the freedom that the British held so dear, the freedom that defines them.

This burst of patriotism that engulfed the nation was felt very much so in 2 Nimmo's Row's. Mary Ann's first son, Francis (Frank), was now twenty five years old, and had joined the army previous to the outbreak of war. He was due to marry his girlfriend, Flora McLachlan, but the wedding was postponed until Frank got back from the war. He must have been one of those who thought it would be over by Christmas. Frank was sent to France in late 1914 with his regiment, the Royal Field Artillery.

Forward now, and with her eldest son away fighting in France, Mary Ann must have been worried sick, as Flora and Eliza must have been. He wrote home a few times, when he could, when the officers would allow it. He was not allowed to reveal his location or his experiences for security reasons. All Mary Ann knew, was that her son was fighting an enemy deadlier than anything the world had known before, in a foreign field of battle that was soon to transpire into the bloodiest conflict in British military history.

Whilst Frank was away, Mary Ann's worries trebled. Her son Patrick and her adopted nephew Peter were called up to fight for King and Country. They were so in July 1915, likely on the same day. Patrick was entered into the same regiment as his half brother Frank, and Peter was ordered into the Machine Gun Corps, later to be transferred to the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Peter was nineteen years of age. Patrick was eighteen.

If we take a short break to look back here to look back, the Owens family by this point in time, had suffered immensely at the hands of fate and circumstance. Their journey across the sea had been in fact a dream shattered by heartbreak and death. Yet, as one does, one carries on, one keeps heart. The manifestation of this psychology in my great great grandmother is all too clear, but her biggest test was yet to come.

The focus of the story shifts here and a major event transpires. Suddenly on November 9 1915, Eliza collapsed after suffering from a brain haemorrhage in 2 Nimmo's Rows. Mary Ann's concerns were taken off her two sons and nephew, and she soon found herself looking after her ailing mother, whilst also bringing up her children. A very small relief was that Maggie, Bernard (Barney) and Nellie were at school, which gave Mary Ann some time at least to give her mother her sole attention. After all, she had brought her into the world.

Eliza had come an extremely long way since her marriage to Bernard way back in Ireland, 1858. Her struggle after his death, and her life defining wrangling's with the poor relief inspectors seems ironically, to have taught her how to survive. Also, her second marriage to Devaney had been cut short but his untimely death (like that of Bernard). If Devaney had not died in 1906, it is likely he would still have been alive come 1915. Nonetheless, Eliza is a pivotal character in the Owens story, and had an impact on many of her family's decisions and fortunes. Five days after her haemorrhage, Eliza died in her sleep. After seventy-five years of constantly struggling through life, Eliza was at peace. Her passing is, as I have touched on, a major turning point in the story. Head of a family for fifty years, she had given her place in its history. She won't be forgotten. We'll never know what she looked like, but you and I know more about her than some of her own children did. Mary Ann now found herself writing to France to tell Frank, Patrick and Peter the news about their granny. With a war raging and men dying every day, Mary Ann was right of course to be gravely worried, if not terrified, and she longed to see the day when she would receive a knock at the door and find that Frank, Patrick and Peter had come home. The Great War was now in its second year, and in late November 1916, a knock at the door came, at long last...

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: GAYNOR WILKINSON on Tuesday 25 November 08 21:20 GMT (UK): Matt, I'm almost too afraid to read what happens next :o
Gaynor
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: madpants on Tuesday 25 November 08 21:30 GMT (UK): YOU CAN'T STOP THERE!!!.............................. :o :'( ???
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: mccubbin on Tuesday 25 November 08 21:38 GMT (UK): Hello Matt,
Really good, My Friend in Canada told me about it.
It is like a novel that you do not want to put down.
Good Work
and thank you for sharing it with us.
is there still more to come?
McCubbin
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: craizi daizi on Tuesday 25 November 08 21:45 GMT (UK): Matt..................................

The door....let Mary Ann answer the door, you cant leave us with.... 'a knock at the door' :o

Daizi
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Blondie1 on Tuesday 25 November 08 21:46 GMT (UK): Oh Matt

You cant leave it there!!!!!!!

Val
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Tuesday 25 November 08 21:56 GMT (UK): Lol...im sure Mary Ann is quite eager to open it aswell ;)

McCubbin, there is alot more to come :)

Of course I can leave it there...I'm the storyteller :D

Thankyou once more for comments, I feel very priveledged,

Matt aka Cliffhanger Supreme
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: ukdescendant on Tuesday 25 November 08 22:11 GMT (UK): Stop teasing us..................please

I won't be able to sleep if you don't tell me.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Ruskie on Tuesday 25 November 08 22:21 GMT (UK): You're a little b****r Matt! You're leaving us in suspense on purpose!

I'm with Judy - this would make an EXCELLENT BBC drama! I can see it now!! (and Judy Dench would have to star in it - perhaps she should be Eliza. ;) and Matt can play himself ;D) It's the kind of story you see on TV and you think "that's a bit far fetched - no one would ever have such a hard life and such rotten luck - and they've just added that for dramatic effect" ... but it's all TRUE!

Surely there must be someone on Rootschat who knows someone who knows someone influential who works for the BBC, who can get this story read by some big whig or written up by a scriptwriter.

Get a move on Matt - your fans are waiting!
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: prophetess on Tuesday 25 November 08 22:22 GMT (UK): Quote from: Reaybo M on Tuesday 25 November 08 21:56 GMT (UK)
Lol...im sure Mary Ann is quite eager to open it aswell ;)

Matt aka Cliffhanger Supreme
Your telling me, she really wants to open the door MATT!!!!!!!!!!
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Tuesday 25 November 08 22:29 GMT (UK): My goodness, I was going over in my head who would play who...and I tell no lie when I say that I thought Judi Dench had to be in it. I was actually thinking she should play Mary Ann...

I'm sorry if I am leaving you in suspense. I know I am...but hey look at it like this...it draws you in to it more and you become closer to the characters.

I have the number of someone at the BBC, I was on TV last year and got a few contacts lol. I may give her a ring :D
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Mum44 on Tuesday 25 November 08 22:32 GMT (UK): Charles Dickens used to do this to his readers - weekly installments - at least we're not having to wait a week between our fixes :D ;D
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: ankerdine on Tuesday 25 November 08 22:38 GMT (UK): Matt's really enjoying himself. :D :D

Just let him, after all, he is so young and has his whole life in front of him! ::) ::) ::),

I can bear the suspense......I'm going to bed.........I can wait. :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\

There's more to this thread than meets the eye. Just you see....

Judy
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: mazwad on Tuesday 25 November 08 22:43 GMT (UK): The BBC do the period dramas so well and they are definitely in vogue at the moment. They have high viewing figures, there must be room for one as good as this and a true story too.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Tuesday 25 November 08 22:44 GMT (UK): Quote
There's more to this thread than meets the eye. Just you see....

Judy

lol????
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Caz1960 on Tuesday 25 November 08 23:19 GMT (UK): I just found this ......

Get back here Matt and tell us what happens when Mary Ann answers the door!!!!!
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: mccubbin on Tuesday 25 November 08 23:24 GMT (UK): I think Matt, Is away to answer his door and forgot to come back.
Nite McCubbin.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: majm on Tuesday 25 November 08 23:51 GMT (UK): NSW Australia is waiting Matt, waiting, waiting, waiting, ever so patiently, but waiting, on the next installment.

Your skills at writing are better than Dickens! But tis a dickens of a time here just waiting !

Someone GET THE BBC to contact Matt NOW please, and get Judi Dench booked NOW too. And get a sponsor for Matt's Uni course too please.

And, and, and, oh my list of wishes for Matt is so long, but .....

And his word skills, and knowing when to leave us all in suspense.

Tis a great writer who knows those techniques, and tis Matt who is this great writer.

Cheers,

MA
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: mccubbin on Tuesday 25 November 08 23:54 GMT (UK): matt has ran away to the chat room.
mccubbin
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Wednesday 26 November 08 00:10 GMT (UK): mccubbin, you canne prove a thing :D
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: lil growler on Wednesday 26 November 08 06:38 GMT (UK): As usual Matt a delightful read :)

Now!!!! Do we have to hunt you down.............sit on you, keep you bound till you give us the rest of the story.

You know, this would make a great movie as well.I look froward to seeing it in years to come ;D ;D ;D

Now get back here and dangle some more in front of us

Regards

lil
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: jesstidd on Wednesday 26 November 08 08:57 GMT (UK): Doing a great job here Matt. None of us know the suffering of our ancestors, life was tough for so many and yet they put on the uniform so we should have a better life, but was it worth it poor souls, all so young. Jess
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: ankerdine on Wednesday 26 November 08 09:14 GMT (UK): Quote from: lil growler on Wednesday 26 November 08 06:38 GMT (UK)

Now!!!! Do we have to hunt you down.............

Try Lenton or Beeston, they're your best bet, or, as he's only just gone up he's probably in hall, maybe Cripps! ;) ;) ;)

Judy
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: prophetess on Wednesday 26 November 08 09:54 GMT (UK): Quote from: Reaybo M on Tuesday 25 November 08 22:29 GMT (UK)
My goodness, I was going over in my head who would play who...and I tell no lie when I say that I thought Judi Dench had to be in it. I was actually thinking she should play Mary Ann...

I'm sorry if I am leaving you in suspense. I know I am...but hey look at it like this...it draws you in to it more and you become closer to the characters.

I have the number of someone at the BBC, I was on TV last year and got a few contacts lol. I may give her a ring :D

Matt, you were on TV last year? what are you waiting for Phone them now!
:o :o
I can hear Mary Ann heading for the door ;) come on Matt!!!!!!!!!!
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: cornishpasty on Wednesday 26 November 08 10:29 GMT (UK): The "suspenders" are killing me :o :o :o :o :o. I started reading this tonight and I couldn't stop .......... and now there's no more :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(.

Matttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt, where are you?????? It's 9.27 p.m. in Melbourne and I'm waiting .......................

What a fantastic story. What a woman !!!!!!!!!!! What a family!!!!! Thanks for sharing it with us.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Eilleen on Wednesday 26 November 08 10:50 GMT (UK): Matt, hi there :)

Just wanted to say, great job,
and good to see someone so young being passionate about family and social history, keep it going. :)

Eilleen.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: majm on Wednesday 26 November 08 11:43 GMT (UK): Matt, has the BBC contacted you yet? Have you contacted them?

When is the next episode please? Have you had time to study?

Have you had time to write? Have you had time to sleep?

Knock at door - was that the BBC with contract for you ???

Matt, your audience awaits ! :o :o :o ::) ::) ::)

:-* :-* :-*

PS and did you get food and nurishment too?

Cheers,

MA
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Blondie1 on Wednesday 26 November 08 11:46 GMT (UK): Hi ggd Mary Ann,

Matt is as thin as a rail and can he put food a way?? he never stops.

Val
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: prophetess on Wednesday 26 November 08 13:03 GMT (UK): Roflol
Quote from: grumpyblondie on Wednesday 26 November 08 11:46 GMT (UK)
Hi ggd Mary Ann,

Matt is as thin as a rail and can he put food a way?? he never stops.

Val

Yeah Val i second that, Suppose we have to let him eat
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: cuthie on Wednesday 26 November 08 13:43 GMT (UK): Wonderful story telling and I can't wait until she opens the door. Hope you will find time to carry on with another instalment. Best wishes, Cuthie
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Wednesday 26 November 08 16:39 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter Nine, Part One

As Mary Ann approached the door, she dared not focus on anything else about her. Maybe Frank had come back home from the war? Maybe Patrick and Peter had made it? Maybe all three of them had come home to surprise her?

Alas, as she opened the door, the anticipation inside her died a sudden death. Looking down towards the floor was a small, yellow envelope with a stamp on the back that read “The War Office”. She picked it up and glanced to see who had put it there, and across the road stood a man in uniform, who said to her “Notification from the Front, lady”, before getting on his horse and riding away into the distance. Mary Ann closed the door and sat down alone for the kids were at school in Carfin. Half way through the letter, Mary Ann burst into tears and sank to the floor. The telegram reported as follows:

“It is my painful duty to inform you of the death in action of Private Peter McMillan, who was killed on the evening of Saturday November 4 1916. Please accept my deepest sympathy, and the sympathy of my regiment at the passing of a well liked and charming young man. I am privileged to have been his commanding officer both in the A&SH and the Machine Gun Corps. We owe Peter a great debt of great gratitude. Peter died instantly of his wounds sustained on the battlefield, and we buried him that same night in an unmarked grave outside of the village of Les Boueffs. We are all saddened by the loss of such a friend. I hope and pray that the sympathy of the regiments is of some comfort to you”

I am finding it quite difficult to find the right words after that. All I can do is imagine the shock and grief that must have rushed through Mary Ann. I can picture a scene where she stumbles street to street to inform her siblings of their nephews death in the field of battle. Yet, as tragic as this story is, Peter was one of millions killed in the First World War. He is one of millions who died to defend our freedoms, and for that, I couldn't be more proud. No matter which side someone is on, if they do what so many did do in this respect, in my opinion, their ultimate sacrifice is one that should be reciprocated with the most fervent respect. How strange a thing to ponder that, unbeknown to them, there are people in France today who are walking on the spot Peter was buried, and don't know it. Ye he still rests there in peace. He is also commemorated on the Theipval Memorial in France. It is one of my goals as as researcher to get a photograph of his name engraved eternally into that memorial, and pay my own respects too.

I can't imagine what affect this had on the family, but it had to have been hugely detrimental. Yet we must not forget that at this point in time, Patrick and Frank were still fighting. Patrick had written home from Topsham Barracks at Easter 1915, and had begged his mum to send him some money so that the captain could send him home, and not go to France, for he had heard stories about the carnage transpiring there. Mary Ann simply could not afford to give him the money, and so Patrick was sent to France. In the letter he wrote to his mum (which is now in possession of my grandmother), he makes a chilling plea for help “For God's sakes mum, if I cannot get home it will break my heart... Please wire [the money] on before next Tuesday”. Poor Patrick must have been terrified to go to war. I have an oil painting of him taken in 1915, just before he left for service. He seems like a shy person, and looks a lot like his younger brother Barney in the face. He is certain to have been shaking like a leaf when he got over to France.

A year had passed since Peter's death, and Patrick would always write, up until early 1917, when suddenly the writing stopped. A fortnight later, back home in Scotland, Mary Ann received another knock at the door...

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: mrs louis on Wednesday 26 November 08 16:48 GMT (UK): Blimey not another knock ..... i just hope against hope it is not more bad news ...

we wait with baited breath for door to open ....
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: AnneMc on Wednesday 26 November 08 16:51 GMT (UK): Matt:

Another great chapter but I sure wish they would stop knocking at the door!!!! Keep up the good work.

Annemc
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Blondie1 on Wednesday 26 November 08 16:57 GMT (UK): Oh Matt,

My grandad was killed in France in 1918, and my grandma received a telegram too. I have a copy from his service records and also a receipt for the contents of his pockets.

Granny never saw his grave. She remarried and when one of my uncles visited his grave in France and gave her a photograph, she sobbed and said "I have not commited bigamy then, I always thought he had lost his memory and was wandering around not knowing who he really was" and this was in the 1950's so she had carried this burden all those years. She remarried probably because with a young family she could not cope alone and needed to feed them all. It makes me feel so sad and what a waste of life there was.

Val
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: mccubbin on Wednesday 26 November 08 17:06 GMT (UK): another good piece of your Story Matt, are we getting any more??
Mary Ann must of been a strong women, to cope with what life threw at her.
McCubbin
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: oldtimer on Wednesday 26 November 08 17:26 GMT (UK): Hi Matt

Any chance of posting a photo of the painting of Patrick, or of any other people in your story? I am sure that others would like to see them too.

As someone has said previously, it is wonderful to know that someone as young as you is so interested in family history, and are so respectful when talking of your ancestors. We hear so many negative things about teenagers these days - you prove that there is hope for the future!!
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: ankerdine on Wednesday 26 November 08 17:30 GMT (UK): Quote from: oldtimer on Wednesday 26 November 08 17:26 GMT (UK)
it is wonderful to know that someone as young as you is so interested in family history

Hi Judy

I couldn't agree more with your comments. It sounds too good to be true. My sons were nothing like Matt at 18!

Lovely story though. I am recommending it to all my FH friends.

Judy
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Wednesday 26 November 08 17:43 GMT (UK): Thankyou very much for your comments :) They do mean alot!!!

As for pics, I will post them when I have completed the blog...so you can see them in all their glory...although haven't got many pics from this side of the family as they couldn't afford a camera.

Glad you guys are continuing to read!
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: mazwad on Wednesday 26 November 08 19:07 GMT (UK): We are all sitting here gagging for the next chapter Matt. I can't believe you are only 18. The maturity and respect that comes through in your account are so refreshing. There is hope for the future after all.

My grandsons are 13 and learning about WW1 at school, I just wish they would show as much interest as you obviously have.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: JJbeech on Wednesday 26 November 08 20:01 GMT (UK): :'(
Raeybo, this verging on mental cruelty!! can't read my novel for reading your blog!!!
and you make me wait!! :'(
:) Worth the wait though!!!

When next one??
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: EmPea on Wednesday 26 November 08 20:06 GMT (UK): That next knock....I feel nothing but bad tidings... :( :( :(
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Wednesday 26 November 08 20:29 GMT (UK): next bit on the way soon guys, stayed tuned!!!
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: JJbeech on Wednesday 26 November 08 20:42 GMT (UK): like we got a choice!! ;D ;D ;D
We are your pawns at the mo raeybo!! ;D ;D
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Josephine on Wednesday 26 November 08 21:07 GMT (UK): Not another knock on the door!!!!!!!
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: craizi daizi on Wednesday 26 November 08 21:09 GMT (UK): Matty.......................................................................come back.......

Daizi
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: mccubbin on Wednesday 26 November 08 21:12 GMT (UK): Matt is away his hoildays for 3 wks ;) :D

from McCubbin
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: ankerdine on Wednesday 26 November 08 21:14 GMT (UK): Rubbish. ;)

Look, patience you lot, he's just typing it up between pints. ;D

Judy
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Josephine on Wednesday 26 November 08 21:21 GMT (UK): McCubbin -- You rascal! ;D

Regards,
Josephine

Quote from: mccubbin on Wednesday 26 November 08 21:12 GMT (UK)
Matt is away his hoildays for 3 wks ;) :D
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: elaine447 on Wednesday 26 November 08 21:22 GMT (UK): I dont have any patience just now
I am trying to give up smoking ???
and Matt's story is helping me stay focused
Elaine
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: mccubbin on Wednesday 26 November 08 21:26 GMT (UK): This time Matt is chatting away on Roots chat.
McCubbin :)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: ankerdine on Wednesday 26 November 08 21:29 GMT (UK): Then perhaps we ALL ought to heckle him and throw doughnuts at him until he comes back from that other place?

Judy
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: prophetess on Wednesday 26 November 08 21:53 GMT (UK): Quote from: ankerdine on Wednesday 26 November 08 21:29 GMT (UK)
Then perhaps we ALL ought to heckle him and throw doughnuts at him until he comes back from that other place?

Judy

Dont do that he loves his food you will never get him bak if you throw dohnuts lol
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: JJbeech on Wednesday 26 November 08 21:53 GMT (UK): where is it Raeybo?????????????
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Wednesday 26 November 08 21:57 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter Nine, Chapter Two

On a cold and frosty morning in December 1917, Mary Ann received another knock at the door...

She answered with a silent expression, but that all changed. Once again, she could not contain her emotions and she burst into tears. She let out a loud squeal and embraced the figure in the doorway. It was her son Patrick, he had come home from the war! The joy in this moment, is that which cannot be described. I won't even attempt to.

Yet, Patrick had a secret. He had returned from the war, yes, but in fact as opposed to him finishing his duty, he has actually been invalided out after being shell shocked in the trench warfare system. My granny tells me, as do her cousins, that Patrick had suffered a horrific wound in his back, that had actually made a “hole”, and if this is true, it is remarkable to know that he kept this a secret for two months, until one morning Mary Ann stumbled upon him getting changed. She must have got quite a shock, and truth be told you cannot disguise the fact that you have half your back missing. As soon as she found out, Mary Ann made sure Patrick was well looked after. Despite his war wound he remained cheerful and relatively comfortable. In this bitter-sweet circumstance, Patrick was home from the war, but was still at serious risk of infection.

The stories he must have told do not bear thinking of. He must have told his brother sand sisters about the dreadful slaughter happening across the Channel. It seems a miracle that people like Patrick survived, even if what he had seen had scarred him.

Patrick's recovery from the wound was a slow one. He found himself constantly in bed, and in early 1918, he caught a strain of the deadly influenza that was sweeping across much of Europe and would soon be on all seven continents. Patrick was extremely vulnerable, and when he caught the bug, he never recovered. For Mary Ann, the news that Frank had come home had lightened her spirits minutely, and was a celebration in itself, yet Patrick was still very unwell. Frank at last married his long term girlfriend, Flora McLachlan, on October 18 1918, in Pollokshields, before returning to Luton to be discharged from service. Mary Ann had no choice but to miss her eldest child's wedding, because she could not leave Patrick back in Holytown. Less than 24 hours after Frank married, Patrick died of influenza in 2 Nimmo's Row's, which had set in as he lay recovering from his war wound. He died eight days before his twenty-second birthday, and four weeks before the war ended.

Although Patrick died in Scotland, he did die as a result of a wound sustained in the field of battle. It was for this reason that Patrick was included amongst the war dead of Lanarkshire, and along with his cousin Peter, has his name inscribed on the New Stevenston War Memorial.

It is Patrick who I have to thank for my family history research taking hold. In July 2006, whilst telling my gran that I was studying the First World War in History, she told me that she had an uncle who died in the conflict, and then she mentioned Peter, and Frank. The rest is history, and here I am two years later.

Patrick's death is indeed, very tragic. I don't know what Eliza would have thought if she had lived to see the entirety of the war. Little did she know that when she died, two of her grandchildren would follow within the next twelve months.

The First World War was something that started over petty means, and affected every family in Britain. Lanarkshire suffered particularly heavy casualties, and for Mary Ann to lose her nephew and son within a year was all too raw. Especially now as she had lost her third child. Patrick had been cut ff in his prime. Who knows, two years longer and he could have been married and be providing Mary Ann with her first grandchild. It just wasn't meant to be.

Despite this though, Frank and Flora had some good news for Mary Ann. Flora was pregnant, and in 1919 gave birth to a son, whom they named John (Jackie). Frank and Flora had a total of nine children. Frank and Flora continued to live a happy life until their deaths. Frank died in 1952 a few days after the death of King George VI, and Flora died in 1967.

For Mary Ann, Maggie, Barney and Nellie, life simply went on...

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: majm on Wednesday 26 November 08 22:04 GMT (UK): Thank you Matt.

Scene: The Western Front, May 1917, AIF advance on Hindenburg Line, among the Aussie troops, my Grandfrather. He was one who survived, albeit SGW, Gas and loss of right eye, facial damage, and breathing issues for rest of his life. Telegram sent to his nok in Sydney NSW, and then several months of waiting waiting waiting.

Service for King and Country.

Scenes: Throughout British Empire, Throughout the lands and territories of the "Enemy", mothers, fathers, younger siblings of the wounded, the fallen - tears of grief, tears of fear, - ordinary people who led extra-ordinary lives, in the hope of an outcome to end War, for after-all, in that second decade of the last century, this was a war that was oft referred to as "The War to End All Wars".

Matt, your depth of understanding is surpassed only by your word skills.

I thank you.

MA
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: prophetess on Wednesday 26 November 08 22:06 GMT (UK): Brill Matt, you can have a rest until tomorrow ;)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: elaine447 on Wednesday 26 November 08 22:10 GMT (UK): thanks Matt
you deserve a Pint tonight :)
Brilliant
Elaine
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: mccubbin on Wednesday 26 November 08 22:15 GMT (UK): Thank You Matt.
It is really Good of you to let us in on your Family History.
I bid ye a gid nite
McCubbin
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: ankerdine on Wednesday 26 November 08 22:28 GMT (UK): You have brought history to life with your excellent tale. Thanks.

Judy
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Blondie1 on Wednesday 26 November 08 23:36 GMT (UK): Matt I had to read this before I went to bed. What will we do when you do finish it? Please carry on but you can have a rest first and something to eat.

Val
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: JJbeech on Wednesday 26 November 08 23:39 GMT (UK): yeah, Raeybo, have a rest and some food!!
We can wait (just)
but if you're too tired and hungry we need to wait longer!!
Take your time!!
:-*
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Caz1960 on Thursday 27 November 08 00:13 GMT (UK): Is there more to come? I hope so :)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Ann Baker on Thursday 27 November 08 04:32 GMT (UK): Matt

Is excellent stuff. Am very much enjoying reading it.!

Ann

xxxx
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: majm on Thursday 27 November 08 05:04 GMT (UK): Well Matt,

Have you got an offer yet from Judi Dench?

;D

Tis a grand tale so far .............. Please Sir, May I have some more ???

Cheers,

MA

more, MORE, please, more, more, MORE, please, please, I am patiently waiting MORE
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: jesstidd on Thursday 27 November 08 09:04 GMT (UK): definately a book you feel you cannot put down. Doing great here Matt and it shows you could be a great writer of the future. Jess
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: JDC on Thursday 27 November 08 14:34 GMT (UK): Morning matt,

I decided to read your family story from front to back last nite and I couldn't put it down till it was finished. Excellant work Matt. Thx for sharing. Now, I am waiting to read the rest of the story in eagerness :-)

JDC
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: JJbeech on Thursday 27 November 08 22:08 GMT (UK): hey Raeybo,
Just checking to see if you posted! but glad to see you decided to take night off!!
Rome werent built in a day you know!! :P
hope you spent tonight chilling! (and eating!!! ;D)
building up strength to post next one when you're ready

;D ;D ;D

PS: offer for memorials made last night stands! just send me names and regiments! no promises when though!! ;)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Thursday 27 November 08 22:54 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter Ten, Part One

Mary Ann now had three surviving children from her marriage to Michael Hughes. The eldest of these, Maggie, had turned twenty the same the war that killed her brother had ended. Shortly afterwards, she met a man called James (Jimmy) O'Hara, who was born in County Antrim and was one year her junior. The two of them married on June 4 1920 at Carfin, and soon began producing children. However, Maggie was a descendant of the Owens'. She wasn't going to have an easy ride.

Maggie gave birth to a baby boy five months after marriage. He was named Cornelius (Con), after Jimmy's father, who was a slaughter man. Maggie and Jimmy did not have a good ride in life at all. Soon after marriage, Jimmy (who in his spare time played for New Stevenston United and later became a linesman), would come home from work drunk and in violent tempers. He was a very well known man in Holytown and had a very sizeable friend circle. What he earned was precious little, and it seems he drank almost every penny of it. There was no food on the table, and this took a terrible toll on the O'Hara family. Maggie and Jimmy had the following children, and as one can see, most died very young indeed. Given Jimmy's fondness for drink and wasting his wages, this is no coincidence. I have seen these children's death certificates. The cause of death on two of them was “malnutrition”

Cornelius O'Hara 1920-1991, Mary Ann Owens O'Hara 1922-1925, James O'Hara 1924-1924, Michael O'Hara 1926-1927, Letitia Theresa 1928-2008, Bernard O'Hara 1929-1936, Rose O'Hara 19** (still alive).

I think that's quite clear enough. Maggie and Jimmy lived an extremely poor life. There children would walk around in shoes barely thick enough to last a week.

The O'Hara's struggled through life and life wasn't full of any light relief or happy times. Another premature death transpired in the family as Jimmy O'Hara died in 1949 after receiving a “jerk” at his workplace. On going home he collapsed, and died, aged 50. After this, Maggie moved to Edinburgh, where she died in 1965 in the Women's Salvation Army hostel in Vennel, Edinburgh.

Whilst Maggie and Jimmy watched their children die, another tragic accident occurred in Glasgow. On the morning of December 28 1923, the wife of Mary Ann's brother John Owens, Rose Ann McCann, was walking in Maitland Street, Glasgow, when she stepped onto the road in the path of a moving lorry. She was almost blind, and also partly deaf, and as the lorry swerved and sounded a horn to warn her of it's approach, it startled a nearby horse, which bolted and ran straight into Rose Ann, trampling on top of her and crushing her to death. It was, a complete shock, the second of Mary Ann's in law's to be killed in a sudden tragic accident. Rose Ann was 54 years old.

Maggie was arguably more worse off than her mother was, or even her grandmother. In the 1920's and 1930's she suffered immensely after losing four of her seven children, and having her husband go off the rails for a period of time. She died a pauper in the Vennel, her final years are a mystery to the whole family. Her life was much of a contrast to that of her younger brother Bernard...

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: lavinia61 on Thursday 27 November 08 23:11 GMT (UK): Hi

Was recomended to read this blog by a friend, and have read it from start to here. Wow its great well done matt. Keep going and please get it published.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Blondie1 on Thursday 27 November 08 23:20 GMT (UK): This family definetly did not have it easy did they? Its so sad but compulsive reading.

Val
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: jesstidd on Friday 28 November 08 09:42 GMT (UK): Oh, Matt, they seem to have buried more than survived. They certainly never had as the saying goes, "luck of the Irish" beautifully told. Jess
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: cuthie on Friday 28 November 08 10:41 GMT (UK): Compulsive reading, Matt. Glad to see you have the copywright. I think it goes to show that fact is stranger than fiction.

Keep up the good work.

Cuthie
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Abiam2 on Friday 28 November 08 13:27 GMT (UK): Book marking
And we complain!
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: prophetess on Friday 28 November 08 14:09 GMT (UK): Really makes us humble, when we think we have it bad, we dont know how good we have it today
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Friday 28 November 08 17:51 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter Ten, Part Two

Bernard Hughes was Mary Ann's second son and fourth child, born in October 1900 in Craigneuk. From the age of twelve he was known affectionately as Barney to friends and family alike. He was especially close to his younger sister Nellie, and was the apple of his father's eye until his untimely death in 1911. After Patrick died at the end of the First Word War, Barney became the only male figure in the Hughes household in Nimmo's Row's. When he grew up, he moved to Stevenston Street, which was just around the corner from his mother, and resided at number 35 for a long period. In 1928 he met Catherine Healy, the daughter of a pub owner in New Stevenston. She was always known as Cissie, due to the fact that when very young, her mother died and as the eldest daughter it was her job to look after the rest of her younger siblings. Thus, they called her sis, which developed into Cissie.

Barney and Cissie married at Carfin in 1930 and soon after Cissie became pregnant. Nine months later, she gave birth to a daughter whom they called Agnes. It is Agnes who has, along with my granny, provided the ample and abundant treasure chest of information and stories, without which I could not possibly be telling this story. Four years after Agnes was born Cissie fell pregnant again, and this time she gave birth to a son. Cissie offered to call the boy Michael after Barney's father. Michael lived a relatively happy life too, making his own family of numerous daughter, five or six, but sadly died suddenly in the 1980's. He spent much of his life in Scunthorpe.

Barney is one of very few if not the only person in this story, to have what might be viewed as a happy life. He had a beautiful family and was well known in New Stevenston, and beyond. He was a keen gardener and steelworker, and in his spare time he helped to build swings and slides for the children to play on all over the village. He was what might be known today as a stalwart figure. He must have made his mother very proud indeed, not least of all when the miners went on strike during the 1920's. Whilst the mines were temporarily unworkable, Barney and his friends became involved in a project to build a pilgrimage grotto in Carfin. He was one of the leading members of the group and a key figure in the development of the site, which is now world famous. Barney has a bench dedicated to him in the grounds of the grotto, as well as his name being engraved on the walls of the Glass Chapel there too. It is something for the Hughes family and their descendants to be quite proud of.

In 1946 however, scandal hit the family. Barney's niece Letitia O'Hara became pregnant aged eighteen outside of marriage, and for a fervent Roman Catholic family, this was a disgrace. Letitia's father Jimmy had told her that she had brought shame on the family, and very soon after Letitia gave birth in February 1947, she fled Holytown, and left it for a nanny's job working with the world famous Taylor family, who ventured around much of Lanarkshire and Aberdeen with their fairground business. Jimmy and Maggie did not want to keep the baby, who was named Margaret Mary O'Hara (but would later become known as Mary). Therefore, Barney and Cissie offered to adopt their new great-niece, which they formally did in late 1947. Mary was now a Hughes, and Letitia disappeared, never to be seen again...but that is another story...

It is an extremely kind act, for one to adopt another relative who by no means of her own had been born into a world that was not the consequence of normal circumstances, at least at that time. Nevertheless though, Mary was raised by Barney and Cissie as if she was their own. We will never know who Mary's real father was, it is simply something that we have to accept. The only person who ever knew was Letitia, but like I said before that is part of a later story.

Barney and Cissie lived a relatively happy life. Given Barney's family history he must have seemed quite blessed. He was also very keen in researching his family's past, even at one point going over to Ireland to try and hunt down some cousins, which fills me with optimism that somewhere out there I will one day establish contact with maybe the descendant of one of Bernard Snr. or Eliza's siblings. He even found the remains of the farm in which his mother Mary was born in 1862. I only wish, given the connection and love I have for my great great granny Mary Ann, I am saddened that I will probably never be able to find that farm. Barney lost his wife Cissie in 1967, and he followed nine years later. They are both buried in St Patrick's Cemetery, in New Stevenston.

Next, we move back to Mary Ann, now in her 60's and a grandmother of many children. Her part in this story is not over yet...

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: AnneMc on Friday 28 November 08 18:09 GMT (UK): Matt:

This story still has me hanging on for the next chapter.. Once again I must say you are a wonderful writer.

Cheers
Anne
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: littleclaire on Friday 28 November 08 21:16 GMT (UK): I've finally read it......!

Was going to wait until you had finished and read it in one go but I wanted to know what all the fuss was about.

Am impressed!

Claire
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: prophetess on Friday 28 November 08 21:22 GMT (UK): LOL Claire you will be on the edge of your seat like the rest of us,

Well done Matt nice to see that at least one got a bit of happiness they deserved it
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: GAYNOR WILKINSON on Saturday 29 November 08 11:17 GMT (UK): Matt,
As a general rule I don't do reading, can't remember the last book I attempted to read only to put it down unfinished to this day. However, your story is so compelling, like everyone else, I am waiting for the prompt that the next chapter has been posted. If you do ever get it published, and something tells me that you will, I will be with everyone else on this site standing in line waiting for your to sign my copy. Well done Matt, keep it coming.
Gaynor
;D
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: blodwen on Sunday 30 November 08 12:02 GMT (UK): Wonderfully well written, Matt.

Suspense all the way - can really imagine what things were like during those periods in time.

Looking forward to the next installment.

Viv
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Sunday 30 November 08 17:35 GMT (UK): Nex part up soon guys.

Unfortunately due to unavoidable circumstances (me going out and geting hammered) I didn't post yesterday. Chapter 11 on the way tonight though.

As always, thankyou to all of you for your comments!
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: lavinia61 on Sunday 30 November 08 17:43 GMT (UK): Hi Matt,

It was worth it though ;)

Katie
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: KarenM on Sunday 30 November 08 17:49 GMT (UK): Quote from: Reaybo M on Sunday 30 November 08 17:35 GMT (UK)
(me going out and geting hammered)

Are you old enough? ;D What's the drinking age in UK?

Karen
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Paul Caswell on Sunday 30 November 08 17:50 GMT (UK): Quote from: KarenM on Sunday 30 November 08 17:49 GMT (UK)
Quote from: Reaybo M on Sunday 30 November 08 17:35 GMT (UK)
(me going out and geting hammered)

Are you old enough? ;D What's the drinking age in UK?

Karen

Well below the 'Going to University' age Karen. ;D

Paul
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: dollylee on Sunday 30 November 08 23:09 GMT (UK): Quote from: Reaybo M on Sunday 30 November 08 17:35 GMT (UK)
Nex part up soon guys.

Unfortunately due to unavoidable circumstances (me going out and geting hammered) I didn't post yesterday. Chapter 11 on the way tonight though.

As always, thankyou to all of you for your comments!

That sure made me laugh..... it also really brings home just how mature your writing is for such a wee lad lol

The maturity of your writing is something that comes through so strongly in your story. The wonderful turn of a phrase, the continuity, the flavour of the words, the whole tone of the writing is amazing for one so young.....................the getting hammered, not so much lmao

I am not putting down your age.....but damn it, I have socks older than you. ;D ;D ;D ;D

Fabulous job!!! You have us all hanging on every word............ and the way you end each chapter shows how much you love to keep us hanging. lmao

dollylee
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Monday 01 December 08 02:57 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter Eleven, Part One

For Mary Ann, the last few years of the 1920's and the first of the following decade brought her cordial happiness. She had now a handful of grandchildren who would come to see her almost every day and life seemed to be giving her a break. The bond between her and her children grew as they became older, and in particular the bond between her and Nellie grew. But Nimmo's Row's was home only to the two of them.

Things changed in 1924 when Nellie met a man called Henry Russell, the son of a late Colliery Manager named Daniel and his wife Jane. Although Henry was three years her junior, the two of them hit it off immediately. Henry (or Harry as he was known), worked in the same steelworks as Nellie's brother Barney did, maybe that is how they met, who knows? That part of the story seems to have been lost. My gran has always kept a particular story close to her heart however, about the time when Harry introduced Nellie to his friends at a steelworks social in 1925 At the time, the two of them were engaged. Harry's mates, in a seemingly warped sense of hilarity, joked at Harry because he was marrying a woman with one leg. In defiance, Nellie threw down her crutch, climbed onto a seat and hopped out of a pub window, remaining standing. Harry's “mates” didn't speak to her again.

Nellie and Harry married in Carfin on February 12 1926. Harry was from a very Protestant family, so Protestant in fact that his parents only married because they had the same surname and only married their “own kind”. They were extremely wealthy and had it not been for Daniel's sudden death in the coal mines in 1910, the Russell's would have moved to America. Daniel's death, ensured my existence. Weird that, isn't it? Harry converted to Catholicism on Nellie's wishes and throughout his life remained devout and in all, a very good man. He was the idyllic husband and the perfect father. Quiet, but his actions spoke more than words ever could. He changed his entire belief structures for the woman he loved.

Speaking of fathering, six months after their marriage, Nellie gave birth. She did so to a son whom was called Daniel. After Daniel came Mary Ann in 1928, Ellen in 1932, and Henry in 1935. Ellen is my grandmother. Mary Ann died in 1999 and Henry died in 1992. Daniel (Danny) and Ellen are still alive. Ellen is my granny.

We now take this story into the 1930's, when the steel industry blossomed in Britain. Steelworks popped up all over the country, the biggest at the time was in Corby, Northamptonshire, England. Harry spotted an opportunity here. Corby was an old village hearkening back to the Middle Ages, and now suddenly was booming, growing by the day and by 1935 it had soon become a small town, which later developed into a big town and now (2008) has a population of about 59,000. Harry and Nellie became increasingly attached to the idea of moving not just out of Holytown, but out of Scotland altogether. Nellie and her new family did warm to the idea, and Nellie asked Mary Ann if she wanted to join them in their new life. Given Mary Ann's strong bond to Nellie, it is surprising that she refused the offer. It may have been due to the scars that had not quite healed, after all she had made a life changing journey before, and that almost killed her, it did kill her father. Or maybe it was because her siblings and other children were still living all around her. Only recently, in summer 1933, had Mary Ann lost her youngest sister Ellen Donnachie. She died, aged 55, and left her widow James Donnachie behind her. He died in 1947.Ellen Donnachie is buried in Saint Patrick's Cemetery, New Stevenston.

In spring 1935, Nellie and Harry decided to leave their home in Lanarkshire, and headed down to Corby. Their youngest child Henry was just two months old. It must have been difficult to watch her daughter go, as Maggie and Barney had literally stayed around the corner from her. Nellie had flown the nest, and they headed for Corby, which at the time promised work plenty for an eager Russell family...

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Monday 01 December 08 02:59 GMT (UK): LOL...drinking age in UK is 18... I am 18 of course with a sense of humour that would adequately suit a 4-year-old!

YAY!
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: deb usa on Monday 01 December 08 03:16 GMT (UK): Hi Matt

I am only on page 3 and am fascinated , so am bookmarking ....hope to see you in chat sometime!

deb :)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: craizi daizi on Monday 01 December 08 06:24 GMT (UK): Hey ya matt

A long wait, no one said you could have a life until this was all over............

And i think Nellie is cool, climbing out a pub window,

Nellie rocks !!
[/b]

Daiz
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: prophetess on Monday 01 December 08 09:40 GMT (UK): Quote from: Reaybo M on Monday 01 December 08 02:59 GMT (UK)
LOL...drinking age in UK is 18... I am 18 of course with a sense of humour that would adequately suit a 4-year-old!

YAY!

::) ;) I am saying nothing Matt, !!!!!!!!!!

well done , once again on the story
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Monday 01 December 08 11:44 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter Eleven, Part Two

On some levels, Corby was for Nellie what Glasgow was for Eliza. She was moving into a place unknown with a family in its prime, if such a word fits the Owens story. What would await her in this “Corby” place?

Nellie and Harry got a house in Stephenson Way, Corby. At the time it was one of the longest roads in the town, and wasn't that far from the old village and even had a few shops and cinema around the corner, all of which are now derelict. The house was better than anything Nellie had seen in Scotland. She had grown up in little more than a shell of loose bricks and a cold interior, but it was home for thirty years. She hated leaving her mother alone in the house back up in New Stevenston, but this was the chance she needed. It was the chance to break away from everything, and to start her life with her new family. Mary Ann told her this. “Nellie daughter, this is a good thing” she said . “I'll be fine up here hen. This is my home”. It maybe helped a bit, that due to the influx of Scots to Corby at the same time, Nellie knew a few people already before she made the big move.

These were happy times for the Russell family. Compared to what the O'Hara's were going through, and the life her mother had almost crawled through, Nellie and Harry lived life in Corby on the other end of the spectrum, at least for the time being. Apart from the obvious emotional attachment, I cannot see why Mary Ann and others did not follow in their footsteps. Maybe Mary Ann thought she was too old? She was after all now in her mid 70's.

In 1938, Nellie gave birth again, to another son whom she named Michael, after her father. Nellie and Harry now had five children, and she wasn't done yet, but first, we need to divert our attention back up to Scotland. Mary Ann's birth family were starting to die out. Both her parents were gone, she had lost her sister Catherine, her only elder sibling, so suddenly in 1906, and Ellen had died in 1933. In August 1939 word came from Shotts that her brother John had passed away. He was around the age of seventy. I do not know yet where he is buried, but one day I will find it. I have to. Considering the time frame in which Mary Ann and her siblings were born, by the late 1930's all of them were pensioners (they just lacked a decent pension).

Short may it be, I am going to leave this chapter here. You will see my reason for this in the following piece. I feel this is an appropriate place to end now as the next few years are extremely clogged. The years during the Second World War were extremely busy for Mary Ann and the Russell family. And, albeit, they brought unprecedented tragedy...

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Blondie1 on Monday 01 December 08 11:59 GMT (UK): Hi Matt

Hurry up I cant wait for the next chapter.

Val
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Monday 01 December 08 12:25 GMT (UK): That's my afternoon full then :) Next bit coming up later on.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: prophetess on Monday 01 December 08 15:40 GMT (UK): excellence once again Matt.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: EmPea on Monday 01 December 08 16:02 GMT (UK): Well done Matt
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: mazwad on Monday 01 December 08 17:10 GMT (UK): I am kept enthralled by this tale and don't mind waiting for the next part as I don't want it to finish.

These days when we move around the country we have a really good idea of what the place is like that we are going to. They were so brave just to up sticks and go withour really knowing much about the place.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Monday 01 December 08 17:52 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter Twelve, Part One

1939: One month after the death of John Owens, the world finds itself in an international tug of war as Britain and France declare war on Nazi-controlled Germany. These are uncertain times for Mary Ann and her family. They had seen this kind of thing before, but not quite as intimidating. In the First World War, a conflict which tore at the very heart of Mary Ann, her sons and nephew were called to a foreign battlefield, a place unknown in the middle of France. Now, weaponry was airborne. In one small unexpected moment, a bomb could fall and wreak devastation in New Stevenston and Corby, both of which were on Hitler's list of industrial targets.

On a domestic level, Nellie was pregnant again, and a wartime baby would be born sometime in June. Rationing meant that Nellie and Harry lived very much so in uncertain times. Mary Ann at this point was from a financial point of view, doing reasonably well. She received her old age pension and was also being supported by Barney. As 1940 began, Mary Ann and Nellie would have had no idea of what was to befall upon them. In the next year. Total devastation would tear through the family once again.

The year carried through, uncertain and unknown. Every now and then a Luftwaffe plane would fly over Holytown in the dead of the night and on one occasion, dropped a bomb on the nearby Thankerton Colliery, where Barney worked. This was part of Hitler's plan to cripple Britain and de-industrialise it into submission and surrender.

In April 1940, Barney came round to visit his mother Mary Ann at her home in 2 Nimmo's Row's, to find no answer. He was, as usual, going to give her one third of his wages. Her not answering was unusual, and so he entered the house through the back alleys, and found his mother lying motionless on the floor. The doctor was called immediately and it was established that Mary Ann had suffered an extremely heavy stroke, which paralysed her right side. Barney had to move in temporarily with his mum again to look after her. By the time news reached Nellie in Corby, things there had taken a tragic turn too.

Around the same time as Mary Ann had her stroke, Nellie and Harry were struck by tragedy after their young son Michael fell down the stairs in the house in Stephenson Way. He was rushed to Kettering General Hospital and stayed there for two months with head and chest injuries...

As Mary Ann lay dying in Scotland, she somehow, even though she was paralysed and unable to move, received strength from almost nowhere in her world, and on May 12, she gathered this strength and put it into a letter, which was sent down to Corby, to Nellie, to encourage her to stay strong. She tells her daughter how sad she is to hear about Michael's accident, and has one last piece of advice for her:

“Nellie, I am very sad to hear your news about our poor dear wee Michael. But Nellie you must realise that we are only lent out in this world. He does not belong to us, he belongs to God, and if God wants to take him you must give him to him. I can remember when I lost one too Nellie, our wee Lizzie, she was 3 years and 3 months. Your father god rest him was heartbroken but his faith in God helped him see it through. It is God's will, we are all only lent out in this world”

Mary Ann's strength never ceases to amaze me. As I sit here looking at her letter, written in her own handwriting, messy though it is due to the effects of her stroke, I am extremely moved. In all honesty I get a little choked up. This woman absolutely amazes me. Even as she lay dying, she never gives up. She puts her faith in God, at all costs. I don't particularly like writing about her last few years. I don't like to think of her dying. She ends her letter by saying “ I don't think I will be able to write any more letters, as I am feeling just done”. It seems Mary Ann's days were coming to an end, or were they?

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Blondie1 on Monday 01 December 08 18:08 GMT (UK): Hi Matt,

It's so wonderful to have so much faith. You wonder how she managed to carry on, but it was her faith in God that did that. What a wonderful lady she was.

Val
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: GAYNOR WILKINSON on Monday 01 December 08 18:11 GMT (UK): Matt,
I have followed your story about Mary Ann and her family and the tragic times they had to endure. One thing that strikes me though, and that is your obvious sensitivity to wards your predecessors. I was quite shocked when I realised just how young you are and I can't help thinking that if more young people and older people for that matter had your sensitivity to wards others and their plight, how much better our society would be. Good on you Matt.

Gaynor
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Paul Caswell on Monday 01 December 08 19:36 GMT (UK): Matt,

I hope you're studying literature at uni, but whatever you study I think you will excel. It has been a pleasure to read your work and, unlike most I read on the internet, I intend to go through it again from the start when you have finished.

You are good!

Paul
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: kesannah on Monday 01 December 08 19:44 GMT (UK): Matt,
I have finally finshed reading this blog together with all the comments from other Rootschatters.

Well done you. I shall look forward to the next instalment.
It is good to know that there are young people who are interested in their family history and have such respect too.

I wish you good luck in all you do.

Kesannah
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: mazwad on Monday 01 December 08 19:50 GMT (UK): You're not the only one getting choked up Matt and that is down to how beautifully you tell the story.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: bishenbertie on Monday 01 December 08 21:16 GMT (UK): Wonderful writing. Definately a two boxes of tissues story.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: craizi daizi on Monday 01 December 08 21:29 GMT (UK): More tissues please.......... :'(

Daizi
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: JJbeech on Monday 01 December 08 21:48 GMT (UK): This woman was amazing!! ::)
credit crunch?? we dont know we're living!! :'(
here was me worried bout xmas pressies!!! :-\
if only we knew the half of it!!
:o oops we do know! thanks to some fantastic writing!!! well done raeybo!
Hope your still enjoying writing it!! I sure am enjoying reading it!! (novel been dumped!! ;D ;D)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Tuesday 02 December 08 00:53 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter Twelve, Part Two

It was May 15 1940, and in Stephenson Way, Corby, Nellie received the letter from her mother, spurring her on in a moving last message to her daughter. Nellie did gather some strength from it. Her mother had been in this situation seven times, twice with her parents, twice with her husbands, and thrice with Lizzie, Catherine and Patrick. She knew what it was like to feel pain, to go into hell with only one option: keep going until you reach the other side.

Nellie's faith seemed to pay off. She was told that she could take Michael back home, as long as he took his medicine. I have a picture of Michael in the hospital bed, he is just a child. Nellie and Harry must have been so worried about him, it is of course, natural instinct to be so. Therefore, so it was that Michael came back home again, to the relief of the entire family. However, there was still a war on. On the evening of May 23 1940, a Nazi Luftwaffe plane dropped a bomb that scored a direct hit on the house three doors down from the Russell family. The children, Michael included, were terrified, and screamed the place down. At this time also, Nellie was heavily pregnant with another child, Francis. His birth was brought on early by the panic of the nights hiding in the air raid shelter, a shelter that Harry had built himself. Francis was born in mid June. Just days later, little Michael died suddenly. He was supposed to be recovering well from his fall. I do not have his death certificate but I have an inclination he may have died from something like swelling of the brain, or fluid on the brain. Nonetheless, it ripped through Nellie and Harry like shrapnel. They were devastated. The whole family grieved like they had never grieved before. Nellie became depressed and poor newborn Francis hadn't got a clue what was going on at all. Things just hit rock bottom for the Russell's. And for Nellie, there was further bad news from Scotland. Her auntie Elizabeth had died. Another one of Mary Ann's siblings had passed on. She, along with her brother Joseph, were the only surviving children of Bernard and Eliza. Elizabeth died on October 19 1940, in Carfin. She is buried in St Patrick's, New Stevenston.

As the nights become colder and the days shorter, Nellie was losing hope. She would read her mother's letter over and over again, she nearly wore out the pencil lines! In a moment of completely being overwhelmed whilst reading this letter, I noticed that on the last page of the letter (it was 4 pages long) I saw a dark spot about five lines from the bottom. I turned to my gran and I said “That could well be where one of your mum's tears landed”. My gran simply said “could be. My mammy had a hard life”. And it was to get harder still.

The bombing of Corby once every other week meant that the Russell's had to take cover in their back garden shelter. Nellie and her children rushed into the shelter as soon as the sirens sounded, Harry did not move. He preferred to stay indoors and smoke his pipe!!! A true Brit if ever there was one! The Nazi's scored a few direct hits on Corby, but not many. Yet, the family had not yet really recovered from Michael's death, and more heartache was to follow. Baby Francis started to develop a cold, and after spending several nights in the air raid shelters, he easily and quickly caught a cold. Just a few months old, he almost didn't stand a chance. He quickly caught pneumonia, and died on December 11 1940. This is where I arrive at the bit I have long struggled with. I cannot put this into words, but I notice that when the topic of Michael and Francis' deaths comes up, the mood suddenly changes. My gran always looks to the floor and as she thinks about what she saw back then (she was eight), you can tell she is waiting for someone to change the subject. Words like heartache and devastation belittle the tragedy that Nellie and Harry faced. In just six months, Nellie had buried two of her baby boys. Francis died early in the morning in his mother's shaking arms, and what happened next comes directly from my granny. The family were so grief stricken that the afternoon after Francis' burial, Nellie really did hit rock bottom. She struggled with her crutches, hopped away and found a field, on which she fell to the ground and wept uncontrollably. Harry found her after he followed in the family car, and the whole family sat in the field and cried their eyes out all day. This was raw grief, in it's naked and cruellest of forms. Nellie looked up to the sky and shouted at the top of her voice. Shouting the names of her two sons. Shouting “No, no, no!” That day in the field has haunted the family ever since. My gran and her siblings who were alive at the time, never forgot it. After these few lines, I myself am in tears. I just cannot imagine this loss. The children are referred to as “poor wee Michael and Francie”. They are buried together in “the old” cemetery, Corby. How can I possibly describe it? How on earth does somebody even attempt to go on after such consecutive tragedies? Well, upsetting as it is, it wasn't over yet...

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: lil growler on Tuesday 02 December 08 01:03 GMT (UK): You don't have time to be hammered or have days off.You have a deligent fan club going....We come first ;D ;D ;D

Excellent work as usual. Your Mary Ann was one hell of a woman. You must be tremendously proud.

lil
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: kiwihalfpint on Tuesday 02 December 08 01:21 GMT (UK): Wow!!!!! Wonderful :) You certainly have talent for being a writer ....

The story has drawn me like a magnet :D ;D

KHP :)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Polldoll on Tuesday 02 December 08 02:45 GMT (UK): I was about to go to bed two hours ago when I came across your blog Matt and recognised you as the young man on the Glasgow meet a month ago ! You certainly have a talent for storytelling and a natural ability to use a format that seems to be second nature .... the ability to hold a reader's attention with a combination of chronologically correct facts and descriptive prose that are uncommon in one so young. It is a discipline not easily mastered and your technique is that of a really experienced storyteller .I hope you find other stories to write about in the future from your interest in FamilyHistory; but even if you don't ( and I hope you do !) I'm sure that your great grandchildren will be reading your account of their ancestors one day with as much admiration and enjoyment as we have here on Rootschat .... Really, very well done young man. You are a credit to all your family...

:-*
Poll
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Tuesday 02 December 08 02:52 GMT (UK): Thankyou VERY much! You guys out there...without you this blog wouldnt be receiving all these views. It's great!

I find myself not wanting to end this story, but it must end. It's up to me to write the next chapter now, not on paper, but to live it. Only those after me can write my story.

This journey I have been on is one so emotional, I felt compelled to let you all know at least a smidgen of my story. No other branch in my history have I searched so vigourously, and avidly!!! Maybe it's got something to do with my admiration for Mary Ann.

I may have missed out on meeting her by 50* years but I love her to bits.

Cheers again for all your comments...we are coming to the end of the road now...
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Polldoll on Tuesday 02 December 08 02:56 GMT (UK): Actually ...it may be just the beginning ..... ;) good luck anyway ...
Poll ;)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: kiwihalfpint on Tuesday 02 December 08 02:59 GMT (UK): Gee, you still up .... you two night owls ;D ;D :)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Tuesday 02 December 08 03:03 GMT (UK): Lol im going bed now (2.59am), I am emotionally drained! Phewwwww.

Ciao for now, Chapter 13 tomorrow or should i say later on!
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: kiwihalfpint on Tuesday 02 December 08 03:04 GMT (UK): Night or whats left of it ;D thought you might have been waiting up for the milkman ;D ;D
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: jellybeans on Tuesday 02 December 08 04:17 GMT (UK): Hi Matt,
Think of those future generations to come, after you, who may write your story.
Please leave them plenty to work with, as in a journal or diary, of your life story, along with a copy of this one.
You have an amazing talent with words. I wish you well in whatever your future holds, and thank you for the opportunity to read your family history.

Julie
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: tarnee on Tuesday 02 December 08 07:12 GMT (UK): Hi Matt,

l came across your blog by accident this afternoon and have just finished reading it, may l say what a wonderful, talented and gifted writer you are. l am sure your parents and ancestors are proud of you and so should you be. l wish you all the best in the future and hope something comes of you hard work. It certainly was a joy to read something, one so young has written and with so much feeling.

Jean
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Blondie1 on Tuesday 02 December 08 08:18 GMT (UK): Hi Matt,

It was after 1am when I climbed into my bed , but the first thing I did this morning was look to see if you had eventually done the next chapter.

You did not let us down and a another wonderful piece of writting it is too. I dont know about your family being proud of you, I am certainly proud to say I have met you and your family should not only be proud of you talent for writting but of what a nice young man you really are.

Val
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: prophetess on Tuesday 02 December 08 09:29 GMT (UK): Quote from: grumpyblondie on Tuesday 02 December 08 08:18 GMT (UK)
I dont know about your family being proud of you, I am certainly proud to say I have met you and your family should not only be proud of you talent for writting but of what a nice young man you really are.
Val

Well said Val, :D I am so proud of you too Matt, since I have adopted you, ::)(unofficially) I can tell you that certainly impress your new sis with your Writing,

Well done, not only am I proud to have you as my unofficial adopted son but also as a friend
Sybil (Mum 2)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: jesstidd on Tuesday 02 December 08 09:41 GMT (UK): Reading this brings home the fact how lucky ones own family have been through life. So many deaths to contend with, terrible. The strength of parents through and through. To say "they are Gods' children and only lent to us" unfortunately does not lay well when one does lose a little one and this is when one can lose faith. I look forward to some happy times for the future coming family. Although a great story it is one of the saddest I have read. A book for schools, it gives life as it was and might shake up this new generation. jess
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Tuesday 02 December 08 11:42 GMT (UK): Well it was lovely to meet you too Val and mum!

Cheers guys, another one coming up today, although it will be tonight as I need to do an essay...gulp!

:)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: kesannah on Tuesday 02 December 08 12:22 GMT (UK): Hello again Matt.

I too had to look to see if you had written any more. Needless to say you had and I am now looking forward to the next part.

I wonder how many boxes of tissues the members of this board have got through.

Your ancestors and present family must be very proud of you.

I was aso taught that children are only lent to you, though when my daughter died it really didn't seem to help at the time.

You come from a very strong family background and are a lucky young man. May it always prove to be so.

Kesannah
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: stonechat on Tuesday 02 December 08 14:42 GMT (UK): I have been getting too carried away reading this at work, I'll have to leave it now and com eback later

Bob
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Bowerboy on Tuesday 02 December 08 18:15 GMT (UK): Hi Matt my young mate.
I would like to congratulate you on your fine piece of writing. It's the work of genius to bring your ancesters alive in print. My wife and myself have been following it avidly.

Please get this published it derserves a much wider audience. I look forward to meeting up with you at some point.

Bowerboy.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Mum44 on Tuesday 02 December 08 19:10 GMT (UK): How many of us, I wonder, would have the insight and strength to write :

I find myself not wanting to end this story, but it must end. It's up to me to write the next chapter now, not on paper, but to live it. Only those after me can write my story.

I know I couldn't.

Reading this has been a wonderful exprience. Thank-you, Mat.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Tuesday 02 December 08 19:13 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter Thirteen, Part One

The story continues to Christmas time 1940, and this Christmas was not a happy one at all. For amongst all the wartime spirit and Winston Churchill's fiery inspirational speeches, the Russell's were grieving. They had been plagued by a double tragedy that would leave its mark on the family for generations to come. The death of Michael in June and Francis in December had brought Nellie to a a staggering halt, and she found comfort only from her mother's letters that came from miles away. And by the following month, Mary Ann could no longer write, she herself was dying, and she knew it. Nellie travelled up to see her for the last time in January 1941, with her family. They had been scarred yes, but Mary Ann told her that she was being tested by God. “You will prove yourself worthy of Heaven” she would say. Even in this dark hour, it amazes me how strong she kept her faith.

Mary Ann now lay in her bed all day everyday, and Maggie, Barney and Nellie gathered around her with their children. My grandmother and her cousin Agnes Hughes helped Barney sit her up to get her ready to eat...eat at least something. She did so, for she was not completely paralysed, she was simply exhausted. She was dying, and the family knew it, thus why everyone was gathered. Then the two grandchildren combed her long, black hair for her, and tidied her up a bit. Mary Ann's hair stayed black right until death, despite her being now 78 years old. She also kept starlings outside of the house, in cages that hung from the guttering. They were now silent, and Mary Ann knew her time had come. Her God would call her very soon, and she would meet him. Her life, her struggle, was nearly over. But her story was by no means over..

She called her children to the bedside individually. I do not know what she told Maggie and Barney, but she called Nellie and she went to her. Mary Ann, now struggling to breathe, told Nellie that she wanted her to have all of her personal possessions. She had not left a will, but stated clearly that Nellie was to keep the following items:

A necklace she received whilst a Domestic Servant in Glasgow. It was called “Faith, Hope and Charity” and was to be given to Nellie's daughter Mary Ann (my great aunt) after her death. It is a gold chain comprising of a heart, crucifix, and harp. It stays in the family to this day.
An oil painting of her Patrick Hughes in his uniform just before he started his war service in 1914.
A painting of “The Holy Family” that was given to either Catherine Owens or Mary Ann which had come into the family's possession after it was given to them by an employer. It probably came from the same family that the necklace did.
Two photographs of Mary Ann taken by the Russell's before they moved down to Corby. Both show Mary Ann with two of her grandchildren. There is another photograph of Mary Ann in existence which Agnes Hughes has. The fourth has been lost. It was taken when Mary Ann was in her 50's, or thereabouts.

Mary Ann barely managed to speak now but she told Nellie how sorry she was about Michael and Francis' death, and she seeped a few silent tears. Mary Ann, again, told her “they are at peace now Nellie. But it won't stop the pain. Only your faith can stop the pain Nellie”. These were obviously not the exact words she said, but I imagine I am fairly close to understanding what those words would have been. As January ended, Mary Ann showed no signs of deteriorating further. Although she was close to meeting her God and being reunited with her “old” family, she was doing the best she could to stay in this world. She fought and fought and fought. It was almost as if she was at war with herself. Maybe it had become second nature to her, to resist? Nevertheless this great woman's life was coming to an end, and she did her best to slow down the onset. She had now been in this paralysed state for nine months, and wasn't ready to go yet until she had said her goodbyes...

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: JJbeech on Tuesday 02 December 08 19:59 GMT (UK): No wonder you love this woman Raeybo!!
:o :o she was amazing!!
if only we had such grit nowadays!!!
You're doing her proud with your wonderful portrait of her life!!
Keep up the good work, but keep enjoying it!!
:P
jj
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Tuesday 02 December 08 20:26 GMT (UK): Nothing But Bad Times: Chapter Thirteen, Part Two

As February broke, the cold snappy air was nothing seen since December, that cold, cold December. Things had settled in 2 Nimmo's Row's and Barney had moved back into his own house in Stevenston Street. But he kept a close eye on his mum and visited every day. Nellie had to take her children back down to Corby to see Harry, and was on standby in case anything did happen and she was needed. For the next three weeks Mary Ann lay in bed and did not move. She had developed soars and although Barney did all he could to keep her active, he could not. Other forces were against him, after all she was dying. She would not recover from this. On February 8 1941, her condition deteriorated, Her eyes became weakened, and her right side was now completely limp. Mary Ann also had heart disease, only established after death of course. This had also weakened her severely. She was now starting to fade away.

Later that day, about 2pm, Barney came to see her with his daughter Agnes. She hugged her granny, she knew what was going on. “I'll miss you Granny”. By now Mary Ann was confused, and the end was very near. She had misunderstood Agnes. “I...love you too...hen”, she whispered, groggy voiced and weary. As Barney tried to speak to his mum, she simply turned her head and looked at him. She lifted her left hand, and it flopped down beside her again. She was too weak to move. Her strength had gone.

Agnes sat on Barney's lap and all of a sudden Mary Ann let out a hard sigh. This continued for a while and it soon became clear she was losing her breath. Agnes stood up and moved over to her granny, peered over her bed and said “Granny, where will the birds go?”, referring to the starlings she kept outside. Mary Ann smiled briefly, something which she must have missed a lot during her days on this earth. She laughed briefly, although in much discomfort. Barney took his daughter and told her to run home to get her dinner. “Tell mammy that granny says bye bye”. Cissie would have known that when Agnes delivered this message, Mary Ann had passed away. She had lost her father just weeks before in January, and after she told Mary Ann her father had died, she replied thus: “You know what hen, I won't be long after him”. To know you are dying and to keep the strength she did, is a lesson and I think an inspiration to us all.

Alone now with his mother, Barney saw his daughter away down the row and paced over to the bed. His mother looked him as he leant over her, and he kissed her head. She had a tissue in her paralysed hand covered in blood. My gran says that because of her stroke Mary Ann's hand was fixed in a clutched position, and her fingernails would often penetrate her skin, so Barney put a tissue in her hand to keep her from hurting herself. Breathing very heavily, Mary Ann grumbled. She was trying to speak to him, but she could hardly put a sentence together. “Barney” she said, and closed her eyes. The panting stopped, and Mary Ann stopped breathing. “Mum” he said, panicking. He got no answer, but then the panting started again. She was still hanging on. If I was Barney, I would have been very moved. I would have been watching the strongest person I knew, lose the resilience that had defined her entire life.

Evening drew close now and Barney sat by the fire in 2 Nimmo's Row's, trying to keep his mother warm. He placed a warming pan underneath her sheets, knowing that his mother would be dead before it got cold, but he wanted to make her passing as comfortable as possible. Mary Ann let out a groan again and as Barney approached her and held her, she uttered her last word. “Bernard”.

At 4.45 that Saturday evening, the eighth day of February 1941, Mary Ann gave up her fight, and slipped peacefully into unconsciousness. Soon afterwards in the company of her only surviving son, she passed away in her home of thirty four years. It was thirty three years to the day since the death of her youngest child, Catherine Hughes. For Nellie, she had lost two of her baby sons and her mother in the space of eight months. Mary Ann was the second eldest of her siblings, and the penultimate child of Bernard Owens and Eliza Fox to pass away. Her brother Joseph outlived her by fourteen months, dying on April 23 1942 in Camlachie, Glasgow.

Mary Ann was buried in St Patrick's Cemetery, New Stevenston, on February 10. Nellie came up from Corby that same day and although she missed the burial, she visited her grave and paid her own respects to her mother, who in her darkest hour, had been her beacon of hope. The Owens generation had gone. Her sister's widowers, James Donnachie and James Carey, both died shortly after the closure of the Second World War. Joseph Owen's widow, Rose McGinty, was the very last to die. She died in 1954. But the story doesn't end here...

Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: corby-boy on Tuesday 02 December 08 20:27 GMT (UK): Just read you blogg Matt....Excellent, Proud you are a Corby lad
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: kesannah on Tuesday 02 December 08 20:36 GMT (UK): Well done Matt.!

I shall look forward to the next part.

You do realise I shall be awake half the night wondering what is coming next.

Might even get up and see if you have written more. ;)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: craizi daizi on Tuesday 02 December 08 20:39 GMT (UK): Oh Matt

Briliant...just brilliant, what more can i say, all this must be so draining for you to write and re-live, so thanks so much for doing it for all of us .

Daizi
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Tuesday 02 December 08 20:43 GMT (UK): LOL kes.

I want to keep writing about Mary Ann lol.

Stretched it as long as I could...didn't want her to die :(

Ahh well there's more to come, but the majority of the storytelling is over. Next comes the philosophy, lol!

TY for comments peeps :)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: kesannah on Tuesday 02 December 08 20:54 GMT (UK): Matt,
Mary Ann had her time-and what a time she had. As for the philosphy it is not a bad thing to have and to practice.

I shall no doubt speak to you tomorrow.

Kesannah
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: VillageDuckpond on Tuesday 02 December 08 22:17 GMT (UK): Matt

What a wonderfully well-told story about an amazing woman. Thank you for sharing it with us all. I am sure that Mary Ann would be so very proud of you.

Sasha
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Abiam2 on Tuesday 02 December 08 22:42 GMT (UK): Thank you, Matt,
Abiam
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: prophetess on Tuesday 02 December 08 23:08 GMT (UK): Quote from: Reaybo M on Tuesday 02 December 08 20:43 GMT (UK)
LOL kes.

I want to keep writing about Mary Ann lol.

Stretched it as long as I could...didn't want her to die :(

TY for comments peeps :)

Matt I have got to say I didnt want her to die either she was an amazing womand and a fighter,
Well done
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Wednesday 03 December 08 00:26 GMT (UK): She did have her time :) If she didn't, I wouldn't be here.

The story isnt over yet! Nooo way!
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Wednesday 03 December 08 18:07 GMT (UK): I would just like to say a big thankyou to all of you out there all over the world who have joined me in sharing my Owens/Hughes family story. It has been really good to put my story at last into story format and your responses have been very kind and supporting. So, to my fanbase out there lol...thankyou!

This part of the story is very much the end. Next, I am going to post some photographs of people from this story, although most were not photographed. They had not the money to afford cameras. I believe the only two cameras in my family were those belonging to my great grandad Henry Russell, and his brother-in-law, Barney Hughes. These are the faces to the names...
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Blondie1 on Wednesday 03 December 08 18:55 GMT (UK): Hi Matt,

Its been a pleasure to be able to follow this jurney with you. I am sad its coming to an end. I am looking forward to the photographs though.

Val
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: kesannah on Wednesday 03 December 08 19:03 GMT (UK): Matt. I echo what Blondie has said.

Get those photos posted as soon as you can.

Kesannah
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Lenagh on Wednesday 03 December 08 19:08 GMT (UK): Hi Matt,
I've been lurking around Rootschat for a long time and just now became a member so that I too could congratulate you on your story of Mary Ann and family.

What an incredibly well written story! You have painted a vivid picture of your family in words and I have enjoyed reading it and like many others, don't want it to end.

You are in inspiration. :)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Wednesday 03 December 08 19:24 GMT (UK): Ok guys, here goes. This first photograph is of my beautiful great granny Nellie Hughes 1903-1982. I believe this picture was taken on her wedding day. She has Mary Ann's rosary beads in her hands.

A special thanks to Terry from the photo boards for a great effort in bringin Nellie back to life!
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Wednesday 03 December 08 19:29 GMT (UK): This picture is of Nellie and her loyal husband Henry Russell (1906-1973) He died suddenly in his house in Corby in February 1973 after a fall down the stairs, just as his son Michael had done. The baby is their first child, Daniel.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Wednesday 03 December 08 19:37 GMT (UK): And here is Danny in November 2007, with my granny Ellen.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: oldtimer on Wednesday 03 December 08 19:39 GMT (UK): lovely photos Matt! Thanks for posting them!
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Wednesday 03 December 08 19:47 GMT (UK): The next two photographs are of Francis Russell 1940-1940 and his mum Nellie, shortly befre his death, and shortly after she had lost Michael. The second photo shows where they rest in peace.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Wednesday 03 December 08 19:59 GMT (UK): Here is a photograph of my beloved great great granny Mary Ann Owens 1862-1941. Note, her hair is still black.

RIP
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Wednesday 03 December 08 20:03 GMT (UK): Next we have a pic of Nimmo's Row's, where Mary Ann walked every day from 1906 until her death. Weird to think they would all have trod on this ground. I can imagine them in this pic.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: kesannah on Wednesday 03 December 08 20:09 GMT (UK): Thanks for showing us these pics Matt.

It is just as weird if you tread the same streets as your Ancestors. It is almost as if they are there looking over your shoulder.

At least that is how it felt to me.

Kesannah
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Wednesday 03 December 08 20:12 GMT (UK): This is Mary Ann's son Frank (1889-1952) in his First World War uniform. He was the lucky one, he survived.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Wednesday 03 December 08 20:17 GMT (UK): This is the oil painting of Patrick Hughes 1896-1918. He was invalided out of the war but succumbed to Influenza just weeks before the war ended. He was 22.

Lest we forget.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: oldtimer on Wednesday 03 December 08 20:21 GMT (UK): Very poignant photos Matt.

I am sure they are looking down on you and are very proud of you, as you are of them :)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Wednesday 03 December 08 20:24 GMT (UK): Those are but a few of the pictures I have...unfortunately some are ack in my home and I won't be able to post them until Christmas time.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: JJbeech on Wednesday 03 December 08 21:03 GMT (UK): Hi raeybo! ;D
What a sad, sad story beautifully, beautifully told!
Can i just add i LOVED the way you have slowly cropped your avitar, so as we got to know more about this amazing woman, she appeared to come closer and closer to us!! ;D
Sheer genius!!

BTW: you been in touch with a publisher yet??? :P

TC: XXX

jj
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: AnneMc on Wednesday 03 December 08 21:55 GMT (UK): Hi Matt:
Just wanted to say Thank you for letting us learn about your family.. Thanks for putting on the pictures nice to see the faces of the people we have been reading about. You have made your family very proud..

Cheers
Anne
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: jethorp on Wednesday 03 December 08 22:46 GMT (UK): You young man are a credit to all your family I am sure they are so so proud of you Thank you for the story and the photos.Have a wonderful family christmas Matt.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: stonechat on Thursday 04 December 08 06:12 GMT (UK): Hi

It makes me want to do the same on a smaller scale for my gt grandmother Ann Lee 1848-1940

There are a couple of the unknowns but they could be incorporated into the story. However the story would not have such drama and the real tragedy was in the months after her death

Bob
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: stonechat on Thursday 04 December 08 06:14 GMT (UK): P.S.

Many many thanks for all this
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: mare on Thursday 04 December 08 08:26 GMT (UK): Matt I would just like to add my name to your admiration list ... you certainly have a talent for pulling the dates and family stories together into a compelling read. I didn't even need a bookmark, there it was each time almost top of my unread list. The continuing tragedies in their lives was a very sad tale though sensitively portrayed ... well done ... and great to see the photographs also.

You can be well proud ... definitely makes my efforts and scrappy jottings look a bit pathetic...

:) mare
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: prophetess on Thursday 04 December 08 09:00 GMT (UK): Hi Matt,
Nice to see , the photo's, there certainly something to treasure,
you have quite a fanclub here, and I am sure we are all going to miss your blog,

Well done Matt, I Truly am proud to have you as my friend
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Ruskie on Thursday 04 December 08 10:39 GMT (UK): Fascinating to see the photos, thanks Matt!

I must say I think that Ellen, Nellie and Henry certainly have a twinkle in their eyes, and what a gorgeous baby Daniel is! It is amazing that Mary Ann kept her dark hair - specially after such a hard life.

Well, I am looking forward to the next installment of the story. Now you've got this far, you can't really stop till you get to the present day. Got to get it all written down, so the BBC can get cracking on that TV series - Nothing But Bad Times! Excellent title by the way! ;)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: aussieshirl on Thursday 04 December 08 11:23 GMT (UK): congratulations Matt, excellent story told excellently!!
photos fantastic too

all the best, aussieshirl. :) :)
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: majm on Thursday 04 December 08 11:45 GMT (UK): Congratulations Matt,

My laptop has been letting me down for the last few days, so I nearly starved for want of access to "Nothing But Bad Times".

I do hope you have been approached from Judi Dench for movie rights etc. None but the Dame to play Mary Ann.

Will catch you in the chatroom as soon as this temporary PC is back at the Puter Doctors, and my own laptop is back on my desk in fine working order.

Well Done,

MA

I am a great grand daughter of Mary Ann HUNT who on marriage became Mrs John Smith - as in John and Mary Smith. They faced tragedy, but not wave after wave after wave.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: deb usa on Thursday 04 December 08 11:46 GMT (UK): Matt

What a wonderful story! I must admit, I have had a weep several times ....most especially when I saw the headstone of Michael and Francis.

deb
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: stonechat on Thursday 04 December 08 14:17 GMT (UK): It really shows the value of a narratiive account as opposed to all the usual dates and facts and figures.

Recently trying to put together an account of My Holmes various emigrations. Only when you really sort out dates and the exact order that things took place can you begin to try to inderstand the possible reasons for the way things happened

Bob
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: jesstidd on Thursday 04 December 08 15:40 GMT (UK): Well done Matt. You have done a great job in portraying your family history. Wish I could do the same to pass down to mine. Good luck in the future. jess
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Matt R on Thursday 04 December 08 16:05 GMT (UK): Hi guys, thanks once more for all the support.

I now move to another thread, where I am going to write another story, this time it is the account of how I found all the information I did, and my own personal journey to Holytown earlier this year.

I hope you find it as enjoyable as this one. You'll find it here:

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=346017.new

Regards,
Matt
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: maria Reid on Wednesday 15 June 16 12:58 BST (UK): I hope you all enjoyed reading about my family,( many of whom are still living) being dramatised like some type of soap opera, Mary Ann Owen's Granddaughter is still living and is shocked to see the amount of untruths and events that no twenty something boy could possibly know about dragged out over 32 pages and with the cheek to copyright. According to this blog it would seem that the author has discovered all of these people and researched the information on his own. This could not be further from the truth. My mother is still living and she told the author most of the info, but he has without respect and consideration made what was private family information into a public display which he has dramatised beyond belief. So to all of you hanging onto his every word and those of you who awaited the next installment with baited breath, consider that this is a family's life and private affairs you are all taking great pleasure from.
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: majm on Thursday 16 June 16 13:45 BST (UK): Hi there Maria,

May I please take up some minutes of your time, and ask you to consider the following:

I am one of those who encouraged Matt back in 2008. I notice you joined RChat back in 2014. It is a great place for family history buffs to help each other, and to share. It is also a great place because it is easily found via google searchings with key words. And it is a great place because it has rules about how we need to refrain from identifying living people.

May I mention that I have quickly checked, via RChat’s own search options, and I can see where Matt R definitely informs us that he has received information from his relatives. But as a sensible RChatter, he respected the privacy of those living people and he does not identify them. Here is the live link to a thread where, back in August 2006, Matt asks for some help with his family history research. Notice that in his opening post he writes “Relatives tell me that my g g granny Mary Ann OWENS …..”
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=179853.0

I haven’t looked further, but I am sure that it is most likely there's many other occasions that Matt R asked for assistance here at RChat either on the written boards, or more likely in the chatroom. I well remember him in the chatroom, helping newbies with quality tips on how to research, what to look for, how to protect the privacy of the living, how not to cause offense, how to respect other opinions and how to validate your own research. I don’t spend time in the chatroom, as I spend more time on the boards, particularly the Australia board.

I am sure that there’s nothing in Matt’s words that identifies yourself, just as I am sure that he has been particularly careful in how he introduced anyone born later than 1900 in his 2008 posts.

Maria, I am sorry that you have felt we were being dramatic or that Matt was writing a Soap Opera. Matt’s writing is actually following a format/style/structure that is easy and interesting to read, and is familiar to many readers of 19th century local family history. I do disagree with your comment about copyright. I am in Australia, so I am not familiar with UK copyright laws. But I do know that copyright is the legal right of the originator of the script of the story. It is not a right over the story of Mary Ann, but it is a legal right in this instance given to the writer (the author) , to control the use of his own words in an original work that he has made. So it protects Matt’s original expression of the story about his gg granny, Mary Ann, but it is not a claim by Matt to own the facts about Mary Ann’s life. In Australia an author’s copyright exists for a set amount of time. I am not sure if that applies in the UK.

Maria, please reassure your Mum that we have not been disrespectful towards Matt and your family, and that we wish you well. I too have g granny named Mary Ann, also born in a land far far away, back in the middle of the 19th Century. She too struggled, and faced many hurdles. I believe that many many many women faced hurdles and that us women in the 21st century are most fortunate for quite a number of those hurdles no longer exist.

Cheers from New South Wales, Australia, and again, I am sorry that you and your mother are upset after reading the thread.

JM
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: VillageDuckpond on Wednesday 04 January 17 18:09 GMT (UK): I have just come across this blog and remember Matt very well in the Chatroom years ago and although I never met him personally certainly didn't get the feeling he had any intention of upsetting other people. On the contrary he appeared as a very helpful young man and I am so saddened by what I have just read.

Villageduckpond

Quote from: majm on Thursday 16 June 16 13:45 BST (UK)
Hi there Maria,

May I please take up some minutes of your time, and ask you to consider the following:

I am one of those who encouraged Matt back in 2008. I notice you joined RChat back in 2014. It is a great place for family history buffs to help each other, and to share. It is also a great place because it is easily found via google searchings with key words. And it is a great place because it has rules about how we need to refrain from identifying living people.

May I mention that I have quickly checked, via RChat’s own search options, and I can see where Matt R definitely informs us that he has received information from his relatives. But as a sensible RChatter, he respected the privacy of those living people and he does not identify them. Here is the live link to a thread where, back in August 2006, Matt asks for some help with his family history research. Notice that in his opening post he writes “Relatives tell me that my g g granny Mary Ann OWENS …..”
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=179853.0

I haven’t looked further, but I am sure that it is most likely there's many other occasions that Matt R asked for assistance here at RChat either on the written boards, or more likely in the chatroom. I well remember him in the chatroom, helping newbies with quality tips on how to research, what to look for, how to protect the privacy of the living, how not to cause offense, how to respect other opinions and how to validate your own research. I don’t spend time in the chatroom, as I spend more time on the boards, particularly the Australia board.

I am sure that there’s nothing in Matt’s words that identifies yourself, just as I am sure that he has been particularly careful in how he introduced anyone born later than 1900 in his 2008 posts.

Maria, I am sorry that you have felt we were being dramatic or that Matt was writing a Soap Opera. Matt’s writing is actually following a format/style/structure that is easy and interesting to read, and is familiar to many readers of 19th century local family history. I do disagree with your comment about copyright. I am in Australia, so I am not familiar with UK copyright laws. But I do know that copyright is the legal right of the originator of the script of the story. It is not a right over the story of Mary Ann, but it is a legal right in this instance given to the writer (the author) , to control the use of his own words in an original work that he has made. So it protects Matt’s original expression of the story about his gg granny, Mary Ann, but it is not a claim by Matt to own the facts about Mary Ann’s life. In Australia an author’s copyright exists for a set amount of time. I am not sure if that applies in the UK.

Maria, please reassure your Mum that we have not been disrespectful towards Matt and your family, and that we wish you well. I too have g granny named Mary Ann, also born in a land far far away, back in the middle of the 19th Century. She too struggled, and faced many hurdles. I believe that many many many women faced hurdles and that us women in the 21st century are most fortunate for quite a number of those hurdles no longer exist.

Cheers from New South Wales, Australia, and again, I am sorry that you and your mother are upset after reading the thread.

JM
Title: Re: Blog: "Nothing But Bad Times"
Post by: Mowsehowse on Thursday 05 January 17 16:13 GMT (UK): Quote from: Matt R on Thursday 04 December 08 16:05 GMT (UK)
Hi guys, thanks once more for all the support.

I now move to another thread, where I am going to write another story, this time it is the account of how I found all the information I did, and my own personal journey to Holytown earlier this year.

I hope you find it as enjoyable as this one. You'll find it here:

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=346017.new

Regards, Matt

Hello Matt.
Due to a recent post, I have discovered, (8 years later,) and read, your blog.

May I offer hearty congratulations that you actually did set this down for others to read?

I am sure I am one of an army of procrastinators who intend to put their research into prose, one day..... :-\

I would like to look at the link as quoted above, as I am sure I have much to learn, but I can't make it work. :'(

Can anyone help please?

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