Four Trees -Our Great Grandmothers

[carrielovesfanta]

Was lucky with the great-grandmothers, I knew one of them personally and had enough memories from mums and nans for the others

Jessie May Pettit 1901-2001 - 100 years!
Edith Mildred Loveday
Evelyn Ivy Tunnage
Florence Lili Hitchings

I've found that whenever things get tough, I think about all the stuff that my ancestors had to go through - it always makes me feel better!

Caz

[Shaztoni]

Yes I better give them proper names:
Lydia (Lily, Lillie or Elizabeth) Williams : had my grand father in a workhouse when she was about 16. She smoked a clay pipe.
Annie (Elizabeth Ann) Beer : was a concert pianist (and Freddy's mum). She had three religions during her life.
Kate (Catherine) Garrow : born in Durham of Scottish parents, she was deaf, excitable and an alcoholic.
Priscilla Blight: Always regretted having to sell a sheep skin rug that she was given as a wedding present during the 1920s mining strikes to feed her children.

Sharon

[Shaztoni]

Shocking holy saints 

Sharon

[avm228]

My 4 had very contrasting lives:

Mary Ann Reeves: Known as Flo or Florrie.  Born in Walworth, South London to a working-class family. Possible gypsy blood in there, proving very hard to trace. Worked for a printer before marriage, married a bricklayer, had 3 kids and was really rather plain according to the photos.

Mabel Gertrude Eldred: Born in Essex, daughter of the village blacksmith. Worked as a domestic cook before marriage to a seaman who later worked for Barclays Bank. Had one daughter 9 months after the wedding but was never able to have any more. Spent her last years in Kent being a doting grandmother to my father.

Winifred Moore: Born and raised in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, one of six daughters of an affluent family who enjoyed what was by all accounts an idyllic upbringing. Married a wealthy manufacturer, had 4 kids, was heartbroken when her eldest son (my grandfather) was killed in WW2, lived to 90-something and never drank a drop.

Mary Winifred Pierce: Known as Molly.  Born in South Dakota of a Scots-American mother and English father. The family moved to Mexico and then Bolivia; she married an English missionary in Paraguay and they had two daughters in Argentina. Died in her early 40s of heart weakness caused by childhood diphtheria.

I wish I could get them all in a room to tell me their stories!

Anna

[Shaztoni]

Mary Winifred Pierce sounds fascinating, I'm sure she had many stories for such a short life.

Sharon

[Lloydy]

My 4 great grandmothers:

Annie James from Llanwydellan, Montgomeryshire

Florence Matilda Owen from Newtown, Montgomeryshire

Phoebe Jones from Llanidloes, Montgomeryshire

Jane Mills from Llanidloes, Montgomeryshire


Jan

[wotty]

Four great grandmothers

Mary Ann Kelly, born in Darlington of Irish parents and married an Irish man. She had 7 sons and sounds like she had a rough time. She outlived 3 of them, two of them emigrated, and of the two remaining, one was my eccentric grandfather and the other was the town drunk.  She lived in the front room at my grandfather's house, though my parents never saw her and she was only ever referred to as "the old woman". Lived to be 82.

Phoebe Eliza Mortimer (or Ward), born in Kentish Town, lived in Darlington and had 9 kids. Died of breast cancer at the age of 47.

Emma Matilda Hall, born and raised in the Redworth area of Co Durham, married a railwayman, had 11 children in quick succession and lived to be 74.

Alice Rowntree, a dressmaker, born and lived all her life in Shildon Co Durham. Came from a large and interesting family but only had three kids of her own. Lived to be 77.

[Zelley]

AS time drifts on for the great grandmothers, we often find them
as widows in an old census.  So, this may be a "lighter side"
but sometimes the old great grandmothers were on the lighter side of financial stability in days of yore.

So, how did our great grandmothers cope when they were left as widows due to death by accident or sickness of the
great grandfathers?

WW I, would have left many a young bride alone or with small children.  Did they remain a widow or remarry.  Did they ever
become grandmothers and great granmothers?  Of course many did and some of the story tellers of today are able to cast light on the dark days of the great grandmothers of yesterday.

[moscan]

Three out of the four from me are:

Sarah Ann Busby from Oxfordshire, 1852 - after 1901 census

Mary Jemima Freear from Worcs 1855 - not sure

Mary McMahon born 1861 to 1942 affectionally known as the Mimmie... a very strong woman loved and feared by all ....


missing the one I really would love to find my grandmothers Mam... no idea at all there...

ah well it keeps me looking...

Best wishes

Mo

Pic is of Sarah Ann Busby...