WDYTYA - tiny gripe

[youngtug]

This one? https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/403751/georgina-manan

[Phil Goater]

Yes! Wow, that was quick!

Phil

[Rena]

I think our modern generations are too quick to jump to conclusions when a family story is handed down that "he left his family" -  What a selfish cad.  There's no thought given to the circumstances of why that might have happened, even though we can see on TV that thousands of men have left their families to seek work. I've come across several centuries old parish registers that have recorded an unknown stranger was found dead and had been buried at Parish expense - poor fellow must have starved to death after trudging miles looking for work.

We hear stories of strict workhouse rules and look at photos of the uniformed, neatly dressed residents and think "What an awful place". Yes the adults had to work if they were able but the children had free medical aid, free basic education and often were taught a trade - both the latter skills had to be paid for outside of those places.     Yet, because the whole family is "together", we don't mind if theyre living in a home where the floor may well be cold quarried flagstones laid on soil and when it rained the room became extremely damp; fetching water from a nearby community water pump and sharing a dry lavatory with several families living in the same terrace block of houses.  When a family doesn't have much food to eat then there's bound to be cases of diarrhea that somebody in the community has to clean up.   

Back in the early 1970s I watched a TV series entitled "Sam", which portrayed the slump between the wars and more or less mirrored the dire straights described in many WDYTYA programmes.  When times were hard they had to pawn a few possessions, buying them back if they found work.  Then when there was nothing left to pawn the family had to approach the Dole Office for funds.  Did you know that if the inspecting officer discovered you had even so much as a mattress you wouldn't receive a penny before you sold it.  In the TV series, Sam's family did have a mattress which they had to hide before the official visited - but where could they hide it.
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_(1973_TV_series)

[Finley 1]

Thanks for that Rena,   It does need mentioning.. So many came down to the midlands for work.  Whilst the family stayed up North.. Railway building.

Is that the 'Sam' series that was the chap who was 'Taggart'----- I loved that series.

GOSH that is an extremely badly written sentence...

but after yesterday -  my mind is blown.



xin

just re read this ... keyboard making mischief again  as well as my brain

[Daonnachd]

Thanks for that Rena,   It does need mentioning.. So many came down to the midlsterands for work.  Whilst the family stayed up North.. Railway building.

Is that the 'Sam' series that was the chap who was 'Taggart'----- I loved that series.

GOSH that is an extremely badly written sentence...

but after yesterday -  my mind is blown.



xin

Love your strapline Xinia!   

[Rena]

Thanks for that Rena,   It does need mentioning.. So many came down to the midlsterands for work.  Whilst the family stayed up North.. Railway building.

Is that the 'Sam' series that was the chap who was 'Taggart'----- I loved that series.

GOSH that is an extremely badly written sentence...

but after yesterday -  my mind is blown.

xin

Great minds think alike xin - Yes, it was the Taggart man, actor Mark McManus who played "Sam" as an adult - unfortunately I can't recall the name of the excellent child actor who played young Sam.

My maternal grandfather born mid 1880s in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire was one of those who left their family home and travelled nearly 100 miles to Hull, East Yokshire to find work as a labourer on the docks.  It's a good job he did, because he met and married my grandmother in Hull, otherwise I wouldn't be here :-)      (she's my avatar with their 2 oldest children)-

Coincidentally, today I had a builder repairing my roof and he found an abandoned bird's nest under the slates with a dead fledgling in it. This prompted me to describe how my maternal grandparents sometimes had to provide food to feed the family.   g/f would make a noose on the end of a piece of string and lay it on the ground. A tug on the string would tighten the noose around the bird's legs. My grandmother would pluck the feathers off the tiny birds, clean the innards and bake them in a pie.  I never thought to ask her if she put four and twenty blackbirds in each of her pies.

[Finley 1]

Thanks for that Rena,   It does need mentioning.. So many came down to the midlsterands for work.  Whilst the family stayed up North.. Railway building.

Is that the 'Sam' series that was the chap who was 'Taggart'----- I loved that series.

GOSH that is an extremely badly written sentence...

but after yesterday -  my mind is blown.



xin

Love your strapline Xinia!   

I have had to go and recover it...   I let the Yorkes have a rest and put away the Wrights and their endless 'bush'  family habits to try and gather myself.   Impossible


 


I am having bother with the keyboard again, it wipes what I type.. and inserts in the wrong places... so cannot answer today ... sorry need to get it fixed..  so hard to type   arrgh

[Spidermonkey]

I do love the first 2 series of WDYTYA, especially Julia Sawhala, as I have Huguenot ancestors who settled in the East End. No definite proof of a connection but her ancestors came from the same village in France as mine did, and the same surname. DuBosc.

Julia Sawalha's Huguenot ancestor's surname was Dubock - see http://www.bbc.co.uk/whodoyouthinkyouare/past-stories/julia-sawalha.shtml.  One of her relatives married into a sideline on one side of my tree. 

Edit - while I suspect Coombs thinks I'm deliberately trying to pick an argument with him, I'm not sure whether DuBosc would be considered a variation of Dubock but any expert French speakers may be able to shed light on this.

I am also a descendant of the Dubocks (and various spelling variants!) - my 6x gt grandmother was Ann Dubock, daughter of Isaac Dubock (b c. 1721), who was the son of Isaac Dubock (b c. 1696) who was the son of Charles Dubock (b c. 1657 - think this was the chap who came over from Normandy to England).  I think Charles Dubock's parents might have been Abraham Dubock and Jeanne Martin.

Not sure that this gives me huge amounts of kinship with Julia Sawalha though!  (I must check again where her Dubocks link in)

[smudwhisk]

I am also a descendant of the Dubocks (and various spelling variants!) - my 6x gt grandmother was Ann Dubock, daughter of Isaac Dubock (b c. 1721), who was the son of Isaac Dubock (b c. 1696) who was the son of Charles Dubock (b c. 1657 - think this was the chap who came over from Normandy to England).  I think Charles Dubock's parents might have been Abraham Dubock and Jeanne Martin.

Not sure that this gives me huge amounts of kinship with Julia Sawalha though!  (I must check again where her Dubocks link in)

My interest in Dubock relates to the descendants of Edward Dubock and Susannah Briggs who married 20 Feb 1792 at St Botolph Bishopsgate.  Susannah's father Thomas was the half brother of one of my ancestors (although a number of online trees list her with different parents, her father's Will confirms her identity).  According to the records of the French Hospital Edward was the son of George Dubock and grandson of an Isaac Dubock born in France.  Where or which Isaac that is I don't know as its not my directline so haven't followed it backwards.