Friday 23 December 2011

Faces from the old albums

Christmas is a time for being with and catching up with family, all those Round Robin newsletters, the cards from cousins you barely keep in touch with ...

And there's always the old family photo albums to flick through, bringing back memories and the annual anecdotes.

Here are a few names and faces from my old albums.





Top pic shows Charles Holder and his son Percy; middle pic is Frances M Bates; bottom pic is Marion (nee Bates) Holder. Marion and Frances were sister sof my great grandfather John P Bates, seen below.


Thursday 22 December 2011

Death on the track

My father's lifelong passion for steam railways stems from his own father's and grandfather's connection with the M&GN railway: both worked their way up from porters to become signalmen, working across East Anglia.

Today, through a contact on Genesreunited, I discovered that we have another railway connection. My great grandmother's uncle, William Crowson, was hit and killed by a steam engine at March railway station, Cambridgehsire at 12.45pm on 29 October 1908.

From an old newspaper cutting sent to me by the new contact, a distant cousin, it is clear that William died in a tragic accident when he momentarily lost concentration crossing the tracks after a nine hour shift as a goods engine driver. He had lived at March for over 26 years, and left a widow in her 50s and a large family.

A sad end to a railway career.

Tuesday 20 December 2011

Great to hear today from Canadian cousins that the Bates branch over there is going strong and celebrating Christmas together this weekend.

Need to have a photo album rummage and see what gems I can post.