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My Grandmother’s Wedding Shoes

19 Sep

A Victorian Woman

My Grandmother’s Wedding Shoes!

Sarah Jane Sleath was the only girl in a family of six boys including twins. She was born at Outwoods, Staffordshire in 1869. She lived with us when I was growing up in Edmonton. All I really remember was a tiny, old woman in a bed, and I was taken in to visit her once a day. By the time I was four, she had been moved to a long term care hospital. My Dad and I visited her at the hospital, but on one visit, after my dad let a nurse carry me off to a ward, thinking I was a new admission, I was never allowed to go again. Who knows what my dad was thinking that day? My mother was very angry with him.  I vividly remember a long room with beds along both sides filled with children. Then my dad and another nurse came rushing up to retrieve me!

Sarah Jane died in 1954 and I recall seeing her coffin in the boxcar on the train while we waited at the CPR station. We were going to Red Deer for her funeral and burial in the cemetery next to her husband John Thomas Perkins. Not sure why they were buried there. Her brother, Jack Sleath and his wife Clara Annie Shotton, were buried there as well, but they had lived there.

Over the years, I heard comments from different people. They all recalled that Sarah Jane had quite the temper and wondered how my grandfather dealt with it. She was a little bit of a thing, standing about 4 feet 10 inches, at least that’s what she looked like in pictures. Some say I look like her. Perhaps my temper is justly inherited.

Who was this woman I barely knew? While searching some of the trunks kept in our cellar, I came across a beautifully decorated box. In it were white shoes and a wedding veil. I had seen pictures of my grandparents wedding and knew they must belong to Sarah Jane. She married John Thomas Perkins May 5, 1901 at St. Peter’s Church, Claybrooke Magna, Leicestershire, England. Prior to that she had worked as a Parlor Maid at Claybrooke Hall.  Her employer was Miss Simpson. I often wondered what life was like for domestic help in Victorian times.

The 1901 Census shows the following:

Louise Simpson 78       Born Foston, York

Charlotte Hillyar 71     Born Stoke Bramel, Devon        Companion

Bessie Tyers 47              Born Shenstone, Staffordshire   Nurse Attendant

Sarah Jane Sleath 30   Born Outwoods, Staffordshire   Parlor Maid

Sarah Heywood 24       Born Chilcote Lei                              House Maid

Ethel Crisp 17                 Born Claybrooke, Lei                     Kitchen Maid

Janet Taylor 32              Born Blackfordy, Lei                       Nurse

Hetty Williams 32          Born Greenwich, London              Cook

What would she have done as a parlourmaid? Quoting from “Women’s Lives” a book on social history from 1800 – 1930 by Jennifer Newby , “parlour and housemaids’ duties were often interchangeable. The main division was that parlourmaids answered the door, served tea and did the lighter cleaning. Housemaids undertook the heavier work, rising at dawn to light the kitchen fire, heating water, beating rugs and other heavy cleaning.”   Both types of  Maids would also make beds, clean rooms, do sewing and mending and keep the fires going  throughout the day. Days off were few and far between, but Sarah Jane managed to meet JohnThomas Perkins the village Blacksmith. Perhaps it was at church, as servants often accompanied their employers to services and in this instance, St. Peter’s Church was just across the road from The Hall.

In Sarah’s wedding photo, Bessie Tyers is pictured with the family, so I assume that Sarah and Bessie had developed a relationship while working long hours at The Hall. There is  one unidentified woman who could also be from The Hall, perhaps Janet Taylor, the nurse.

My grandmother’s life would  change when she married. In just a few short years, she, her husband John Thomas and son Tertius, would leave England to make a better life for themselves in Canada. The city she moved to was just getting its start in 1913 and was rough and rugged. Her house in the Ritchie District had a barn for her cows and chickens and a big garden to grow vegetables. She had brought all her furniture including a piano and a grandfather clock, fine china, pictures and a mangle. Container shipping isn’t a new thing!

Sarah Jane had seen dramatic changes in her lifetime. Wish I had been able to hear her story firsthand.

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“Old Pictures of Claybrooke Magna, Claybrooke Parva and Ullesthorpe”…….and Why I Joined Facebook!

1 Sep

I have always asked myself “Why would I ever join Facebook?” Now I have my answer. It is so I can connect with all the others who live in, have lived in or have ancestors who have lived in “The Claybrookes and Ullesthorpe” in Leicestershire. YES, I have finally come into the 21st Century…..from my Red Phone to my Smart Phone, from my Underwood Typewriter to a Laptop Computer, from hand written letters to postings on Facebook! Who would have thought such a thing possible? Well maybe my Dad, after all, he was a telegrapher and the fastest typist I knew and he had a Ham Radio back in the 50’s and 60’s and he would “chat”, albeit in a somewhat different manner with others around the world. How he would have loved Facebook!
It all began earlier this summer, when someone responded to a post I had placed on the Leicestershire Village Website in 2009 asking for help in locating any living Perkins in the Claybrooke Magna/Parva area. Over the July 1st Long Weekend, someone responded that they thought they knew of a connection and would get back to me. I think they gathered in the Pig in Muck, the local, to solve the problem. Soon I had an email from a living Perkins, a descendant of Walter Joseph Perkins, brother to my grandfather, John Thomas Perkins. Emails and pictures went back and forth across the Atlantic as we caught up on 100 years of family history. You see, my grandfather, John Thomas had left England in 1913 to come to Canada. Once here, there was minimal contact with those back in the village. My Dad made only one trip to the Old Country in 1932.
It wasn’t long after this happened that I had an email from someone saying that, if on Facebook, I should check out this group who was posting info and pictures related to The Claybrookes. I did and I’m hooked!!! Can’t believe what I have discovered about the villages and their inhabitants going back into the 1800’s. The pictures are absolutely marvelous!!! And the memories they engender are wonderful to hear. Young and old alike have been sharing what they have dug out of trunks and other storage boxes. So far the group has 158 members, not bad for only being in existence for 3 weeks. Who knows who will find us in the future!
Summer here is almost over and it has been quite the summer. It began in London at the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations for the Queen with a spur of the moment trip and ended here in Edmonton with The International Fringe Theatre Festival -Village of the Fringed. In between, there was a multitude of Festivals…..Jazz, Blues, Symphony, Folk, Rock, Street Performers, Open Doors for History and Heritage Days….the choices were yours.
Time now to get ready for fall and my trip to China. No, I will not be looking for any ancestors. This is the trip that I have always dreamed of doing….when I return there will be plenty of time to look for ancestors.

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Connections Across the Atlantic!

9 Jul

Written during WW1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has been a very interesting first week of July. We celebrated Canada Day  July 1st. We are officially 145 years old as a country. We are also in the midst of the Open Doors/Historic Week Edmonton Festival. Here we are celebrating about 100 years worth of Historic Buildings in the City of Edmonton and its surrounding areas. Also learned a little about the War of 1812. Guess I heard the name when I was in school, but it didn’t mean anything. After hearing someone speak at my Genealogy Group a couple of weeks ago, and watching some documentaries on TV, I realize that had this war not happened, I could be living in a different country today. British and Indians won, well I’m not sure about the Indians, but that is a debate for another time. Americans lost……..eventually Canada came into being in 1867!

In this same week, after several years of searching, I have finally connected with living Perkins relatives in England. For so long, I have only been digging up dead ancestors, so finding living relatives……well that  is a real treat. With the help of a number of individuals from the Villages of Claybrooke Magna and Claybrooke Parva, I have been able to locate two descendants of Walter Joseph Perkins, my grandfather John Thomas’ brother.

Died at the Battle of Cambrai November 30, 1917 age 20

Several years ago, I came upon a website called The Claybrookes. I discovered that in 1997, a group from the village had done research on the War Memorial situated in the churchyard. Listed on this memorial was the name William Perkins. On the website were transcriptions of letters this young man had written home to his sister Elsie Perkins during WW1. Bill was the younger son of Walter Perkins. Elsie and Bill were my Dad’s cousins. Perhaps someone in Walter’s family had descendants still alive in England.

Subsequent research proved that Bill had died at age 19 on the Battlefields of Cambrai in November 1917. He was not married and left no children. His older brother Thomas, was invalided out of the war and died in 1922 as a result of his war injury. He also was unmarried and left no children. The remainder of Walter’s children were girls and so, once married, would not have carried on the Perkins name.

I continued my research but without hope of finding Perkins relatives. Through other references to the village, I came across the name Thomas Perkins, and on one source, it said Thomas was living with his Grandfather Walter Perkins. So who was this Thomas, if son Thomas had died in 1922. Turns out, Elsie had 2 children both born during WW1 and prior to her marriage in 1924. Thomas was one of these boys. More searching and I discovered this young man had grown to adulthood in the village. Yes…..I found his marriage in 1944. Children possibly, but how to find them?

This was where the various notice boards came in handy. I listed my request to help find Thomas Perkins and his descendants. That was in 2008.

Success takes time…..but it happened this week. I have connected with Tom’s son, who still lives in the area, as well as Tom’s grand daughter, who I found via a Public Tree on Ancestry….people who definitely share my gene pool.

Old World…New World! Finally a TransAtlantic Perkins connection. Can hardly wait for my next visit to England. Thanks to those who helped to make this possible. I am sure the local, The Pig in Muck, was a busy place last weekend as old memories were raised. Cheers!

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My English Gene Pool!

22 Jun

Last Sunday was Father’s Day here in Canada. Time to remember my own father and the other men whose genes I have inherited. I can trace the Perkins family line back to John Perkins, son of Joseph Perkins and Ann Mason Sutton. He was born in Withybrook, WAR in 1833 and christened at the Independent Chapel in Stretton under Fosse. This would make the Mason family Non Conformists. He married Clara Benford in 1859 and lived in Claybrooke Magna where they had 2 sons, John Thomas and Walter Joseph. John was the Village Blacksmith as well as serving many public volunteer roles in the village. His son, John Thomas was also a Blacksmith until he left the village in 1910. My Dad, Tertius Bernard Jack Perkins was the only child of John Thomas Perkins and Sarah Jane Sleath. They were married at St. Peter’s in 1901 and he was born in 1904. In 1913, at the age of 9, he emigrated to Canada with his parents.

Joseph Perkins remains something of a brick wall. I believe him to be the son of Thomas and Dorothy Perkins and christened at Sharnford,LEI in 1795. He is listed as a Butcher on John and Clara’s Marriage Certificate. The other men, John and John Thomas were Blacksmiths and my Dad was a Telecommunications Technician with the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway).

Thomas Perkins? C. 1765
Joseph Perkins 1795 – 1838
John Perkins 1833 – 1896
John Thomas Perkins 1863 – 1936 Walter Joseph Perkins 1864 – 1938
Tertius Bernard Jack Perkins 1904 – 1980
John David Perkins b/d 1942

If I look at naming patterns, I see the name JOHN carried down. Since John named his second son, Walter Joseph, the Joseph after his father, could I be correct in that he named his first son John Thomas after himself and his grandfather THOMAS? Someday……I may discover the elusive record which will prove me correct.

How long had this family been on the land in |Middle England? They seem to have inhabited the border areas of Warwickshire and Leicestershire along what was Watling Street and Fosse Way, the old Roman Roads. Over the centuries, this area had been occupied by the Britons, Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans . What stories these people would have to tell…..and if I think I am ENGLISH, perhaps I should take another look or at least, take a DNA test, given the peoples who have emigrated to this land.

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Women who married into the Perkins Family!

19 May

Last Sunday was Mother’s Day here in Canada. Of course, I was remembering my own mother, Agnes Irvine MacMillan Perkins, who died in 1996. But I was also thinking of those other women who married into the Perkins Family and who I have discovered through my research, Ann Mason, Clara Benford, and Sarah Jane Sleath. I wondered how the lives of these women differed from that of my mother.

Ann Mason Sutton Perkins was my Great Grandmother. She was the farthest I had gone back in my Paternal line. She was born in 1790 in Withybrook, WAR and christened at the Independent Chapel in Stretton Under Fosse in 1791. Her parents were John Mason and Esther  Iliffe. I knew they were Dissenters and that I might not find family records through the regular channels. I would likely need Non Conformist records.

A week ago as I was surfing the net looking for nothing in particular, I discovered that one of the paid sites had posted the Parish Register for Withybrook.  As I was a member, I started searching. Suddenly I had Mason’s back to a Thomas Mason who was buried at Withybrook, January 13, 1691 and listed as “age near 90”. This would mean that he was born circa 1601. I have not yet connected all the dots, but I have discovered a number of Thomas and John Mason’s born at Wolvey and Withybrook that could be likely contenders for Ann’s ancestors. I discovered that in 1745 John Mason married an Ann Spencer and that this name was carried on as a middle name. John Mason and Esther Iliffe, Ann’s parents, were married in 1789 and one of Ann’s brother was called William Spencer Mason. More work needs to be done, but I have just made a 200 year leap backwards in the Mason Family.

Now back to my original thoughts about Ann’s life in comparison to my mother’s…… just as a starter, I have a woman whose family seemed to live in one area forever! Ann, as an older woman widowed for the second time at age 48 when Joseph Perkins died (1838), eventually crossed the border into  Leicestershire, to live  near her son, John Perkins, Blacksmith at Claybrooke Magna and to die at the Frolesworth Alm Houses in 1861 at the age of 70.

My mother lived on 3 continents before the age of 15 years. She was born in Chile, South America, passed through Maidstone/Chatham, Kent, England and ended up in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada.

Much more to say, but this is the Victoria Day Holiday Weekend, celebrated here in Canada long before Canada even existed, to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Birthday. Time to go out and enjoy!

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Hello world!

12 May

Today would have been my Dad’s  birthday. He was born in Claybrooke Magna, Leicestershire, England on May 12, 1904. How he would have loved this wonderful technology!

He  started his working life here in Canada as a Telegram Delivery Boy and soon progressed to a  telegrapher for Canadian Pacific Telecommunications. He was a fantastic typist. As a child I remember sitting in our basement on cold winter nights and listening to him as he operated his HAM Radio. Nothing was more exciting than to have him make contact with another operator somewhere in the world. VE6 IR was  his call number. Confirmation of contact was made with postcards and I would check the mail everyday to see if any new ones had arrived.

He never lived to see the world of computers and cell phones, but I am sure he would have been amongst the first to have such items. He was a man before his time way back then and today, he would have been on the net with all its instant communication! And Google Earth with all aerial and street views….oh my!  He never flew in a jet plane! and didn’t know what the world looked like from up there.

I became interested in Genealogy about 8 years ago after I retired. Over the years, I had discovered photos of relatives left behind in England when my Dad and Grandparents emigrated to Canada in 1913. Of course, like many others, I never asked who were the people in these pictures….so,  I set out to discover who they were.

I pursued much of my research using online databases. The highlight of my connection with the Alberta Genealogy Society was the London Trippers trip to England in September 2010. There is nothing like spending time in Archives with others who are as passionate about their research as you are and then being able to visit the areas in England where your ancestors once lived and to walk down those same country roads.

Originally I was interested in learning who my ancestors were and where they had come from. I started out creating all those wonderful pedigree charts. Some 8 years on, I have finished, more or less, a few! The names and dates are there for me to look at. In some cases, I have been able to go back to the 1600’s. I guess this is success. What I discovered though was, it wasn’t the names or dates that were really important, it was the stories behind them. These were real people with real and exciting lives They lived in places as far away as  Calcutta, India and Coquimbo, Chile. They were tradespeople and domestic servants. They were farmers and Blacksmiths and they worked on ships as Engineers. They fought and died in the British Army in different wars. They were the true adventurers.

In the past few years, I have learned more history, geography, sociology, rural history, women’s studies, archaeology and computer skills than I did in my entire school years. It is these stories that now keep me engaged! I hope my WANDERINGS will continue to take me to the places where these people lived and died and I will be able to infuse my writings with even greater details of Lives Lived!

NEXT UP:  Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Celebrations in London June 2 – 5, 2012

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