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23 Feb 2006 12:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
curiouswombatI’ve been thinking of doing a scrap book with some of my family history bits in it, and yesterday, having a day off work and going out for lunch with my daughter, I got a step closer by buying a scrap-book.
So last night I started writing a piece about my mother as a girl, but Word ate it – wouldn’t even let me recover it.
This afternoon I decided to start somewhere else – and I have been scanning some of the old family photos I have in a display on the wall of the staircase, so that I can add them.
So here is a bit about my grandfather Howland’s childhood instead.
My grandfather was his mother’s eldest child, but not his father’s. His father, James Henry Howland, had been married before and had four or five children. His first wife was an invalid, living with her own family, who nursed her and brought up the children. James Henry worked as a farm-hand for the Brew family, and started ‘courting’ Catherine Brew.
The Brew family were not happy about their daughter having any sort of relationship with a married man, and he lost the job at the next quarter-day, when labourers were hired. However Catherine became pregnant and my grandfather was born in November 1889, when his father was 43, his mother 22.
Some 2 or 3 years later, it would seem the first Mrs. Howland must have died, because James Henry and Catherine were married around the time of the birth of their second son.
This was not unusual in the Island at that time – a quick look at the census figures of 1881 shows a number of unmarried daughters and their children as part of households, and comparing birth dates and marriage dates often show children born before the wedding. It was Manx common law, and possibly written law, that a child at the church during its mother’s wedding was legitimised as the child of the groom. Hence an old saying ‘He/she went to church under his/her mother’s skirt’. Apparently women with children by someone other than the groom would sometimes smuggle them into the wedding by the child hiding under the bride’s voluminous skirt, and they were then brought out in sight of the minister and congregation to prove they had been there, and were therefore now the legitimised child of the new husband!
Anyway, my great-grandparents went on to have six children and lived to a good age. In the early years they were still moving from farm to farm, from job to job, as my mother remembers her grandmother telling her of a time when they were hired to work above Laxey, high in the hills, far from the village. The labourer’s cottage had no glass in the windows, holes in the thatch, no nearby water supply, and the only means of cooking was the open hearth. This was about 1895. Catherine had two small children, and a third on the way, and decided this was it – she was NOT staying there, and piled all their belongings back on the cart, to set off back to their home village of Bride – fourteen or fifteen miles away. The journey back must have been very worrying – the day becoming night, and the wheel coming off the cart at one stage. As far as I know, it was a hand cart, piled with their beds, chairs, pots, pans, and children.
It seems it was actually a turning point, as a farmer back in Bride offered them work, and a cottage in good order, even though it was not hiring day, and helped them to obtain the tenancy of their own farm within the next couple of years. They stayed at that farm – Ballaghennie, until their deaths. It is not known what the reaction of the Laxey farmer was, losing his newly hired hand!
The picture shows the family in the garden at Ballaghennie, in the summer of 1899. I know the history of this picture well! In those days a photographer would come around the countryside to take family portraits, and my great-grandfather, by now a farmer of some 30 or 40 acres, decided to have his young family recorded for posterity. However he decided that there was no point in everyone getting all their best clothes on only to be photographed, and the photographer would not work on Sunday, so he was to come on the day of the Church Outing.
Everyone got dressed in their best for this, and the whole village left work for an afternoon, and had a picnic and played sports. The Howland family duly got dressed up, and waited for the photographer. And waited. And waited. He eventually arrived and set everything up, and the children could hear the carts which should have picked them up at the top of the farm road going past, full of laughing singing children, whilst they were still in the garden, missing out on the much awaited treat. This is why the four eldest children (and their mother it must be said!), look either very bad tempered or upset! I think their father may have taken them on to the picnic using their own farm cart and horse, but I am not sure!
The picture shows my grandfather, William, on the right, his brother Tom on the left, Marion, the only girl, Wilfred, the toddler with the lace collar, and baby Daniel. The last of the family, Charles, was born the next year. Isn’t Marion’s hat stunning? Baby Daniel grew up to emigrate to Australia, like so many other Manx men and women over the years.
Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I have been able to trace the Howland family back over many generations, I got to the 1630s – and they were still living in the same parish – the Howlands have been in Bride for at over 370 years! In fact I have family tree with 13 generations from top to bottom – sometime I must see if I can go back further.
So last night I started writing a piece about my mother as a girl, but Word ate it – wouldn’t even let me recover it.
This afternoon I decided to start somewhere else – and I have been scanning some of the old family photos I have in a display on the wall of the staircase, so that I can add them.
So here is a bit about my grandfather Howland’s childhood instead.
My grandfather was his mother’s eldest child, but not his father’s. His father, James Henry Howland, had been married before and had four or five children. His first wife was an invalid, living with her own family, who nursed her and brought up the children. James Henry worked as a farm-hand for the Brew family, and started ‘courting’ Catherine Brew.
The Brew family were not happy about their daughter having any sort of relationship with a married man, and he lost the job at the next quarter-day, when labourers were hired. However Catherine became pregnant and my grandfather was born in November 1889, when his father was 43, his mother 22.
Some 2 or 3 years later, it would seem the first Mrs. Howland must have died, because James Henry and Catherine were married around the time of the birth of their second son.
This was not unusual in the Island at that time – a quick look at the census figures of 1881 shows a number of unmarried daughters and their children as part of households, and comparing birth dates and marriage dates often show children born before the wedding. It was Manx common law, and possibly written law, that a child at the church during its mother’s wedding was legitimised as the child of the groom. Hence an old saying ‘He/she went to church under his/her mother’s skirt’. Apparently women with children by someone other than the groom would sometimes smuggle them into the wedding by the child hiding under the bride’s voluminous skirt, and they were then brought out in sight of the minister and congregation to prove they had been there, and were therefore now the legitimised child of the new husband!
Anyway, my great-grandparents went on to have six children and lived to a good age. In the early years they were still moving from farm to farm, from job to job, as my mother remembers her grandmother telling her of a time when they were hired to work above Laxey, high in the hills, far from the village. The labourer’s cottage had no glass in the windows, holes in the thatch, no nearby water supply, and the only means of cooking was the open hearth. This was about 1895. Catherine had two small children, and a third on the way, and decided this was it – she was NOT staying there, and piled all their belongings back on the cart, to set off back to their home village of Bride – fourteen or fifteen miles away. The journey back must have been very worrying – the day becoming night, and the wheel coming off the cart at one stage. As far as I know, it was a hand cart, piled with their beds, chairs, pots, pans, and children.
It seems it was actually a turning point, as a farmer back in Bride offered them work, and a cottage in good order, even though it was not hiring day, and helped them to obtain the tenancy of their own farm within the next couple of years. They stayed at that farm – Ballaghennie, until their deaths. It is not known what the reaction of the Laxey farmer was, losing his newly hired hand!
The picture shows the family in the garden at Ballaghennie, in the summer of 1899. I know the history of this picture well! In those days a photographer would come around the countryside to take family portraits, and my great-grandfather, by now a farmer of some 30 or 40 acres, decided to have his young family recorded for posterity. However he decided that there was no point in everyone getting all their best clothes on only to be photographed, and the photographer would not work on Sunday, so he was to come on the day of the Church Outing.
Everyone got dressed in their best for this, and the whole village left work for an afternoon, and had a picnic and played sports. The Howland family duly got dressed up, and waited for the photographer. And waited. And waited. He eventually arrived and set everything up, and the children could hear the carts which should have picked them up at the top of the farm road going past, full of laughing singing children, whilst they were still in the garden, missing out on the much awaited treat. This is why the four eldest children (and their mother it must be said!), look either very bad tempered or upset! I think their father may have taken them on to the picnic using their own farm cart and horse, but I am not sure!
The picture shows my grandfather, William, on the right, his brother Tom on the left, Marion, the only girl, Wilfred, the toddler with the lace collar, and baby Daniel. The last of the family, Charles, was born the next year. Isn’t Marion’s hat stunning? Baby Daniel grew up to emigrate to Australia, like so many other Manx men and women over the years.
Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I have been able to trace the Howland family back over many generations, I got to the 1630s – and they were still living in the same parish – the Howlands have been in Bride for at over 370 years! In fact I have family tree with 13 generations from top to bottom – sometime I must see if I can go back further.
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no subject
Date: 23/02/2006 01:08 am (UTC)There are lots of holes in what I know about my family's history and the same goes for my father-in-law's family also.
no subject
Date: 23/02/2006 08:24 am (UTC)That is one of the reasons I have actually sat down and written some of it. She is as interested as I am - it's not quite the History that she will study at university, but equally fascinating!
My father's family are harder, but I do have some stuff, and S2C's are also not so easy.
no subject
Date: 23/02/2006 01:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 23/02/2006 08:28 am (UTC)I have a few of the old family photos - I will post a few more over the next week or two.
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Date: 23/02/2006 02:29 am (UTC)The memory of Marion's hat will live with me for some time.
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Date: 23/02/2006 08:32 am (UTC)Marion's hat is quite something - imagine 'playing games' on the beach in it!
no subject
Date: 23/02/2006 09:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 27/02/2006 07:30 pm (UTC)willowgreen
Date: 28/02/2006 07:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 23/02/2006 03:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 23/02/2006 08:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 23/02/2006 06:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 23/02/2006 08:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 23/02/2006 07:26 am (UTC)370 years in the same place ... my family has only been in Indiana for about 45 years, after spending some 150 years working their way up from the Carolina coast. It seems long to us, but it's not, really, compared to European ancestry.
no subject
Date: 23/02/2006 08:41 am (UTC)possible men
Date: 23/02/2006 09:54 am (UTC)Re: possible men
Date: 23/02/2006 06:18 pm (UTC)Re: possible men
Date: 23/02/2006 11:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 23/02/2006 07:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 23/02/2006 08:45 am (UTC)Absolutely!
As for the Australian relatives, Marion, Daniel's daughter, was on the Island about sixteen years ago - somewhere I have a picture of her with my Mum and my daughter. The main person in our family who kept in touch with everyone was my Aunty Phyllis, Marion in the photo's daughter, so we have been less in contact since she died.
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Date: 23/02/2006 08:57 am (UTC)The thing that always amuses me about these Victorian photos is that everyone looks like 'grim digs' - do you know that expression? Life must have been very hard for them, they always look so serious.
Hence an old saying ‘He/she went to church under his/her mother’s skirt’.
Isn't that fascinating? And here we are thinking the Victorians were prim and proper when you would have *never* seen that happening in the 1950s, say.
Thanks so much for these wonderful memories!
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Date: 23/02/2006 06:42 pm (UTC)I think they were definitely much less 'correct' during the nineteenth century than some writers would have us believe - at least the ordinary people were - it was only the posher ones that fainted at the sight of a piano leg!
no subject
Date: 23/02/2006 09:53 am (UTC)An American cousin got my dad's family back to the 1690s - never moving from the same area of the country and having a slightly unusual surname helped - but a friend of mine has taken his family tree back to the 14th century, though that was with a *very* unusual surname. I was trying to do a bit of research and you're inspiring me to get back to it - if I can ever disentangle my grandmother's family from the backstreets of Bristol!
no subject
Date: 23/02/2006 06:47 pm (UTC)I found out the other evening, whilst looking for something else, that my Great-grandfather (in the picture) wasn't always a farm-hand - on the night of the census he and his brother were not at home, but on board the fishing boat 'Iona'!
no subject
Date: 23/02/2006 12:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 23/02/2006 06:55 pm (UTC)To get interesting stuff out of relatives old photos really can be good - as long as you get someone to identify the subjects before everyone who could know has died! But actually the photos of 'Old Ramsey' got a lot of people talking - along the lines of - 'I remember the night Marjory and I were in a hurry to get to the dance and I realised I had forgotten my knickers!' As far as I know she wasn't wearing a fur coat and no knickers though! That was my Mum!
Also suggesting that they might tell you some of the family stories so that you can write them down for the next generation - or getting them to write them down, can be an interesting start - it's surprising how people will do that when you wouldn't expect them to.
no subject
Date: 23/02/2006 12:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 23/02/2006 06:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 23/02/2006 07:34 pm (UTC)My Nan was Manx and came over to England during WW2 to do her bit and ended up staying in Chester. I think my Mum keeps in contact with the remaining relatives over there, but I've not had the chance to meet any of them.
I bet your daughter will love all of the memories and photos when she gets older, I know I'm always interested in the things my Dad has been finding out as he combs back through our family tree. He's hit a few stumbling blocks as he discovered his Grandad was actually adopted!
Argh to Word as well - I just hate it when that happens.
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Date: 23/02/2006 08:05 pm (UTC)Hmm - and then you have to decide whether to go with the adopted family, or try to find the blood line. The Manx regularly brought other people's children up, but they usually kept their own family name, which helps a lot - so my grandmother's youngest 'sister' Lily was the last baby of a distant cousin of my great-grandmother, and when her mother died when she was only one or two she was brought up as part of the Crellin family, but retained her own surname of Craine - which would make anyone trying to find her historically's task easier!
Try and get some of the Manx history stuff from your mother - you might want to resaerch it sometime, and a few family names and things help!
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Date: 23/02/2006 08:18 pm (UTC)Keeping the adoptions and names in the family would certainly make it easier, unfortunately, my Dad's family originate from London!
no subject
Date: 25/02/2006 06:01 am (UTC)I didn't know much about my family until a "surprise" sister popped into my life about three years ago. She hired a detective to find her birth parents, and he mistakenly gave her information about my father. The up side is that I gained a great sister, and through the information she gave me, I was able to start tracing my family tree. I made friends with a distant cousin who helped me tremendously until she lost her battle with cancer in January. I miss her wit and dark humor. She was a character.
Thank goodness for those children under their mother's skirt. I wouldn't have my four siblings, otherwise!
no subject
Date: 27/02/2006 01:19 pm (UTC)As for Pilgrim John Howland - distant relationship is possible, but not all that likely, or easy to find! Apart from here on the Isle-of-Man most Howlands originate in Huntingdonshire. My mother had wondered, because of this, whether our family had emigrated from there to here, and if so, how recently. I only managed to trace the family firmly back to the late C17 - after that there were two or three possible fathers for the ancestor I had arrived at, and no way of finding out which was correct one. At that time, however, they were still living in the north of the Island - and so if they had come from Huntingdonshire it must have been before that - probably some time before that, as there were already Michael Howlands within the same parish, so not brothers.
It is possible that the Howlands came here from Huntingdonshire as soldiers during the English Civil War of the mid C17. The Island was the fiefdom of James Stanley, Earl of Derby, and he brought in soldiers to garrison his castle for the Royalists. Parliamentarian soldiers laid seige to the castle, and eventually Lady Stanley surrendered. Therefore we had both Royalist and Parliamentarian troops from off-island arriving at the time. As Cromwell came from Huntingdon, Parliamentarian troops would seem most likely.
What has this to do with Pilgrim John Howland? He came from Huntingdonshire as well - but about 100 years earlier. So if my family did come to the Island as Civil War footsoldiers, and stayed, it is possible that they were related! In a very distant way!
Fascinating stuff though.
no subject
Date: 27/02/2006 01:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 14/03/2006 08:01 pm (UTC)These (http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/frimframsauce/mygreatgrandparents.jpg)are my paternal great-grandparents George and Adeline - they ran a B&B in Torquay.
no subject
Date: 14/03/2006 11:45 pm (UTC)