Thank You... Armistice Day 2018

 

This is my first blog post in three and a half years *shock face* I have been away from blogging, writing and family history research and concentrating my energies elsewhere but I will never ever forget my ancestry. I will never forget the sacrifices, the losses, the struggles, and their strength and dedication. This is my promise to my ancestors, my living family, and especially my daughter.

This special post honors the centenary of the end of the Great War or World War One (WWI). At this solemn time I am once again reminded of those who fought for their country and lost their lives. Husbands, boyfriends, friends, school chums, work colleagues, brothers, cousins, nephews. uncles, sons, grandsons - lost, yet never forgotten. I would also like to acknowledge all the courageous women who served as nurses, both at home and overseas.

🌺James JOLLY

1880 - 1914 Norfolk Regiment

From Bungay, SFK  not married

🌺William Burgoine WATERS

1889 - 1917 Norfolk Regiment

From Beccles, SFK married, five children

🌺Sidney PRESTON

1889 - 1918 Essex Regiment

From Holt, NFK  married, no children

In April of this year I took a trip to Kings Park as it was the centenary of Sidney Preston's death. I made a special lanyard and attached his school photograph and a Preston family photo of happier times with his family, on a picnic at the beach, taken before the war broke out which changed everybody's life. I took photographs, as well as some video footage and I recited the Ode of Remembrance. These are a few of the photographs from that trip (10 April 2018):

Sidney Preston 1889 - 1918

Eternal Flame, Kings Park

My special lanyard made especially for Sidney

 ADDENDUM: 11 November 2018
I have just returned home from Kings Park where the centenary Armistice Day service was held. The crowds were on a much grander scale than in the previous years I've attended (2014/5/6/7). Not only was Mark McGowan (Premier of WA) in attendance this year but also Kim Beasley (Governor of WA) as well as several government dignitaries and officials. Most importantly, the soldiers who have served our country, who received respectful yet hearty applause at the closing of the service. This show of respect touched my heart and also moved a few of them to tears.
As I walked around looking at the sea of handmade poppies (over 61,000 were made for the occasion) and taking photographs with my phone, a young girl approached me and asked about my photographs. I told her who they were and she then told me her two of her 3xgreat-uncles served (and died) in WWI and their names are on the War Memorial. One of them was named Percy!
I was deeply moved by the events of today, and I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to attend the service. Seeing thousands of people, young and old, and feeling the depth of mutual respect. Some were wearing military medals and/or pins, some were wearing commemorative t-shirts or slouch hats, everyone was wearing poppies. Witnessing the sea of handmade poppies is something I will not forget for a long time to come. Here are some photographs from today's service (11 November 2018):

James Jolly 1880 - 1914
The rosary beads belonged to my great-grandmother Nellie
who was James' sister

🌺Lest We Forget🌺

My (Albeit Distant) Connections With America

With the recent release of the 1940 US Federal Census, I hoped to find my distant cousin (3xRemoved!) Louis Goodall Preston, but after trawling through a total of 571 images for Nevada County (which took me 3 days I might add), I did not locate him.

Louis Goodall Preston was born in 1887 in Holt, county Norfolk, England. His father was an astute businessman in the town, running a stationers shop with his brother as well as selling musical instruments, and teaching music. Louis wanted to be a mechanical engineer, and in 1903 when he graduated from Gresham’s School he was well on his way to making that happen.

The 1911 census for Holt shows Louis working as a Motor Engineer. This trade would have been at the pioneering stage, as motorcars were still in their infancy and many average working-class people in England could not afford to buy them. Indeed, in a small market town such as Holt Louis would not have been able to progress in his field at a rapid rate, so he turned to the United States of America where motor car companies of the twentieth century were the avant-garde of auto technology.

Less than two weeks after the 1911 UK census was recorded, Louis Goodall Preston left from Liverpool to sail for America on the SS Campania. His final destination is recorded in the passenger lists as Greeley, Colorado His uncle, Arthur Ling, was already long established there (he had immigrated in 1888) and Louis sought to make his own future, living between Canada and the USA for the next 30 years.

Greeley, Colorado c. 1910

Sometime between 1914 and 1916 Louis married Lorna Elizabeth Annis. Lorna Annis, born in Michigan, was the daughter of a successful lawyer in Fort Collins, Colorado; Franklin Joseph Annis. Louis and Lorna had one daughter Lillie, born in 1916. The 1920 US Federal Census shows Louis, Lorna and Lillie residing in Denver, Colorado. Louis is shown to be making his living at an Auto Agency as an Auto Mechanic.

 

After 1920 comes the interesting part in that Louis’ love life becomes murky and mysterious, which I am still yet to de-mystify. It would appear that Louis and Lorna divorced as a descendent of the Ling family told me that Louis married Ethel Switzer in 1933 and they had one daughter, Lois. It is also my own belief that Louis returned to Canada sometime during the 1920s and possibly remained there though to the late 1930s. He died in Nevada, California in 1942.

It has been really exciting for me to research my cousin Louis Goodall Preston, because he was the first ancestor (apart from his only sister Eva Maud Preston – whose life and travels is another story for another time) whom I discovered as having immigrated to the United States of America. Not only was he a keen traveller and motivated to succeed in his chosen vocation but he was amongst the cutting edge of American auto engineering; at a time of Henry Ford et al!

http://www.american-automobiles.com/de-Soto.html

Lest We Forget : Sidney Preston

Today marks the ninety-fourth anniversary of the death of Sidney Preston. He was my first cousin three times removed. Sidney holds a very special place in my heart, and has done ever since I first laid eyes on him in a family portrait given to me by Eleanor Finn, of Holt.

My framed photograph of Sidney Preston,
which sits proudly on my sideboard

Born 25 March 1889, Sidney was the son of Thomas John and Sarah Ann Preston. Sidney was very close with his four brothers and two sisters, Pattie and Mary.

From 1898 - 1905 Sidney attended Gresham's School, in Holt. Famous Greshamians include W H Auden, Benjamin Britten, and Stephen Frears.

In 1911 Sidney was residing in Hampstead with his eldest brother Thomas England Preston, who was a Solicitor. Sidney was studying as a Law Student when Britain declared war on Germany. He immediately joined up with the Middlesex Regiment, but was later commissioned to join the Essex Regiment.

On 27 May 1916 Sidney married his sweetheart Mabel Lillian Gold, at Holy Trinity Church in Kilburn, county Middlesex. From the transcript you can see that Sidney was stationed at Aldershot with the Essex Regiment.

Transcript of Sidney Preston's marriage

I would very much like to find out where Sidney was when he was killed. I keep searching on google and websites dedicated to the Great War but nothing definitive has come up yet. I need to visit the city library and see whether there are any military books available which will pin point the movements of the Essex Regiment during the first half of 1918. So far, I have titles such as the Battle of the Lys; the German Spring Offensive; Operation Georgette, all swimming around in my brain.

This is an excerpt from Wikipedia:

"On 10 April, Sixth Army tried to push west from Estaires but was contained for a day; pushing north against the flank of Second Army, it took Armentières.

Also on 10 April, German Fourth Army attacked north of Armentières with four divisions, hitting the British 19th Division. Second Army had sent its reserves south to aid First Army, and the Germans broke through, advancing up to 3 km on a 6 km front, and capturing Messines. The 25th Division to the south, flanked on both sides, withdrew about 4 km.

By 11 April, the British situation was desperate; it was on this day that Haig issued his famous "Backs to the wall" order..."

This is an excerpt from a letter sent to Sidney's parents:

“It was whilst we were together in the barracks that I got to know and love your son. For there is no doubt about the fact that everyone who really knew him loved him. His men worshipped him, and his was out and away the best and most efficient company in the battalion in consequence. I often had the opportunity of learning what his C.O thought of him. Whenever there was something special to be done it was always Preston’s company to whom it was entrusted, for whatever he had to do was done thoroughly. I don’t think he had an atom of selfishness in his nature, for all that he did was for someone else and nothing was too much trouble.”

Sidney Preston c. 1910

Gone But Not Forgotten

What's in a Name : Part One

The more I delved into my family tree, the more names I uncovered. These names swim around in my head constantly and I love boggling my family with lines like, "You know, Thomas. He was the son of William who was the son of Joseph; son of Thomas, son of Thomas..." You get the picture. Rifling through parish registers and civil registration I have spent countless hours eagerly looking up and discovering a myriad of names; some common and some not-so-common. Back in the heyday of baptising children with the names William, George, Thomas, Henry, John and Robert there were some ancestors who were keen to stand out and be different. They chose names like Josiah, Percy, Zachariah, Horace, and Barney. Or how about Japhet or Bussey for something even more original? My ancestry has those names too. Were they the historical equivalent of the twenty first century's Blue, Suri, Apple and Sunday?

Three names in my ancestry have struck me as particularly unique, and this blog (in two parts) is about those names. These are not just unique christian names, these are surnames given as middle names. I have uncovered each of their origins except for one: Goodall. This surname appears to be a more common surname in the county of Yorkshire. This ties all too perfectly with the fact that this particular ancestor was actually born in Yorkshire, as were both of his parents. But why he was given this name as a middle name has not yet been determined.

Then we come to the two surnames in my ancestry, given as middle names, which I have researched successfully. There is a fascinating World War One story behind one name, and it is rather powerfully detailed, so I have decided to honour it with a separate post. Part one therefore is for the name: Gowen.

In 1990 I remember visiting with my Mum who had just received her grandfather's birth certificate in the post. The middle name of the father was given as Gowing. We thought this name was very peculiar, but there it was on paper and in records so it had to be correct, right? Then my Mum ordered the marriage certificate of her grandparents and discovered that the groom's father's middle name was Goarne. We tried our best to pronounce it correctly but in the end we were convinced it had to be misspelt. Nobody would have the name: Goarne. Would they? It was shortly after this time that my Mum took an early retirement from genealogy and I was busy conquering the world of working, marriage, and paying off a mortgage.

When I came to my senses and matured rather more significantly, I took up my Mum's family tree challenge and I haven't looked back since (Ironic to say that really, considering that looking back is exactly what genealogy entails!). Subsequently, the names Gowing & Goarne challenged me, daring me to solve its indecipherable mystery. I looked up a marriage entry in the GRO indexes and found this time that it was spelt Gowen. I was so confused! His birth certificate proved the same: Gowen again! Okay, I said, where on earth does that name hail from?

As I progressed with genealogy and discovering all sorts of anecdotal titbits I found out that, among many other curious "habits", giving the mother's maiden name as the first-born child's middle name was quite a popular thing to do in Victorian times. So now all you genealogists out there are thinking that Gowen was this chap's mother's maiden name? Well, no it wasn't. Sorry, you're all wrong. It wasn't until many headaches later, when researching his mother's paternal side of the family in the census returns and parish registers that the name Gowen stared out at me from a dimly lit computer screen. There it was; the mother's paternal aunt! She had married a chap by the name of John Gowen.

Abit of mindless, trivial history for you: John Gowen was born in Yarmouth in the county of Norfolk (I have just looked up his baptism; he was baptised 240 years ago on January 10, 1772). In 1796 John Gowen married Sarah Bunnett and they lived in Holt, not far from Sarah's sister Eliza and family. John Gowen was a Bricklayer and Plasterer by trade and you can find his name listed in many Directories such as Pigot's & Kelly's.

The name Gowen has been passed down from my g/g/g-grandfather William Gowen Preston to his first-born son. This son died in infancy and so his second-born son was also named William Gowen Preston (a photograph of him is at the bottom of my previous post). This son grew up and named his first-born son William Gowen Preston...and so on, down the line.

Coming soon to a blog near you: part two of my mysterious middle name hunt...

Incidentally, John Gowen's father's name was William Gowen! :-)

An ancestral town remembered: Holt

The first time I visited Holt in Norfolk, was during a holiday in 1993. My father took me there for the day and I vividly remember feeling an unexplained strange sensation about the place. At that moment in time, I had absolutely no idea why I felt that way. Dismissing the feeling, I forgot about Holt until years later when my research into my Preston ancestry was well under way. One day, whilst browsing the 1901 census, I located my great-grandfather and his parents living in Bungay. My 2 x great-grandfather was born in Holt. The hairs on my neck prickled!

When I visited Holt again, in 2007, it was a miserable misty day and I remember being annoyed because the rain never let up the entire time I was there.

Holt was home to my ancestors and I wanted to see the place properly! My 3 x great-grandfather William Preston had moved to Holt, from Fakenham, when he was in his early twenties. This would have been in the 1840s. He married a local girl by the name of Eliza Bunnett and they had five children; three sons and two daughters. The first-born was my 2 x great-grandfather William Gowen Preston.

William Gowen Preston lived in Holt up until he was 17, when mysteriously, he left Holt with his girlfriend and moved to Norwich. The day I came back to Holt, I hoped that somebody could help me understand why this had happened. Was he cast out of the family? Out of the town? If so, why? I wanted to find the answer to that and more, in the streets and the shops, the houses and the people of Holt. Irrationally, I hoped that somebody would spot me, know who I was and why I was there, and tell me everything I needed to know. This never happened of course but the rain and mist almost prevented me from discovering anything about my ancestors life there.

High Street, Holt circa 1905
Arthur Preston's Printing Works on the right

After a few hours of walking the streets, meeting up with a local historian and writer, the late Keith Entwistle, and taking photographs and video footage, I went to the local church. I did not know, or fully comprehend even at that time, the strong connections that my ancestors had had with this church. Years later, with more research, I have a better understanding and a deeper sense of their devoted years to St Andrews. Standing on the footpath leading up to the church, gravestones to my left and to my right, I looked feverishly for any ancestral graves. I walked right past my 3 x great-grandparents' grave and didn't realise that I had until I had come full circle around the entire churchyard. I followed the track around to the right hand side of the church, to the back. There were many gravestones there, surrounded by mushy and muddy grass mounds, unkempt in the harsh winter months.

After a short while I found the grave of my 2 x Great Uncle and Aunt (with her parents) and I stood talking to them, cleaning the stone, taking video footage and photographs, and then asked them to guide me to my 3 x great-grandparents' grave. However, as I pressed on, the rain worsened and the muddy sludge underfoot was beginning to depress me. The graves led to nothing and nobody. I was growing heavily down-trodden and yet I was still determined to find something. My stubborness kept me searching.

I walked around again, becoming tired, hungry and cranky. I felt as though I was going to burst. Then came a breakthrough...

At long last I recognised the name: Eliza Preston. And right there, in front of me, at the very spot I had started out from! I could have kissed the stone, I was so relieved. The video footage I have is proof of my emotional rollercoaster in that moment. I wept tears of sadness and relief. It was rather sad to see the stone is in such a poor state, the bottom of which is barely readable.

Here in Holt I found a connection to my heritage, in particular to my maternal grandfather who I never knew. I felt a strong connection deep in my soul that day.

One day I will return again to Holt, and the weather will be perfect. There will be clear blue skies and sunshine, and I will discover even more about my Preston ancestors and the glorious market town of Holt.