Remembering the Past

December 7th 1941

73 years ago today, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor bringing the Americans in the Second World War. A war in which a number of my family were involved in and one that I have studied, particularly Nazi Germany for many years. Today is a day to remember all those people who lost their lives in Pearl Harbor but also a time to reflect on how the world has changed since WWII.

There are a few men who I have heard stories about in my family who were involved in WWII, one such man was John Owen Cecil Kercher. John O. C. Kercher was born in 1916 and then just after the outbreak of war he married Gwenda Lillian Knight. Unfortunately, John and Gwenda never had any children and therefore their line stops with them however, their story has been passed to me by a cousin of mine. Kercher was a P/O for the RAF at the beginning of the war, later working his way up the ranks. By September 1941, Kercher was promoted to the war substantive rank of Flight Lieutenant which is the rank we would have had when word of the attack on Pearl Harbor who have come. Kercher was apart of the 102 Squadron and one of the many men who flow during D-Day then continued operations including one where on its return his plane overshot its landing and crash, on 25th June 1944. Lucky no one was injured in the crash on the daylight Montorgueil raid.

Halifax Bomber, same as Kercher’s in 1944.

John O. C. Kercher died in 1969 in Lambeth, London, 8 years after his wife passed away. I would have loved to have met John and listen to stories from the war as I don’t really have anyone in my close family who were old enough to remember or were even born during WWII, therefore having someone to talk about their experiences who have been amazing.

John’s story is one of thousands that need to be shared with the world, so that we can learn from the past.

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/35279/page/5423/data.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._102_Squadron_RAF

My Christmas Traditions

It’s time to count down to Christmas and the New Year, this is definitely the best holiday season of the year because it is so family orientated. I may be in university but I still get excited for Christmas, possibly because I have a younger brother who is only 10 years old. That’s my excuse anyway. Everyone should have Christmas and New Year’s traditions which can be passed onto children. I have a few Christmas traditions, like many people in Great Britain they consist of the Christmas play or Nativity, decorating the house and a must…Panto!

When I was younger we would do a nativity play; I did this for two years in a row. I was a Shepard and an angel for those, then when I got older my school was ambitious and we would do different Christmas plays. We did: The Jungle Book, Wizard of Oz, Mary Poppins, Oliver Twist and many more. After the Christmas plays then comes the Christmas decorations and the tree. This year my family have to wait until I get home from university because if they do it without me it’ll feel weird and not like Christmas at all. My dad will get the tree and decorations from the attic and then the four of us will decorate the tree and house simultaneously. My mother and I’s side always looks like Monica from Friends’, prefect, whereas my dad and brother just put the decorations anywhere on the tree. Most importantly, we all put the star on top of the tree, then turn the living room lights off and sit there with the Christmas tree lights on.

During the holiday season my absolute favourite part is Panto. Every year my family go to watch a Panto either locally or at the New Theatre, Cardiff. Panto’s are a quintessentially British tradition and I don’t think anyone else understands them but they make Christmas for me. Fairy tales such as Jack and the Beanstalk, Robin Hood, Cinderella and many more!

New Theatre, Cardiff – Panto 2013

Are passions passed down generations?

Are our interests passed down from previous generations?

Today I found a short biographical sketch of my 3rd great grand-uncle, Thomas Edmund George written after his death in 1911. Reading this made me think whether or not we are influenced by previous generations and even those like Thomas who we have never met. The answer is quite possibly. Has my love of Sci-Fi, the coast and history been passed down to me by my family? Well… these examples are all passions I share with close members of my family. The majority of my family like Sci-Fi in some shape or form, my Grandfather loves the coast particularly West Wales and both myself and my dad love history. These people have obviously influenced me and my passions as your parents and grandparents are the ones who shape you as human being. But has Thomas Edmund George had an influence on my interests, my life?

Until a year ago I did not know Thomas even existed, which is what I love about researching my family history-finding people with a story to tell. In the biography it talks about Thomas’ love of history and folklore and how he was an important member of the community. Maybe his passion for recording his own and local history has been passed down to me.

Even though I can not say for definite if Thomas has had an effect on my life I can say that he had a great influence on my local area, including the church and for that I am proud to be related to such a man.

Thomas Edmund George – Gwent Archives

World War One Story – Wrongly informed of death

Soldier from Warrington whose family was  wrongly informed of his death.

This was an article I read in the Warrington Guardian dated 6th July 2014. The family of this soldier was informed that he had been killed during World War One in Turkey, however this was not the case. Private E. Bennett was actually alive. This is an extremely unusual story, one which I have only ever heard once before.

I had heard a story like this before, my Nan had told me multiple times. The story goes my 3rd Great Grandfather Thomas (Daddy Tom) was involved in the First World War leaving behind his wife Fernetta (Mammy Netta) and their young daughter Gladys. Mammy Netta received information that her husband had been killed. This news would have been unimaginable, your husband has been killed and you are left to raise your young daughter alone. I can not imagine, the pain which she went through and I hope I never have to. However, like Private E. Bennett, Daddy Tom was still alive. I do not know how this mix up happened at the War Office but he was alive. He had been hospitalised by mustard gas and had to return home from the war early.

My generation will never be able to understand what it was like 100 years ago when an entire generation of men went off to war. What it was like for the families of these soldiers, knowing that you may never see your husbands, fathers, brothers and sons again. But to be told your husband is dead and then for him to walk in the door, it must have felt like a dream for Fernetta. I want to find out more about Tom and Fernetta because this story is incredible and until this article in the Warrington Guardian I had never heard of another soldier and his family going through this.

This is the article from the Warrington Guardian. http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/first_world_war_centenary/11311693.The_extraordinary_story_of_the_First_World_War_soldier_from_Warrington_whose_family_were_wrongly_told_was_dead/

Naming Traditions have they all but died out?

Has honouring a family member and naming traditions die out?

I can go back to at least 1758 from one branch of my family tree, in Wales this is my 5th Great Grandfather Edmund George who you guessed it had a son my 4th Great Grandfather also called Edmund in 1790. This began a long line of sons with Edmund as either their first name or middle names. But it wasn’t exclusive to just the sons many of the daughters middle names were Edmund, which today is extremely unusual for a girl to take her father’s name as her middle name or to have a boy’s name in general. However, this was common in my family during the 18th and 19th centuries. In my ancestry line this naming tradition goes from 1758 to 1861 where my 3rd Great Grandfather William Edmund had a son called Edmund, the half-brother of my 2nd Great Grandfather Joseph. Distant members of my family which I have found during this research still have Edmund as a name passed on from father to son but why did it stop in my family? Are there any other naming traditions in my family?

The answer to that is yes. My brother’s middle name is the same as my dad’s middle name and my mother’s middle name is the same as her grandmother’s. Why haven’t I got a middle name. Simple my mam thought that her middle name which would have been mine was too old-fashioned. I agree that it would not have sounded right if I had a middle name but it is interesting how times change.

Personally I love the idea of honouring a family member when naming your child. Yes I can’t see myself ever using Phyllis and Gladys or Gilbert and Wyndham because they are too old-fashioned for my tastes. Is Danielle in a hundred years going to be “old-fashioned”? I would use Edward and Robert but are these “old-fashioned” I think not, it all depends on your own personal preference, if you find Edward or Robert “old-fashioned” then that’s fine because it’s not your child.

The Future and Parallels with the Past

“What are you going to do after you finish university?”

I have been asked this question by a few people recently and today I sat down and thought about my future. After thinking about where I would live, jobs and family I realised that there were many parallels with my family’s past. These are questions that everyone asks themselves and as I am in my second year at university, I need to start thinking of my future not as something in the far distance but as reality. I finish my undergraduate studies in 2016, I need to think what next? More studying? A Job? Where am I going to live?

I have a number of friends in university who have decided that they want to emigrate to Italy for at least a year, would I want to emigrate? Yes. That’s the simple answer, yes I would love to emigrate and live in many different countries for a minimum of a year but where? How would I choose? I have only been to Paris and some Spanish Islands, I haven’t been anywhere else, so how am I going to choose. Well, I know I want to go to Paris and Rome in the near future on holiday so that would help my decision. However, my mother has always said I was born in the wrong country, that I should have been born in America. That made me think, America would I move there? The answer: Yes, I would love to live in New York but is this because everything looks greener on the other side of the fence? I don’t want to be the person who dreamt their entire life of moving away from the small village they were from but never left and regret it because I know I would.

If I moved to America that would be a parallel to a few of my ancestors. There’s Mr Hillman who left for America, leaving his wife and young daughter in Wales who never returned, we have no idea where he went, he arrived in America and disappeared. There is Edmund Turner George (1849-1906) who was born in Wales and moved to America. We can find him and a cousin in Chicago at the time of the Chicago Fire 1871, unfortunately his cousin was one of the many people of lost their lives during the fire, according to family stories. We later find Edmund settling in Kansas with his wife and their 4 children. The majority of his descendants still live in America.

I would love to be a teacher, to inspire students to love history as much as I do. To learn from our past mistakes so we never make a repeat of these mistakes. My passion for history was sparked by my history teacher of 5 years, Mr Regulski. His enthusiasm for his subject, particularly Nazi Germany sparked my enthusiasm and he was the person who suggested doing a history degree at Swansea University. He was right, it has been the best decision I have made, I love it here. Mr Regulski would tell us stories of lecturers at university and there was his personal tutor, Steve. I can see that his personal tutor influenced his teaching because last year I had the same personal tutor and saw similarities between the two of them. I want to like them both, to be able to make students ask questions. As far as I know there are no teachers in my family but there are many people who have inspired me in my close family and those who I have discovered while researching my family.

 When answering the question about my future, I added that I know that I want children and that made some of my friends stop. You want children? They couldn’t see themselves having children and could believe that I was so dead set of having them. Children and marriage is the only thing I have known since I was a little girl that I wanted. Being as the university consider “disabled”, makes that slightly difficult, it just means that like everything else in my life I will have to plan it, no surprises which is ok with me. This decision, of getting married and children will not happen for a long time as I haven’t even finished university yet. However, it  is a decision that everyone has to make at some point in their lives, I am just lucky that I have already decided.

We are lucky that in the Untied Kingdom, we can make that choice of to get married or not, to have children or not. As previous generations did not have a choice, you had to have children to work on the land, if you were a girl you would have to get married or be a burden on your families.

The answers to these questions I know can change but I know that they won’t. I don’t want to live in my small village for the rest of my life I want to explore the world, experience different cultures. I want to be the person who can inspire students, even if it is just one. I want to get married and have children, to share my experiences with, so they will have a family history to tell their families.

Early Memories, are they true memories or have they been exaggerated by my imagination.

I’ve recently had a photograph of my Great Nan (Carol) and me as a toddler printed. It is the only photograph I have of her and having this photograph made me think of my early memories and how creative memory can be, are these true memories or have they been exaggerated by my imagination.

Unfortunately, the only memory I have of my Great Nan is not a happy memory. When I was 4 years old she passed away due to cancer. The only memory I have of her is going to the hospital possibly with my grandparents, that I can’t remember, what I do remember is sitting on the hospital bed and I was watching TV with her. That’s it. That’s the only memory I have of her. Well, I hope that’s a memory and not my imagination, however this time I don’t think it matters. As this is my only memory at least I have one, my little brother never met her as he was born 5 years after she died. Thinking of her makes me wish that I had known my great grandfathers. Carol’s husband Eddie and my other great-grandfather Lloyd, as I have only had the privilege of meeting my great grandmothers, Carol and Phyllis. I wish I had more time with Carol as I don’t know much about her and it is too hard for my grandfather to talk about his parents. The only reason I know anything about Carol and Eddie is that my mother and grandmother have told me a few stories about them, they told me that Carol’s husband Eddie had such a strong Irish accent that my grandfather had to translate not only for people. Eddie is where my Irish ancestry comes from and I hope that one day I will go to Ireland and find out about his roots. Whereas, I know nothing about Carol’s ancestry, I don’t even know her parents names.

During my research I have been able to find information about some of Eddie’s family but I have not looked into Carol’s family as of yet, mainly due to the fact she had probably the most common maiden name in Wales, Jones. As I know nothing of her family one day I will dedicate a time to research her family but for the time being I am going to continue to look into my great-grandfather, Lloyd’s family and its connections to the Untied States of America, my local area and even Big Ben. Yes, the Big Ben you are thinking of, in London, which will be part of the focus of a later blog post.

Researching Family History

How can I expect people to regard me as a serious historian, if I don’t know my own family history?

This is a good question and one that has played on my mind for nearly two years. How can I know more about Nazi Germany than I do my on family? Easy, GCSE and A Levels. Four years studying Nazi Germany and World War Two. I began to question if anyone in my family was involved in World War Two or World War One. Then I realised I knew nothing. This is where my journey to discovering my family history began.

I started the only way I could think of, by asking my Dad and my Nan what they knew about our family. I was lucky because they both remembered the names of their grandparents. That was the starting point I needed, working from my little knowledge then added that of my Dad and Nan to a notepad then a family tree.

Over the past two years I have discovered hundreds of my ancestors, met a few cousins and heard stories that were incredible and those that were heart-breaking. However, all worth it because I can now say I know part of my family history but there is so much to discover. What happened to my Irish ancestors when they emigrated to the UK? How can a man disappear after arriving in New York? Was my ancestor really one of the last people to be hung in Wales?

I want to attempt to answer all these questions and more.