General Chat

My gt grandfather and his father, uncles etc all worked on the Thames . It was lovely to go to London recently , stand by the river and imagine their day as they went down from Brentford to Gravesend and back carrying all sorts no doubt. A hard life though. I am lucky to have a news paper clipping from the '20s giving an account of one stormy night's trip...

I really feel a link to them when I am on the river , which I love.

Do you have people in your family that you feel an affinity with even though you never met them, and don't live the same kind of life?

xx

all my dads side were master mariners
but i am not keen on been on deepwater


though one of my great uncles drowned

A great percentage of OH's relatives in recent times......ie 1850's onwards worked along the Thames......Wapping, Tower Hamlets etc.......as Lightermen (I think they rowed to the ships and unloaded cargo to take to the docks).......and Coopers (barrelmakers) ...... also boilermakers for steamships.....

5 sailor Uncles, one Sailor then Coastguard Granddad, and on Marine then Coastguard gt.grandad......but the main lot are ag.labs and miners....

I don't know if my love of the sea comes from the past.....but I do have a hatred of being underground.......but so far, no miners in my family have been in pit accidents.....

sally

Sadly I have no idea what my family or ancestors did as jobs.But you would not get me underground.I love the sea...got a feeling my father might have been a sailor lol.My birth sign is cancer and I did grow up by the sea,and I miss it like mad.I live so far away from it now.

Master butchers my lot, have no desire to become a butcher! Although before I started doing my family tree had a dream that I was butcheirng a cow, horrible dream. Then I found out about rellies being butchers on different branches - weird or what!

Harpstrings x

Oh Harpy, one of mine was a master butcher in Glasgow and also worked on the Queen Mary? Don't suppose? *raises eyebrows hopefully and sings I Believe in Miracles.......

My main ancestors were Tailors and sorry to say I cannot sew a hem straight..

BC XX

lol @ LWH ....

what with syclemakers, builders, and potters I can't say I have much affinity with them although I did love carpentry and architecture. But ...quite a few of the family owned or worked in pubs including my Gran who was a barmaid

and yes I took to barwork like a duck to water and became a publican

My GGrandfather was a hatter and I am ma.....nevermind, my GGrandfather on the t'other side was a canal/boatman...

Unknown (at the time) I was in in the Royal Navy as was my Great Grandfather....the real spooky thing is we both lived in Pompey (Portsmouth) in the same street.........just a few yards and a century or so apart

BC - I have just been searching me tree and can I find the ancestor who was a butcher - no! He is hiding on me.

I feel such a fraud, but I KNOW there is a butcher in the family somewhere!

I have no northern ancestors as far as I am aware. Mostly Cornish,Somerset and Welsh.

I will go and search for my lost butcher! lol

Harpy xx

Attagirl Harpy....would just love to find him....BCXX