General Chat

That's great.
What a fabulous way for your grandaughter to get interested (though she may not realise it yet) in genealogy! Or the Victorian era. Or both!!!! Double bonus! I've decided I like her teacher too!
So much more interesting to do homework like this, where you can actually relate it (no pun intended) to something or someone real.

I remember when my youngest nephew was doing WW2 and struggling with it a little bit. That was until they were given the project of writing about evacuees. After several long phone calls and a few visits to my father, who was evacuated out of London at the age of 12 and could sit and talk about it all day long if someone was listening, my nephew suddenly woke up to the fact that it was 'really real' (his words).
Grandad illustrated his air-raid techniques, or what to do if you didn't have time to get to the air raid shelter, by settling them both under the stairs or the dining room table whilst telling his stories. My nephew was enthralled with it, and finished up coming top of the class!
Grandad was SO proud of him.

Hope your grandaughter does well with her story and her life-sized coffin!

K

That's great Maggie.

Do let us know how grandaughter gets on when her teacher reads about your famous ancestor.
That was some coffin !!

Gwyn

This man was the start of my interest in Genealogy.
Gran had this bit of paper - folded many times - in a photo frame.
All I could see was 'Heaviest Man in Eng'. she said it was something to do with my late grandad.
Gran let me take it out and it was a very old typed carbon copy of what looked like a newspaper report - and the name wasn't a name I knew.
He'd lived and died in Romsey.
So, over 20 years ago, without the internet. I traced this man forward.
Fortunately I'd just moved to Winchester, home of the Hampshire record office (though then in an old church).
I found newspaper reports on him, visited Romsey Abbey where he was buried, though his headstone was now part of a path and virtualy illegible.
2 - 3 years ago, a man in Canada sent me a photo of a portrait of him.

very good, i love watching anything victorian and telling other bored members of the house to listen as i know it all lol xx but we do have a bit more insight dont we ? lol xx

Now that is interesting!

I had my 8 year old grand daughter over today - to help her with her homework.
They're doing the Victorians, and those who could ( I like her teacher already) were asked to do somethng on a Victorian ancestor. Those who couldn't were to write a sentence or two on a famous Victorian.
Spoke to daughter about it - should we do the policeman, or his brother - the one who attempted to derail a train?
Daughter asked if there was someone in service. Yes, her g great grandparents - he left his wife and met gg grandmother whilst she was in service - they had 9 children illegitimately before marrying.
'Err - no' said daughter for some reason. "Did we have anyone who was in business?'
We did my gt x 4 grandfather (grand daughter's g x 6 grandfather) Henry, a bricklayer foreman, who was allegedly the heaviest man in England at the time - though only 32 stone!
He was, apparently, so big they had to knock the wall out under his bedroom window to get him out! Luckily he came from a family of builders!
One newspaper report had the size of his coffin, so, having done the branch of tree showing the direct line between grand daughter and Henry, we proceeded with a roll of lining paper to tape bits of it together to show the size of his coffin!! LOL

...actually it WAS huge. Nearly 7ft long, 3 ft wide and 2ft 6" deep!