Monthly Archives: March 2018

Family history, Pottery, Poulson, Shepherd

It all started out so well for John Walden Poulson…

Poulson brothers 1899 letterhead
Poulson brothers 1899 letterhead

John Walden Poulson – the Wastrel, my great grandfather – as the oldest son of Edwin Llewellyn Poulson should have taken over the family pottery business in Ferrybridge, Yorkshire.

Edwin and his older brother Thomas had built up the West Riding Pottery business over their lifetimes from what their father, Walden Poulson had left when he died in 1861. As a rough gauge of how things had grown, Walden willed less than £300 (about £35,000 today) in 1861, but when his oldest son Thomas died in 1893, he left £6,650 (£820,000 today).

John Walden started as a 19 year old clerk – at least that was what his first marriage certificate showed… Continue reading It all started out so well for John Walden Poulson… →

Family history, Snover

Teenagers in Detroit – depression to war manpower boom

George Sznarwakowski death certificate
George Sznarwakowski death certificate

George and Robert Sznarwakowski were only 17 and 15 when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, but they were effectively adults courtesy of the hardships of the Great Depression and their father’s sudden death over 10 years earlier from “meningoccus meningitis” on February 21, 1930.

In reading old newspapers to flesh out the story told by census and  directories, this tumultuous period in a city that was on a meteoric rise came painfully into focus – a blend of family tragedy in losing their father with national and world events. Continue reading Teenagers in Detroit – depression to war manpower boom →

Family history, Poulson

Aunts and grandparents to the rescue

Gamps, Edwin, Goggie & Millicent May
Gamps, Edwin, Goggie & Millicent May

My grandfather was very much of his generation – fought in WWI, wore a jacket and tie on country walks with his dog, said things like “if a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well” and tried to part my hair on the right (it parts on the left) because he had the idea that boys’ hair parts on the left and girls’ on the right – like shirt buttons, but not exactly! Politically he was pretty conservative – used to rail against trade unions until I told him I was joining the National Union of Students (it was mandatory at the time) when I went to university. “I’m sure you’ll straighten them out, darling” was how he reconciled that clash. Continue reading Aunts and grandparents to the rescue →

Family history, Snover

Eloping to . . . Ohio? Lies on a marriage license

Fulton County Courthouse, Wauseon, Ohio
Fulton County Courthouse, Wauseon, Ohio

Young lovers running off to get married is not a new thing, or in any way a Detroit thing, but I was amused as well as intrigued  to learn that Jeffrey’s paternal uncle – Papa’s older brother George – had chosen Ohio to run away to in 1943.

Jeffrey’s father would sometimes tell me stories about his childhood in depression-era Detroit, Michigan; one was about his older brother running off with the lodger to get married, something their mother was furious about. What he didn’t tell me (or know?) is that the pair ran across the state line and lied about their ages do do it! Continue reading Eloping to . . . Ohio? Lies on a marriage license →

Family history, Poulson, Theatre

Two John Poulsons, one expensive haircut; family tradition?

Young John David William Poulson

Growing up, I thought Poulson was an unusual name – not many around us in Bromley. It was often misspelled (so you learn “P as in Peter, o-u-l-s-o-n”) or mispronounced – we said it POLE-SUN not POOL-SUN. Poulson is not only fairly common, depending on the location, but some of the people who shared the last name – and in the case of my father, grandfather and his cousin, first and last name – got themselves into trouble with the law and generated all sorts of unsavory press coverage! Continue reading Two John Poulsons, one expensive haircut; family tradition? →

Family history, Overview, Poulson

Family stories: Tales of a wastrel, immigrants, personation, mottying and so much more!

In 2007 I spent some time with Ancestry and the census records for family on both sides of the pond. There were all sorts of interesting bits and pieces I was able to unearth about Sznarwakowski, Tibstra, Poulson, Jenkins, Forster, Williams, Shepherd and other parts of our family trees. Given the time limits on release of some data – such as census records, which are held for 100 years in the UK and 72 in the US – I soon ran out of available online information and moved on. Continue reading Family stories: Tales of a wastrel, immigrants, personation, mottying and so much more! →