Category Archives: Family history

Family history, Poulson

From Knottingley to Chelmsford via Wakefield Girls’ High School and Newnham College Cambridge

My paternal grandfather’s oldest sister – 7 years older than John Ernest Llewellyn Poulson – was probably the reason her parents were married. She was born just 4 months after John Walden Poulson and Mary Ann Shepherd were married on Christmas Day 1889.

I knew her as Aunty Poul (said pole) – half of Poul & Blacker, retired teachers, who lived in Chelmsford. Helen Blacker was the gym teacher at the Chelmsford Girls’ High School where both taught. I think I visited their house once – Emily died in 1966 – and don’t recall any stories about her other than my father saying she was the headmistress of a girl’s school (she wasn’t, but I think he believed that was a better part in the play if you were a “spinster” teacher) and him insinuating they were closeted lesbians! Aunty Goggie was the sister my grandfather was closest to as they had grown up together in Portsmouth; she was my Dad’s favorite aunt.

Uncovering more of Emily’s story showed an accomplished woman, even with the few pieces I’ve been able to gather via Ancestry, FindMyPast and the British Newspaper Archive.

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Family history, Williams

Troubles with Shrivells- Brighton ancestors

Shrivell ancestors

I chuckled the first time I heard my paternal great-grandmother’s maiden name – Clara Shrivell. Not a polite thing to do, but she was long dead and my father wasn’t fond of her – described her as the old battle-axe – so my rudeness didn’t start any trouble. The trouble began as I tried to organize the family tree with so many large Shrivell families re-using first names, and living in the same area – Brighton. Before 1841 there was no census to help, and many parish records, most from St. Nicholas Church, are transcript only and missing helpful features like name & profession of father on marriage certificates so you know which Cornelius went with which William (or Thomas, or Robert, or…).

I’ve never met a Shrivell or lived in Brighton. The closest I come is maternal grandparents who retired to Worthing (next town over from Brighton) which we visited many times as children. Legions of retirees taking walks along “the front” – the paved pedestrian path running along the top of the beach – seem in no way connected to the 19th century’s hustle and bustle of bricklayers, ironworkers, watchmakers, servants, fishermen and families crowding the now-demolished cottages near Brighton’s beach. I am intrigued by the stories I’ve turned up about the variety of occupations and types of people. I even found the first example of a relative sentenced to transportation to Australia, along with a mixture of hardworking tradesmen, drunks, petty criminals, one city surveyor and assorted colorful characters.

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Family history, Poulson

Royal Navy to BOAC via HMS Royal Arthur

St. Edwards old boys in the war, May 1943

On page two of the first notebook of his draft memoir, David Poulson relayed a wildly exaggerated tale about school he’d told his mother and noted “Truth and my imagination were already uneasy bedfellows“. One unambiguously true statement! David’s school days at St. Edwards, Oxford, ended in July 1942 after completing School Certificate and Higher School Certificate in French and Spanish (he took History as well, but described that in his memoir notes as “less successful”). Each branch of service had presented at St. Edwards, and David’s notes tell of two uninspiring recruiters (for the Army and Air Force) and one blond Navy flier who “scooped the pool“. He couldn’t enlist until 17, so he planned to join up on his birthday in February 1943 and, in the meantime (according to the memoir notes) “I was free to enjoy life to the full. I wanted the evening use of my father’s car. Cars equals girls. ” My educated guess is that the memoir is a blend of reality and a good story, but his notes are the primary source for David’s war years and first real (and only non-theatre) job with the British Overseas Airways Corporation.

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Family history, Poulson, Shepherd

Shepherds in Yorkshire in the 1800s – coal, beer, gambling, & large families

Bow-tie chart for Shepherd relatives

My grandfather John Ernest Llewellyn Poulson was born in the West Riding of Yorkshire, in one of a collection of small towns along the River Aire. There was some light industry (potteries, glass works), coal mining, lots of small farms, breweries, and mariners or watermen moving goods along the Aire & Calder canals, eventually through Goole, out to the Humber and the North Sea. Pretty much all those ways of earning a living were represented in his parents’ families. His Dad, The Wastrel, was born in Knottingley and his Mum, Mary Ann Shepherd, in Ferrybridge. Several generations of large Shepherd families in Ferrybridge, Knottingley, Castleford and Brotherton meant that your publican, inn keeper, blacksmith, horse dealer, grocer, confectioner, waterman, school board member, etc. had a good chance of being a relative.

Area in Yorkshire where Shepherds lived

The bow-tie chart will serve as a reminder of where the Shepherds fit, but the sheer spread of the family is hard to grasp. Starting with the Samuel Shepherd born in Brotherton in 1803, who had 8 children, those 8 provided 45 grandchildren. The oldest of Samuel’s kids (also a Samuel) provided 9 of those grandchildren who in turn contributed 45 great-grandchildren. John Henry Shepherd (my 2nd great grandfather), provided 8 grandchildren, but (slacker!) only managed to add 16 great grandchildren!

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Family history, Williams

John Hewitt Hatfield-watchmaker to surgeon dentist

William Williams bow tie chart

John Hewitt Hatfield is my 3rd great grandfather – his daughter Jane married the brewer William Williams. John was born in Great Wigston – or Wigston Magna – in Leicestershire in 1821 (or thereabouts). His father, John, was a watchmaker from a nearby town, Husband’s Bosworth. Adding another lovely name, John Hewitt’s father died in Kibworth Beauchamp . I think the family may have been non-conformists (i.e. not Church of England) and records of John Hewitt Hatfield’s birth or baptism aren’t available anywhere I can find. Civil registration of births, marriages and deaths only began in 1836, so without a parish record of a baptism, later census records are the only source (and as they’re self reported, they aren’t always reliable).

Economic conditions in the Leicester area were pretty dire at the time, as an excerpt below from the May 1819 Leicester Chronicle points out. I can see why a young man in the late 1830s might head for London to see if he could do better for himself.

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Family history, Williams

William Williams, brewer

Elberfeld
Elberfeld, William Williams’ birthplace

Other than wondering how one survived childhood with first and last names almost the same, I hadn’t thought much about my 2nd great grandfather, William Williams. I had him in the family tree and knew he was born in 1840 in Elberfeld, Germany, but lived in England as an adult, dying in Forest Hill, London in 1907. I don’t think we have a beer brewer anywhere else in the family tree, but William picked about the best time to get into the beer brewing business as it was booming in England in the mid- to late-1800s. He moved frequently from one beer-brewing town to the next in England and Germany and managed to make a decent living along the way. Not bad given the very rough start he had.

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Family history, Snover

The home on Liberal Avenue, Detroit

Bob Sznarwakowski and his family had a tough few years in the 1930s, but things were looking up by the time Bob turned 18 in March 1944 and registered for the draft. The family had recently moved into a new home at 16076 Liberal Avenue and Bob had a good job at Gar Wood Industries. In scanning and restoring some old photos recently, I found one of Bob, home on leave from the Army – he enlisted in July 1944 – sitting on the front steps of the home on Liberal Avenue.

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Family history, Poulson

David Poulson – cars, sun & shorts

David Poulson – Dad – worked in the theatre most of his life which may account for his focus on appearance, both his own and other people’s. Creating your public image by how you dressed, what stories you told, what accessories you could flaunt (think car, watch, jewelry, cigarette holder) was part of who he was – and it went beyond his professional need when casting a play to assess whether someone “looked right” for a part. Toddler David (around 1928) didn’t choose the sweater and knitted shorts – conventions used to be that little boys wore shorts and you advanced to long trousers at the right age (11-ish). Utterly daft concept (why should little kids have cold legs?) . Once he was old enough to make his own choices, a very different (less cuddly, more jet-set) image took shape.

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Family history, Forster, Procktor

Yvonne paints Wynne & Len

Yvonne Forster, my Mum, sketched, painted and drew for most of her life. Some scribbled drawings accompanied her diaries – abstract ideas or objects or decorated letters. This was from a notebook with various rough sketches or watercolors – Mum always preferred communicating with pictures. Some painting was for income – she didn’t do many commissioned portraits, but her graphic design work sometimes included freelance projects (a children’s illustrated guide to crochet stitches is one I still have). I would get watercolor birthday cards until shaking hands and poor eyesight made it too hard (she could still do it but wasn’t happy with the quality). One subject stood out from all others – trees.

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Family history, Forster, Jenkins, Poulson

Growing up with our grandparents

Rose & Margo, Lyme Regis

This is part II of the story of four generations preceding me and my four brothers – our parents growing up between the wars in England and somehow all ending up in the theatre. For Yvonne and David, I have written recollections. Yvonne left many – some illustrated – diary-like notes and a book, Mind Boggled. David left a stack of notebooks filled with a scribbled draft of a memoir he never finished – to his credit, he numbered the pages, books, and various inserts – in his near-illegible writing. It’s mostly theatre name-dropping and “funny stories” but parts are about his early years. A characteristic blend of gauzy generalities of an idyllic childhood and tales of David’s excellent adventures. Old newspapers add details – of piano competitions, school prizes or sports matches – plus there are stories we heard from them growing up. David’s “Progress Book”, written by Billie, and a few notes in an album by Wynne are the only accounts from the grandparents directly. Margo’s brother Harding kindly provided some childhood stories for her. I’d like to offer a sense of where they lived, went to school, what home life was like, and to sketch out their path from babies to the adults we knew.

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