- my paternal grandmother whom I never knew. She married Levi, a farm worker, in 1910.
Seen here with 4 of her 6 children c1920:
Reggie, her firstborn, died from pneumonia aged 5
Betty, my dear auntie, was not yet born.
That's my dad sitting on his mum's lap!
In the other photo with her sister, Caroline, and their father, Joseph, a thatcher and their mother, Emily, a tailoress.
Florence was involved, in 1935, as a pedestrian, and with her 2 daughters, Mary & Betty, in an accident with a runaway car in Claydon where they lived.
The girls had minor injuries but Florence was seriously hurt and died in 1937.
Love this - old photos are so much better with some family history. They wer ea bonnie looking family - your dad was very pretty! Poor things - there can't have been that many cars to go 'running away' in 1935 - so unlucky. And she must have suffered terribly taking 2 yrs to die from her injuries. Just looking at this and the dates she must have been mightily relieved that her sons were too young for WWI and horrified at the arrival of WWII. Presumably your uncles were fighting as well as your dad?
@quietpurplehaze ... Never say "cheat" here, Hazel. As I see it the purpose of this project is to develop an appreciation of the use of photographs on a daily basis, not just the act of pressing the button on the right day, and your collage fits this definition admirably.
@judithg Yes I always also felt they were very unlucky to be involved in an accident with a car when there were not many about. Florence was very ill in the 2 years between the accident and her death as she had multiple injuries including a broken back. Finally she died from pernicious anemia for which there was no effective treatment then. Auntie Betty told me her father and brothers all gave blood, to no avail, & her mother had to eat minced raw liver sandwiches. Betty was twelve when her mother died. My mind is a bit of a blank regarding the uncles and the war so I will ask Betty.
Poor thing - from what I understand the nerve damage caused by the broken back would limit the effect of the raw liver - they had to eat loads everyday - it must have been hideous. I meant to say that I love the way you've intermixed the flowers.
@judithg Thank you for your comment on the flowers in the collage. I have a file on the computer called 'flower photos' & use those for all sorts of reasons. I tried to use flowers she would have known.
@judithg An uncle in the army and the other in the RAF. I'm not sure how much a lady in Florence's position would have been worried by the political situation in the 30s & imagine they had quite sheltered lives? My dad was 17 when she died so she never knew about his POW time.
@quietpurplehaze Ah yes - I forgotten you'd said she died in 1937 and from 1935 onwards she had worse things occupying her mind. Still she was in an unlucky generation of women that lost their husbands and brothers and then had to watch their sons go off to war as well. She was at least spared some of that.
Thank you for adding a little bit of history to these family pictures. It brings them to life. They must be so precious to you and its a lovely idea to mix them with some flowers.
@tishpics Thank you Patricia. I've been very lucky in the number of photos I have inherited, also having Auntie Betty to help me identify them.
I do have a lot though, very old, and sadly, nobody knows anything about them except that they have some connection to our family because they were in a old photo album which my father had.
@creativeamateur I am very lucky, yes, to have the old photos but my dad brought me two old albums the last time he visited us and unfortunately he knew nothing about most of the photos in them - a very few I have identified with Betty's help but others will always remain a mystery.
I do have a lot though, very old, and sadly, nobody knows anything about them except that they have some connection to our family because they were in a old photo album which my father had.