A Rather Long Update

What a tremendous few days we have had !  We called in to Bognor Regis and met Marie, she is lovely and made us feel very welcome.  Put her straight on a few family happenings - explained that D had choice of Mam's home after the funeral for his new flat and that we didn't see Ena again.  Seemed truly surprised - no surprise to me!

Anyhow she put to bed the fact that Peter traced his ancestors back to the Armada - she says her brother was the least likely to do anything like that.  Maybe a young man was trying to impress a young girl when he told Ena about it ..... we were both agreed on that!

We talked about her brothers and sisters and the fact that she was quite ill at one time so passed all her paperwork to her younger brother so I will contact him and perhaps visit.  My only regret is I forgot to take a photo ........ HOW COULD I?  no brain me ............

A treasure that Marie gave me was a photo of MY GRANDMA ............. this is one person my mother never met so I am overjoyed to put it mildly.  Marie had several photos and updated me that, who I thought was my Aunt Tilly, is Aunt Gertrude (Auntie Gertie!!!!) so we have TWO nuns in the family.  Apparently she was based in Liverpool so something else to research.  Can you tell I am loving this!!

My Grandma:-

I only have stories of her - Mam said that she used to beat the children and that was why Dad ran away - as did most of the boys.  Auntie Vie met her and said she used to smoke a clay pipe and was quite harsh.  According to the records so far, she was left a widow not long after arriving in England and had about 13 children so one can sortof understand her attitude to life.  This is a close up taken from when Aunt Gertrude bacame a nun, that is why I think the photo was taken as there are several photos - which I will add to this post. 

This is the original which includes Auntie May B and Auntie Gertrude:-                                        

This one is Aunt Gertrude with, I think, Auntie Caroline.  Unfortunately I don't have a more recent photo of Auntie Caroline to compare

This one is a small head and shoulders of Aunt Gertrude and I can so see a likeness to someone else!

I am adding these two as they are a postcard that Auntie G sent to Dad - possibly a photo taken at the same time - and Mam always thought it was Auntie Tilly.
     

             

When I was a child, Auntie Tilly came to stay, she was formidable and I was terrified of her - I didn't even know we had a nun in the family!!!  She wore a peculiar habit, a bit like the one below, so she took up rather a lot of room - slimness does not run in my family!!  I never understood why, if it was her in the above postcard left, she did not wear her normal habit ...... all is now explained