Who Do You Think You Are’s episode last night featured
Marianne Faithfull. Did you hear the
sound of hearts breaking all over the
country as men of a certain age found that the “Girl on a Motorcycle” had aged and
was now a well-preserved pensioner?
This of course works the other way round too. In family albums we so often see photos of
rather grim-looking widows. For them the
age of photography came too late and they remain forever enshrined as
forbidding old bats.
Do we then carry this misconception with us as we research
our ancestors’ lives? Do we forget that
they were once young and full of vitality?
That maybe your great great grandmother was the “Girl on a Motorcycle” to the lads in her
street or village?
I remember being given some genuine 1920s snakeskin wedge
sandals by my Gran when I was about 18 and being told stories of where she wore
them. I had never thought of her as a young
woman before and it came as a bit of a shock that she had frequented the same rather
dodgy pubs as I did.
The thought that
she had had a lively life before marrying Grandad was also a bit of a
surprise. Since tracing my family
history I have found stories of her life – she got a job as a chorus girl
behind her father’s back for instance and in her lunchtimes from the Lace
factory she and her friends would go to Nottingham station and sing to the
wounded troops on the hospital trains there.
So look beyond the packaging when you are researching your
ancestors - you may be quite surprised.
No comments:
Post a Comment