Weeks one to five
The Diary of Lloyd Nelson, a 21st century family historian Week 1
For years now, old Nellie Pembleton the office cleaner has been banging on about her family history, and how she is related to Dr Crippen; she really gets up people’s noses. But having watched those Who Do You Think You Are programmes on the tele, and having seen the ones where Jeremy Clarkson was related to the Kilner jar firm and the lovely Moira Stewart being descended from slaves oh and Julia Sawhalia’s fascinating trip to meet her Jordanian family, it set me wondering if I am related to someone famous. I mean, with a name like mine, it could be to the old sea-dog himself.Nellie used to spend days in record offices but I can’t be bothered with all that, it seems that it is all on the web sites nowadays. Next week, I’ll let you all know how I get on.
The diary of Lloyd Nelson, a 21st century family historian Week 2
Well, by the time I had had my dinner and my evening 40 winks it was nearly 9pm before I sat down in front of my computer. Still, I thought that as bed time isn’t usually until 11pm it should give me time to trace my family history back to the old sea-dog before I turn in. It would really get up Nellie’s nose if I could go to work and tell her how quickly I have done it. I thought first of all, I would type Lord Nelson in Google. I reckoned there should not be too many sites come up. Oh! It turned out there are 2,660,000 of them, so I tried the British sites button but there were 1,080,000 on that. I’ll never get through that lot before bed time. So I decided to pick Nellie’s brains when I get to work on Monday, and played a game instead.
The Diary of Lloyd Nelson, a 21st Century Family historian Week 3
When I told Nellie what happened, she almost fell over laughing. She told me I should read some books before I sit down next time. I asked her if she would lend me one but she muttered something about them being her bibles and I should buy my own. She suggested that I buy one called Tracing Your Family Tree by Jean Cole & John Titford. When the book came, I found I couldn’t put it down. The wife asked me to keep an eye on the greens whilst she fetched to washing in but I was so engrossed in the book that the brussels boiled over. I am in the dog house at the moment.This family history lark is more involved than you think.
The Diary of Lloyd Nelson, a 21st century family historian Week 4
The book I bought last week says that you should start off by asking elderly relatives about the family before they all pop off. So I decided to begin by going to see granddad at the weekend. It should give us something to talk about as he usually clears off up the garden when we call round with the kids; I can’t think why. He must be the only 84 year old man in Britain who digs the garden in the rain. Anyway, when we got there, he was quite pleased to talk about the old times. The problem was shutting him up when he was going through it for the third time. He fetched out a tin full of old photographs, they were all going brown and faded. He also had some war medals I didn’t know about. But he said that his granddad had told him that we were related to Lord Nelson. This has made me quite excited. However, there is one dark patch on the horizon, when I asked how come dad was born in 1942 when granddad was in the thick of the fighting with the 8th Army in North Africa, things went very quiet and grandma snapped “we don’t talk about that”. When I left granddad’s house I had his photographs in a large envelope and I promised that after copying them on my computer, I would let him have them back. He also lent me some certificates; I am puzzled as to why his name isn’t mentioned on dad’s birth certificate. I think I will ask dad when I next see him.
The diary of Lloyd Nelson, a 21st century family historian Week 5
I couldn’t wait to get home to tell the wife about what I had learned about my family. After about twenty minutes she said that she had a headache so had a couple of asprins and went to lie down. Bless her! she must have been working too hard during the day, she doesn’t generally get headaches. I sat down later thinking of all that had happened during the day and I have decided I will go and visit great aunt Elizabeth, granddad’s sister. She’s in her 90s and in an old people’s home and only with it on good days. After that, I will go and see mum and dad, I don’t see them all that often now. They moved to Bognor Regis last year, we could never understand why; we had just got them trained as baby sitters as well. There seems a lot that doesn’t make sense regarding dad’s birth, I suspect that granddad may not be my granddad after all. If that’s right I’m glad I took Nellie’s advice and began working my way back from myself rather than jumping in at the deep end and picking the Nelson name up from the internet in a willy-nilly fashion and finishing up someone else’s family tree.
As I have said before – there is more to this family history lark that I imagined. And, do you know, I haven’t had time to sit down at my computer this week.
The diary of Lloyd Nelson, a 21st century family historian Week 6
I went to see great-aunt Elizabeth and caught her on a fairly good day. When I told her about the episode at granddads regarding his name not being on dad’s birth certificate, she gave a funny kind of a knowing smile and said “Oh it could have been something to do with that George fellow”. ”George who” I said. “Before your granddad set off to war, he asked his best friend Harry George to look after your grandma. He looked after her too well, if you ask me” said great aunt with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “Anyway, when your dad was born, your granddad said that as he wasn’t the father then his name wasn’t going on the birth certificate” “Your grandma insisted that your dad wasn’t fathered by the George fellow but your grandad said that he had never known a baby take 11 months to arrive. So we shall never know for sure”
So my name really could be Lloyd George then. Whilst I am a little disappointed about not being related to the old sea dog the new alternative seems just as interesting. I’ve always been interested in politcs.
This family history gets more complicated by the week
February 24th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
can’t wait!