#52 Ancestors. Strong Women
I think they must have all been strong, those women who were my ancestors. Just to have survived childbirth and diseases common of their time marks them out as strong. I’ve been focusing more on my male ancestors, it’s time to begin to change that.
Starting with my maternal grandmother Georgina Pirrett who we called ‘Nan’
She was born 25th September 1883, of catholic parents who married in 1880. Her Scottish born father was George, a name that predominates through this line of my family tree. Her mother was Annie, formerly Dwyer, born in London of Irish descent. I can just imagine the Scottish and Irish accents vying for attention at extended family gathering. George’s occupation varied from blacksmith to fireman to ship’s fireman.
Interestingly, and as yet unexplained, on the birth certificate Georgina’s mother, Annie’s address was 75 Randall Road Plaistow.
The address given for her place of birth was, like her older brother David Deans Perrett, 6 Brunel Street, Canning Town, Poplar, Essex, England.
Interestingly, and as yet unexplained, on the same birth certificate Georgina’s mother, Annie’s address was 75 Randall Road Plaistow, something I’ll write about another time.
The infamous serial killer known as Jack the Ripper was active on the 1880s, Nan’s parents would have read about the brutal murders in their local papers.
In the year Nan was born the first electric trams started running in London and the book Treasure Island was published. In August in the same year the after effects of the huge volcanic eruption that destroyed the pacific island of Krakatoa began to be felt across Europe as the noxious gases that had had been thrown into the atmosphere started filtering the sunlight reducing the amount of sunshine reaching the ground . These atmospheric effects created spectacular sunsets all over Europe and the United States, and average global temperatures were as much as 1.2 degrees cooler for the next five years.
Nan was eight when the 1891 census was taken, their address 23 Ford Street West Ham. Like her siblings she was described as a scholar. She may well have gone to St Margarets and All Saints Catholic School at 79 Barking Rd, Canning Town, the same one that my aunt and uncle began their schooling.
Before I write about the few precious recordings of various family members chatting, I should explain who the people mentioned are. My mother was the youngest of the three children born to Nan and Granddad. I knew them as Uncle Herb (Herbert Henry junior), and Auntie Ron (Veronica Ellen).
On one of these Auntie Ron reminisced.
“She (Nan) never kept the catholic faith up, she took Herb away from St Margarets, she was expecting me at the time…there was some sort of argument about Herb and the priest said “get down those stairs or I will put you down” to which Nan is said to have replied “I’d like to see you touch me”…after that she took herb away from that school. Young Herb would have been about seven years old. “After that he went to Beckton Road School, that’s where your mum went later but I still got sent to a catholic school”
I wasn’t surprised to learn that Nan turned away from her catholic faith when I heard stories like that and this one, also told by Auntie Ron:
“After grandmother was buried the priest came along to Mum and he said ‘You had your mother buried in a dust heap’ ‘I had my mother buried in consecrated ground, she didn’t want to be buried at St Patrick's (the catholic cemetery)…Nan said to the priest ‘If your mother asked you to grant her a request would you do it’ ‘Yes I suppose I would’ was his reply. Then he went next door to see the old lady there, Mrs Riley she was called. Mum said she never knew what she said to him because he came to the front door a bit later and shouted out ‘Mrs Hall, I’ve just come to recall those words I said to you. Good morning’
The priest used to come around every Sunday after lunch, he’d just walk straight in, no knocking. After that that he never came back”
I’m pleased that my Mum didn’t go to the catholic school because Auntie Ron spoke of the way that children were treated there.
In 1871 a bye-law made school attendance mandatory for children aged 5-13, though it was largely unenforceable until attendance was made compulsory in 1880 and was not free until 1891. Lessons would be mostly about the three R’s, perhaps with weekly lessons about geography and history.
In 1897 Nan was 14 and would most likely have already left school and had perhaps started work in a local factory. This was the year that the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies was formed from numerous local women’s suffrage societies. Its leader, Millicent Fawcett, became one of the most prominent middle-class women campaigning peacefully for the vote. Did she, I wonder, attend meetings with her mother, influenced by the rallying cries of votes for women. Most women in my grandmother’s situation worked long hours as breadwinner in some sort of paid work in a factory or doing domestic work as well as the day to day business of keeping house.
With a husband at sea on prolonged voyages her mother would have had to deal with the challenges of life on her own. Would she have embraced the ideals of the Women’s Suffrage Movement; I like to think so. Years later when Nan married a merchant seaman, she would have found herself in much the same situation. Granddad’s story is told in another place.
Georgina married Herbert Henry Hall at St Margarets Catholic Church, Barking, on 26 Dec 1904 Witnesses were Maggie Dwyer, the bride’s sister, and Joseph Alexander. HH wasn’t catholic, and they married by certificate, meaning that he agreed to have the children brought up catholic, on 26 Dec 1904.More about that later too.
As a merchant seaman Granddad was away from home for extended periods of time. The first true evidence of that is from the 1911 Census. Nan with her five-year-old son is living with her now widowed mother, and unmarried sister Isabella and a lodger. The address 67 Denmark Street, Plaistow. The extended gaps, 1906, 1913, and 1921, between the births of my uncle, aunt and mother also appear to confirm this.
There is more to be written about my grandmother and that will come later.
I think they must have all been strong, those women who were my ancestors. Just to have survived childbirth and diseases common of their time marks them out as strong. I’ve been focusing more on my male ancestors, it’s time to begin to change that.
Starting with my maternal grandmother Georgina Pirrett who we called ‘Nan’
She was born 25th September 1883, of catholic parents who married in 1880. Her Scottish born father was George, a name that predominates through this line of my family tree. Her mother was Annie, formerly Dwyer, born in London of Irish descent. I can just imagine the Scottish and Irish accents vying for attention at extended family gathering. George’s occupation varied from blacksmith to fireman to ship’s fireman.
Interestingly, and as yet unexplained, on the birth certificate Georgina’s mother, Annie’s address was 75 Randall Road Plaistow.
The address given for her place of birth was, like her older brother David Deans Perrett, 6 Brunel Street, Canning Town, Poplar, Essex, England.
Interestingly, and as yet unexplained, on the same birth certificate Georgina’s mother, Annie’s address was 75 Randall Road Plaistow, something I’ll write about another time.
The infamous serial killer known as Jack the Ripper was active on the 1880s, Nan’s parents would have read about the brutal murders in their local papers.
In the year Nan was born the first electric trams started running in London and the book Treasure Island was published. In August in the same year the after effects of the huge volcanic eruption that destroyed the pacific island of Krakatoa began to be felt across Europe as the noxious gases that had had been thrown into the atmosphere started filtering the sunlight reducing the amount of sunshine reaching the ground . These atmospheric effects created spectacular sunsets all over Europe and the United States, and average global temperatures were as much as 1.2 degrees cooler for the next five years.
Nan was eight when the 1891 census was taken, their address 23 Ford Street West Ham. Like her siblings she was described as a scholar. She may well have gone to St Margarets and All Saints Catholic School at 79 Barking Rd, Canning Town, the same one that my aunt and uncle began their schooling.
Before I write about the few precious recordings of various family members chatting, I should explain who the people mentioned are. My mother was the youngest of the three children born to Nan and Granddad. I knew them as Uncle Herb (Herbert Henry junior), and Auntie Ron (Veronica Ellen).
On one of these Auntie Ron reminisced.
“She (Nan) never kept the catholic faith up, she took Herb away from St Margarets, she was expecting me at the time…there was some sort of argument about Herb and the priest said “get down those stairs or I will put you down” to which Nan is said to have replied “I’d like to see you touch me”…after that she took herb away from that school. Young Herb would have been about seven years old. “After that he went to Beckton Road School, that’s where your mum went later but I still got sent to a catholic school”
I wasn’t surprised to learn that Nan turned away from her catholic faith when I heard stories like that and this one, also told by Auntie Ron:
“After grandmother was buried the priest came along to Mum and he said ‘You had your mother buried in a dust heap’ ‘I had my mother buried in consecrated ground, she didn’t want to be buried at St Patrick's (the catholic cemetery)…Nan said to the priest ‘If your mother asked you to grant her a request would you do it’ ‘Yes I suppose I would’ was his reply. Then he went next door to see the old lady there, Mrs Riley she was called. Mum said she never knew what she said to him because he came to the front door a bit later and shouted out ‘Mrs Hall, I’ve just come to recall those words I said to you. Good morning’
The priest used to come around every Sunday after lunch, he’d just walk straight in, no knocking. After that that he never came back”
I’m pleased that my Mum didn’t go to the catholic school because Auntie Ron spoke of the way that children were treated there.
In 1871 a bye-law made school attendance mandatory for children aged 5-13, though it was largely unenforceable until attendance was made compulsory in 1880 and was not free until 1891. Lessons would be mostly about the three R’s, perhaps with weekly lessons about geography and history.
In 1897 Nan was 14 and would most likely have already left school and had perhaps started work in a local factory. This was the year that the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies was formed from numerous local women’s suffrage societies. Its leader, Millicent Fawcett, became one of the most prominent middle-class women campaigning peacefully for the vote. Did she, I wonder, attend meetings with her mother, influenced by the rallying cries of votes for women. Most women in my grandmother’s situation worked long hours as breadwinner in some sort of paid work in a factory or doing domestic work as well as the day to day business of keeping house.
With a husband at sea on prolonged voyages her mother would have had to deal with the challenges of life on her own. Would she have embraced the ideals of the Women’s Suffrage Movement; I like to think so. Years later when Nan married a merchant seaman, she would have found herself in much the same situation. Granddad’s story is told in another place.
Georgina married Herbert Henry Hall at St Margarets Catholic Church, Barking, on 26 Dec 1904 Witnesses were Maggie Dwyer, the bride’s sister, and Joseph Alexander. HH wasn’t catholic, and they married by certificate, meaning that he agreed to have the children brought up catholic, on 26 Dec 1904.More about that later too.
As a merchant seaman Granddad was away from home for extended periods of time. The first true evidence of that is from the 1911 Census. Nan with her five-year-old son is living with her now widowed mother, and unmarried sister Isabella and a lodger. The address 67 Denmark Street, Plaistow. The extended gaps, 1906, 1913, and 1921, between the births of my uncle, aunt and mother also appear to confirm this.
There is more to be written about my grandmother and that will come later.
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