Monday 4th Deecember 2017

Monday 4th Deecember 2017 - Number 2972

Welcome

to the

Laws Family Blog

We reach out to all, regardless

of Race, Colour, Creed, Orientation or National Origin, with support for researching family and documenting cultural inhertance

==================================================================

DearAncestor,-

Your tombstone stands amongst the rest, neglected and alone

The names and dates are chiselled out on polished marble stone

It reaches out to all who care, it is too late to mourn

You did not know that I exist, you died and I was born

Yet each of us are cells of you, in flesh, in blood, in bone.

Our blood contracts and beats a pulse entirely not our own

Dear Ancestor,

The place you filled one hundred years ago

Spreads out amongst the ones you left who would have loved you so,

I wonder if you lived and loved, I wonder if you knew

That someday I would find this spot, and come to visit you.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LAWS FAMILY REGISTER

We are happy to work on your

LAWS FAMILY TREE

(maybe we already have)

All LAWS Enquires are still welcome

Mail us at

registrar@lawsfamilyregister.org.uk

EXTRACTS FROM OUR DATABASE

PLEASE NOTE

We have excluded records of living people to protect their Privacy -we are not showing births after 1920 or marriages after 1940 these are only available on request

If you are interested in anyone listed here, email us with the name, date and reference number, and we will happily do a look up, you might even get a whole tree!

We will be happy to publish within this blog Your stories of your LAWS research and also members of the LAWS and LAWES family you are searching for like your greart grandfathers uncle Charlie or aunt Maud.

We will be happy to help with you with your LAWS/LAWES research, and in certain instances we may be willing to undertake private research on your behalf.

This blog will also appear on our Facebook page, please come visit us,

Family Events from our database, for today 4th December

BIRTHS baptisms etc

1780 - Christen: Cuthbert LAWES-2992, Ovingham Northumberland England

1833 - Birth: Elizabeth LAWS-10737,

1836 - Baptism: William Henry LAWS-25755, Preston with Sutton Dorset England
1851 - Birth: Edward T LAWS (Coach Driver) -38631,
1877 - Birth: George Mervyn LAWS (Butcher) -3706, Cowra NSW AUSTRALIA
1881 - Baptism: Charles William LAWS-16203, Bolam Northumberland England
1898 - Birth: William Gerald LAWES-5, Fulham Middlesex England
1899 - Birth: Duncan Henry LAWES (Australian Army) -12967, Adelaide SA AUSTRALIA
1909 - Birth: Nancy LAWS-28852, Blyth Northumberland England
1919 - Birth: Eric Herbert LAWS (Clerical Officer at Air Ministry) -36131, Edmonton Middlesex England

MARRIAGES

1826 - Marriage: John BALLARD-5060 and Elizabeth LAWS-5061, Litcham Norfolk England

1855 - Marriage: John (Gardener & Innkeeper) LAWS-6217 and Hannah HEWITT-3589, Stratton Strawless Norfolk England

1897 - Marriage: Joseph Aldham KIRKPATRICK (Police Officer) -33836 and
Hannah L LAWS-21500, Fulham Middlesex England

DEATHS

1610 - Burial: John LAWS (Scrivener) -7518, Foster lane London Middlesex England
1768 - Burial: Thomas LAWS-16965, Newton Flotman Norfolk England
1849 - Burial: Mary Ann LAWS (Free Emigree / Svn) -8006, St.Johns, Parramatta, AUSTRALIA

1889 - Burial: Charles Percy LAWS-5023, Kensington Middlesex England
1899 - Death: Barbara LAWS-23573, Gateshead Durham England
1920 - Death: Louisa Atherton LAWS-38275, Tooele, UT United States
1931 - Death: Jane Elizabeth LAWS (Spinster) -10111, Surbiton Surrey England
1940 - Death: George LAWS (Steel Work Labourer) -21040, West Hartlepool Durham England

1947 - Death: Henry William LAWS-39061, Catford Kent England
1949 - Death: George LAWES-39082, Cromer but resided at Holt Norfolk England
1957 - Death: James Austen LAWES (Chemist) -40467, Sanderstead Surrey England
1962 - Death: Leslie Winter LAWS (Retired Postman) -39331, Hackney Middlesex England
1964 - Death: Frances R LAWES-31082,
1964 - Burial: Charles Robert LAWS (PVT US Army) -16663,
Mountain Home National Cemetery, Johnson City TN
1990 - Death: Betty LAWS-41805,
1992 - Death: Mamie Ann LAWS-25294, Indianapolis IN United States
1996 - Probate: Barbara Joan LAWS-41120, Brighton Sussex England

MISC & OTHER INFORMATION

OTHER BIRTHS Etc
1853 - Birth: Mary Jane HENRY-8753, Newcastle upon Tyne Northumberland England

1876 - Birth: Amy STRINGER-3884

1892 - Birth: William Frederick BARKSFIELD (Civil Servant)-21978, Walthamstow Essex England

1894 - Birth: Hannah M THEOBALD-28985, West Hartlepool Durham England
1900 - Birth: Vivia Paternoster WHITE-29477, Para Plains SA AUSTRALIA

OTHER MARRIAGES

1839 - Marriage: Thomas B HOLLIDAY-25091 and Harriett Hannah HALL-25092,
Onondaga County NY United States

OTHER DEATHS & Burials

1845 - Death: Fanny SMITH-20316, Coombe Bissett Wiltshire England

1927 - Death: Sarah Emily STOREY-6979, Barnard Castle Durham England
1936 - Death: Harold Franklin LAIDLAW-43467, Brisbane QLD AUSTRALIA#
1957 - Death: Ada M FOARD-21141, Mayfield Sussex England
1964 - Death: Daisey Agnes PITMAN-18078, Rouge River OR United States

1997 - Burial: Gladys A HEAD-14450, Mountain Home National Cemetery, Johnson City TN
United States

==========================================================
A suburban childhood of the Twenties

Seen from the Nineteen Nineties

By John Robert Laws 1921-2008

Part 20

Food was important. For some it was in short supply; for all it was seasonal and generally less wide ranging than it is now. Until the coming of the fridge, for us in the early thirties, keeping food fresh in summer was a problem and a variety of methods were used, The larder was mandatory in all houses built from the nineteenth century until quite recently, in large houses it became a small walk in room.

Meat was often given special accommodation in a small ‘meat safe’ with perforated zinc sides to keep out the flies. This stood outside the house in the shade often near the back door. In hot weather milk would be boiled as soon as it was delivered and in summer generally it was stood in a shallow tray of water with a cover of muslin or terracotta, to soak up the water and keep it cool. These methods must still be in use in a few households but they are bygones for most of us.

It was not always summer however, and in winter it was normal to eat more, as well as to wear more clothes, to keep out the cold of poorly heated houses and workplaces. Quantity was of more importance than quality, not that wives and mothers were less interested in quality, simply which standards were lower and money went further if you only cut away the inedible rather than all the rough bits. It was widely recognized that if bread was a bit hard it would be ‘harder where there’s none’.

Our household was fortunate that ‘pater familias’ was ‘a good provider’ in the language of the day. Moreover, my mother was a good cook though she would have turned her nose up at squid or octopus and olives or wine vinegar were never seen in our larder.

Even the slightly exotic like sweetbreads or whitebait were reserved for father on his evening return from work, probably being reckoned ‘not good for children’ quite apart from the cost. The roast joint was the important mainstay of diet, more often than not, a sirloin of beef which turned up for Sunday lunch with Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, greens and, a nice rich gravy.

The joint would sometimes be mutton , it was not called lamb till much later. Pork was much less frequent, being reckoned to be somewhat hazardous, though with how much reason I don’t know. It seems an oddity that on the other hand pork sausages were esteemed above beef which were considered in today’s parlance a bit down market.

Sunday’s joint turned up as cold meat on Monday, and would be used as hash or mince the next day or two depending on how much was left. Cold meat would be served up with hot vegetables. I do not remember any salad in my diet as a child.

Season controlled the selection of vegetables, fresh from the greengrocer not frozen from the supermarket, Cabbage was the standby; peas, runner beans, carrots sprouts and spinach came in their turn though I didn’t learn to like spinach till many years later.

There were also unidentified greens or the like, Very occasionally asparagus appeared on the Sunday table pandering to father’s fancy taste. I do not think it really belonged the Devon cuisine, that was my mother’s mainstay.

Later in the week, when the joint was gone, there might be stew or sausages and occasionally fish until Saturday when it was invariably steak and kidney pudding, a good winter warmer if ever there was one.

‘Afters’ too were often good sustaining stuff, stewed fruit and custard were popular in season and sometimes dried apricots or prunes at other times. The real favourites however were the apple puddings or blackcurrant puddings closely followed in popularity by Apple Charlotte or bread and butter pudding with a good leavening of raisins.

Suet puddings with dried fruit such as plum duff or roly-poly of the standby syrup pudding came along from time to time but were not quite a regular feature. Pastry was popular and fruit would more often be served in a pie than on its own. There was of course no ice cream at home as there were no domestic freezers.

Tinned fruit was a special but was readily available. Cream was brought round by the milkman once the changeover to bottled milk had taken place and sometimes took the place of custard to everyone’s delight.

Even father, who was a good trencherman, did not feel the need of cheese and biscuits at the end of Sunday lunch.

We spent all the family holidays on that little bit of east coast and going further afield did not arise until I could go off on my bike alone or with a friend. I had already been to scout camps, all on a shoestring. About the same time school journeys were started, only in the holidays of course not in term time like today.

The camps were for boys only. I doubt whether our devoted school staff thought they could cope with the tribulations of a mixed camp. The journeys to foreign parts however were co-ed without any problems.

I recall one school camp at St.Audries Bay, near Watchet in of course wonderful summer weather. Our site was in a field between the coast road and low cliffs above the beach.

We must have gone to Somerset by coach, an uneventful journey of which I remember nothing except that our kit was moved by horse and cart from the road down a narrow track to the field beside the farm where a line of bell tents had already been erected for us.

We had the luxury of palliases which we filled with straw from the tumbledown buildings near the farmhouse and the cooking was done by the school caretaker with a small amount of help from us on a rota basis. A few cows were kept by the farmer and we were able to see the milk he supplied to us hand milked into the pail.

Behind and above our camp on the other side of the road, rose the warm late summer colours of the Quantock hills, an almost impenetrable terrain of bracken and bilberries guaranteed to stain ones fingers and lips and scratch ones knees to ribbons. We had time to wander on our own and there were organised trips when we visited Dunster and walked to the top of Dunkery Beacon.

The timeless stone cottages and ancient butter market of Dunster were already an attraction to visitors but as boys we were too keen on looking forward to really appreciate the glimpse back into the past that such places are able to give us later in life. Exmoor’s wide vistas and stony ground thatched with heather and berries were pure joy, the purples and crimsons of the foliage stretching out through the sunshine to a distant hazy horizon and the world at ones feet.

In our free time we wandered into the little town of Watchet lying somnolent in the sunshine, seemingly untouched by tourism. There was a corner shop selling sweets and buns, and Cydrax to refuel the inner man for a walk into the hills. Watchet was minding its own business around its tiny harbour where cargoes seemed to be black coal in and white china clay out.

There must have been a few holidaymakers about however because one day we went by paddle steamer along the coast to Lynmouth where we disembarked in small boats and had a day to explore and wade up the river to Watersmeet. This was decades before the catastrophic flood destroyed the town which had previously stood secure for centuries.

Nearly everyone who holidayed around Somerset visited Lynmouth but the numbers were small and it was not crowded.

Back at St Audries Bay the beach is stony with grey rocks and flat stones ideal for skimming the waves. The most interesting find was that it abounded in fossils of spiral creatures up to a foot across, ammonites I believe, which had been preserved when their nice grey slimy mud was pressed into rock a few million years back.

Another boys only school trip took us youth hostelling to the hostel at Millersdale in Derbyshire. There were about fifteen in the group with two of three school staff including ‘Sammy’ Stewart one of the most popular masters. He taught geography and seemed to be a member of nearly all the journeys. We walked the hills and dales and went by train to Edale where the station name board said ‘HOPE for Castleton’ though we never saw Castleton as we walked away from Hope over the hills.

A visit to the Blue John Mine where blue fluorspar is mined showed us something new in this glowing rock and in an underground trip by boat through a low tunnel which led us to a cave where there is a hefty waterfall from above which went down below us into the depths of that the guide told us was a bottomless pit. At least it never filled up with water.

Continued tomorrow

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lord, help me dig into the past

and sift the sands of time

That I might find the roots that made

This family tree of mine

Lord, help me trace the ancient roads,

On which my father's trod

And led them through so many lands

To find our present sod.

Lord, help me find an ancient book

Or dusty manuscript,

Thats's safely hidden now away

In some forgotten crypt

Lord, let it bridge the gap that haunts

My soul, when I can't find

The missing link between some name

That ends the same as mine

===============================================

=====================================================

The content provided on this site is not guaranteed to be error free - It is always advised that you consult original records.

Member of The Guild of One-Name Studies

THE GUILD OF ONE-NAME STUDIES

www.one-name.org

registrar@lawsfamilyregister.org.uk

With grateful thanks to Simon Knott for permission to reproduce his photographs on this site see :-http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/

===============================================================

We support INVICTUS and Help for Heroes

"This organization recognizes the United Nations' International Decade for People of African Descent 2015-2024. We reach out to all regardless of race, color, creed, orientation or national origin with support for researching family and documenting cultural inheritance.”

Laws Family Register

Search This Blog