Despite the vast majority of my family having a distinct southern bias, my grandma Blanche May Robson, was from Sheffield. Grandpa Frank was a southern boy from Buckinghamshire and seemed ancient to me - he was born in 1899 and didn't have my dad (his only child) until he was 47. Grandma must have been about 34. Old parents seem to be a common feature in my family, which is fairly comforting given that I'm now 30 and still show no signs of being ready for parenthood. It's good to know that Blanche was capable pre-IVF to be what they used to call a 'geriatric mother' and that another of my relatives had her last child at 49 in the late 19th century. 
I make no bones about the fact that I didn't like grandma Blanche much. She was a terrifying woman for a small girl, and I always preferred visiting mum's side of the family more. Even dad didn't get on with her much and often referred to her as the Soup Dragon. She died a few days before my 11th birthday, grandpa having died the year before. I remember crying more over my dog Ben's death that year. However, now that I've come to research the family I'm coming to realise the hard life she must have had in her early years.She was born in Grimesthorpe, Sheffield in 1912 to Eliza Maylor Baker and Edward Stanhope Robson. Eliza was a dressmaker and Edward a blacksmith and tool maker. In this area most work was focussed at the steelworks, which came to hugely important in the build up to the Second World War, making ammunition and weapons, though I don't know how much work there was to be had in the 1920s, when Edward was in business as a self-employed hammer forger.Eliza I will no doubt talk about again as she has always fascinated me, but I won't go into detail here. Blanche was the eldest child of this couple, but not Eliza's first child. She had given birth to an illegitimate daughter - Lilian - the year before Blanche was born to an unknown father somewhere in Halifax. Lilian was also the only one of her children that she ever saw. In the year between Lilian and Blanche's birth Eliza went blind. I've been told it was probably cataracts as her eyes apparently had that filmy quality, and I find this extremely sad, given how easily this is treated today. The nature of Edward and Eliza's relationship intrigues me though. Did he know about Lilian before he married her? Was she already blind at their wedding? There are things I'm just going to have to live without knowing sadly.Eliza was an extremely formidable woman, by all accounts, and it seems her blindness didn't hold her back a great deal, though it can't have been easy as, in 1927 when Blanche was 15, Edward died at the young age of 44 leaving Eliza with four children to look after - Blanche, Ivy, Ted and Gladys (Lilian was not brought up with the rest of the family it seems). The family weren't well off and he was buried in a common grave, with no headstone in Burngreave cemetery. The three girls were sent out to work as servants from a young age to ease the burden on Eliza, and this is the only way I can imagine my grandparents ever having met. As Blanche was in service she seemed to move around the country wherever work was. They married at St Cuthberts in Grimesthorpe in 1938 when she was 26 and had to wait another 8 years for her first and only child.I can only imagine it was a fairly tough life for Blanche growing up in a poor area to a blind mother, losing her father at a young age and entering service. Adding to that what was probably common knowledge of her half-sister which, I suspect, did not go down too well in the local community. Moving around was probably easier in that respect.It doesn't mean that I've changed my mind about grandma. She was a woman with very rigid Victorian values and a cold attitude towards her grandchildren, who seems far removed from the photographs I have of her as a young woman, and the recollections of her nephew who claims she had a wicked sense of humour. But, it goes some way to letting me understand to a certain extent why she was how she was, and the problems she faced in her younger years. I wish I knew more...
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've been upping my craft threshold recently, mostly in an effort to reclaim some space in my house which is currently filled with yards of material and balls of wool. I also have a wardrobe of clothes that I've had since I started university 12 years ago and can't bear to throw away, yet never get worn. At the same time I constantly complain of having nothing to wear...The answer? The Wardrobe Refashion Challenge. I've emailed to sign up to the pledge though I doubt I'll have quite the output of some of these people!"I, Hen Goodchild, pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 6 months. I pledge that I shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovated, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftyness brings! Signed Hen."I've already made a good start...The boy L gave me an Eels T-shirt recently which had a fabulous Daisies of the Galaxy bird on, but was one of those unflattering Fruit of the Loom numbers. that made me look like a boy (not the look I was going for). Out came the scissors and sewing machine and, after a few hours of cutting, sewing, unpicking my mistakes, sewing again, unpicking more mistakes and resewing, I finally had something I was proud of. It was made even better when I got a compliment on it on its first outing out (thanks R!).
Second was some wool I've had kicking about for years. I inherited some wool when my nan died two years ago, and also had various random balls bought from charity shops I can't remember how long ago. I wasn't overly excited by the colours (purple mohair, dark green and turquoise single knit) but bizarrely they seemed to work when I put all three together. I just made up the pattern based on a basic T-shape but ran out of wool. It's now a short-sleeved little number! I hope it survives the first wash... :)So, let's see if I can last until August! I have 3 get out of jail free cards (one per 2 month period) which I can use if any special occasions come up, but I'm hoping to make it through without using them, especially as I have raw materials coming out of my ears and really want to get the stash down a bit. My wallet will certainly appreciate that. I've got tonnes of ideas of things to do but first up my 20+ year old sewing machine needs a little love and attention. I'll stick to the hooks till it's sorted...
Another of my hobbies is all things crafty. Bumbling around on the Internet I found this. I'm not sure it'll catch on in the High Street. The word 'chafing' springs to mind...
My battle with the upstairs neighbour will probably become a recurrent theme on this blog. He doesn't keep normal hours - in fact I'm not sure he sleeps at all. The odd noises that come from his flat often keep me awake at night, not only by their annoyance, but also as I'm utterly mystified as to what he's actually doing up there. Last night night he appeared to be either a) carrying out some extremely energetic clog dancing or b) training for a marathon until the wee small hours in a small 1 bedroom flat. I often lie awake thinking of the myriad punishments I should mete out on him. Last night's consisted of me with a chic bob going up there with a high pressure oxygen tank to give him a new parting...
"The only thing that ever sat its way to success was a hen" Sarah Brown'Nuff said...
After setting up this blog on a whim I then proceeded to spend the next couple of months wondering what on earth to talk about here. Whilst I have many interests (which shall no doubt crop up here) I've now come to the conclusion that, given that blogs are entirely selfish entities, that I should use it, amongst other random musings, to keep a track of my current research into my family tree and my general deteriorating state of mind as a consequence of this. It seems as good a place as any...
So, to start, I already have a web page at...
http://helengoodchild.googlepages.com
... but I'm sorry to say that it's a bit of a mess whilst I try and work out the best way of actually showing everything. I've got 382 people in my tree and counting which, I know, is nothing compared to many genealogists out there, but is still somehow enough to have caused me a filing nightmare. Doing a bit of research on the web for the best method just left me a bit perplexed as there seem to be a thousand different methods. I recently read an article on Ancestry about Procrastination (of which I am the queen) and Perfectionism. Whilst I've never thought of myself as a perfectionist (far from it!) I actually think that I have a little of column A and a little of column B here. Papers mount up uncontrollably, but I don't want to file them unless I can do it neatly and perfectly. I can't bear the mess but yet can't bring myself to sort it out at all. This takes me back to the last month of writing my PhD thesis where I couldn't bring myself to go to the library as I couldn't find the right sort of pen...
Well, my new year's resolution was to get it sorted, yet here we are in February and it's nowhere near done. I have, however, progressed to the stage where I have seven big piles sitting on my lounge floor each for a different surname and I think I'm beginning to get an idea of how this can be done neatly, perfectly, and without too much damage to my anally retentive soul...
