Truth in Family Stories
Family stories are a piece of evidence most family historians will use and encounter in their research. However, like all pieces of evidence they must be scrutinised to see if they hold any truth which will be useful to family history research. I look at how I have verified some of my own family stories.
For a while, I have owned a book, 'Tales of the Old Gypsies', which mentions my family and the individual section of most use to me is written by my first cousin, 3 times removed, Eli Frankham (1928-2000) - a well known gypsy rights campaigner and poet. The part which intrigued me the most (in which I could discover more about) was two stories about some of the children of my 3 times great grandparents's children and about my 3 times great grandfather, Thomas Saunders. There are many other pieces of valuable evidence for me in the book.
The first story, states that whilst he was in the trenches during World War 1, one of the other soldiers stated, whilst reading a newspaper, "well, that's bad luck - there's a poor bloke out here fighting for King and Country, and his child's been burned to death". Thomas enquired whereabouts that happened and it turned out to be his daughter, Sally (officially Sarah). He then walked out into no man's land and they had to call him back. I have tried looking in online newspaper records and haven't been able to find an article about the disaster and I haven't been able to visit the local archives to go through their records. However, I did order the death certificate for Sally to try and verify this information. Sally had died on the 30th January 1917 due to "shock from burns sustained on the same day". The death certificate also states that Thomas' occupation was a soldier in the 3rd battalion Hampshire Regiment. This suggests that his daughter definitely did die of burns and that at the time he was part of the army and possibly in the trenches.
The second event, supposedly occurred after Thomas had left the army. The book states that whilst walking down the road his two twin boys, who always dressed the same, were crushed by a large wall and were killed outright. This interested me as I had found zero evidence which suggested he had twins which I found interesting as all over children that I have found for them had their births registered. It wasn't until I was stringently looking for the newspaper article for Sally's death, I found an article from the Portsmouth Evening News, published the 13th March 1916, stating that a "distressing Landport double fatality" occurred and was headlined the "Voller Street Collapse". In the article it stated that 2 boys had been killed after the fronts of three houses collapsed onto the street. One of those was Joseph Saunders, aged 6, and son to Thomas Saunders, a hawker, of Voller Street. This was my Saunders family. The other child was 2 year old William Henry Matthews, who's father was also named William Henry Matthews. It also mentioned, that Joseph was playing with another boy, Arthur Leslie Reynolds, 12, who had been injured in the disaster.
For a while, I have owned a book, 'Tales of the Old Gypsies', which mentions my family and the individual section of most use to me is written by my first cousin, 3 times removed, Eli Frankham (1928-2000) - a well known gypsy rights campaigner and poet. The part which intrigued me the most (in which I could discover more about) was two stories about some of the children of my 3 times great grandparents's children and about my 3 times great grandfather, Thomas Saunders. There are many other pieces of valuable evidence for me in the book.
The first story, states that whilst he was in the trenches during World War 1, one of the other soldiers stated, whilst reading a newspaper, "well, that's bad luck - there's a poor bloke out here fighting for King and Country, and his child's been burned to death". Thomas enquired whereabouts that happened and it turned out to be his daughter, Sally (officially Sarah). He then walked out into no man's land and they had to call him back. I have tried looking in online newspaper records and haven't been able to find an article about the disaster and I haven't been able to visit the local archives to go through their records. However, I did order the death certificate for Sally to try and verify this information. Sally had died on the 30th January 1917 due to "shock from burns sustained on the same day". The death certificate also states that Thomas' occupation was a soldier in the 3rd battalion Hampshire Regiment. This suggests that his daughter definitely did die of burns and that at the time he was part of the army and possibly in the trenches.
The second event, supposedly occurred after Thomas had left the army. The book states that whilst walking down the road his two twin boys, who always dressed the same, were crushed by a large wall and were killed outright. This interested me as I had found zero evidence which suggested he had twins which I found interesting as all over children that I have found for them had their births registered. It wasn't until I was stringently looking for the newspaper article for Sally's death, I found an article from the Portsmouth Evening News, published the 13th March 1916, stating that a "distressing Landport double fatality" occurred and was headlined the "Voller Street Collapse". In the article it stated that 2 boys had been killed after the fronts of three houses collapsed onto the street. One of those was Joseph Saunders, aged 6, and son to Thomas Saunders, a hawker, of Voller Street. This was my Saunders family. The other child was 2 year old William Henry Matthews, who's father was also named William Henry Matthews. It also mentioned, that Joseph was playing with another boy, Arthur Leslie Reynolds, 12, who had been injured in the disaster.
The Evening News, 1916 - British Newspaper Archive. This is not the whole article.
It is very likely that this is the event that Eli was talking about. It is possible that he presumed that they were twins or that the story got slightly twisted before he was told it. It is also possible that Joseph and his siblings dressed in similar clothing or 'hand-me-downs' as money would have been tight for them.
This just goes to show that there is generally truth in family stories however, they may not be fully accurate and evidence should be collected to verify what has been said.
Published: 27 July 2017
This just goes to show that there is generally truth in family stories however, they may not be fully accurate and evidence should be collected to verify what has been said.
Published: 27 July 2017
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