Families are interesting, right?
Everyone's got one. Everyone's part of one. They may feel very much a part of
it, or feel totally alienated from it, but they are still a member of a family.
There's a mother and a father out there somewhere for each of us, maybe also a
son and/or a daughter or two or five? Everyone's there for each other and they
all look out for the other's best interests, right? Hmm, maybe on TV shows like
"The Waltons". It seems that so many of the people that Shona and I have
met or heard about have dim and dark secrets in their closets. Let's see, following a single branch of the family tree
down reads something like this: Thomas begat William and Thomas and Hannah and
George and Ann and John and James and Benjamin. James begat Thomas and George
and Charles and William and Mary. Charles begat
Mary and Charles and Richard to his first wife, and later begat six more with
his second wife. Charles' son Charles begat Evaline and Albert and Richard and
Leslie. Richard begat Lesley and William and Nayda. William begat Marilyn and
me.... So if you follow it straight down it reads a bit like Thomas begat James
who begat Charles who begat Charles who begat Richard who begat William who
begat me! And my begatters don't begat, so the line ends there! Seems there's
some real breeders up the family tree. Thomas had 8 children, the first of whom
arrived 2 days after his wedding. James had 5 children, the first of whom was
born in the same year that he married. The first Charles only had 3 children
before his first wife died, and again the first one was well within a year of
the marriage. He had another 6 with his second wife. The next generation Charles
was cutting back as he only had 4 children and the first was born almost a year
after the marriage. Richard cut back again to only 3 children, but the first
child was still within a year of the marriage. William cut back again as he only
had 2 offspring. The rest of the content on this page may give an idea how fact can be even more unusual than
some movie plots....
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Charles
Charles (initially a trooper then a soldier and later a policeman) was
married to Hannah who died from snake bite. Their four children were shuffled off to
his brother's mother-in-law to be looked after. Hannah's brother had also passed
away, leaving Emma a widow at 27. As you might expect, Charles (59) stepped in
and married Emma and they set about having six more children. It seems Charles was
gored by a wild boar leaving a wound that never healed properly and was smelly
enough to drive poor Emma away. Charles died of "senile decay /
exhaustion". |
Jane & Jackie
 The
youngest two of three daughters. Whilst they were both born in Scotland,
they would know or remember very little of it.
Jane, the blonde hung around with the in crowd (who actually did all the
wrong things at a much too young age!) Pregnant at 15 and proud of it
for the attention it brought her. Loved the drama in her life (sounds so
much like another Jane I know), and married Kevin at 21.
Jackie spent a lot of time on her appearance and was devastated if she
didn't "get the guy". Appearance was always vital even during
sex (So the lights would get turned off!) A lass who learnt to always spoke her mind, regardless of how hurtful
it was to her
audience. |
James
 A man in
charge of his domain! James is quietly contemplating the world and everything
else that is beamed to him on the TV. Not too much longer after this photo he
was cleaned up off his motorbike by someone who failed to stop at a stop sign.
(Why does that sound familiar to me?) |
 Marilyn
A girl who learnt about excesses from her parents. Instead of turning
to beer to strengthen her nerve, Marilyn got lost inside the worlds of
her hobbies, first drawing then dress making, then porcelain doll
making, then dress making for her porcelain dolls! If she still couldn't
shut out the noise her crying children made, she would comfort herself
with a big slice of cake! |
 Margaret
Is a person shy or secretive when they want to shut themselves away
from the world?
Margaret was a single mother back in the days when a baby born out of
wedlock was put up for adoption. Many years later Susan tracked down her
birth mother, and for a second time was rejected.
Margaret loved a drink and a smoke and seemed to really enjoy parties
where she didn't know too many people. (Is it because she could get
really drunk and no one would know?) |
William
 He
used to exclaim quite frequently, 'The name's Billy, not silly'.
When you need a few beers for lunch as well as going straight from
work to the pub until it closed, is it because you're really thirsty, or
there's some deeper problem that you're trying to drown?
Seen as a warm and generous man to his drinking colleagues, his
family only saw an often aggressive, loud mouthed, opinionated, stingy
man who always had a lit cigarette and a beer. He died at 52 walking his
girlfriend (pictured) home. |
