Travel Tips

I was brought up knowing that I had Italian ancestry dating back to the 18th century. As a result of my research I found our 'infamous' ancestor had been a soldier with Napoleon, and eventually settled in London where he taught Italian and French, gave lectures, dabbled in phrenology, was reviled for telling 'tall' stories, fell into debt and was imprisoned briefly for bankruptcy. He was also a writer and a poet
Whether he came from Milan as the family believed, or from Naples [as was suggested in The Times], I cannot yet say.
His only son was reputedly a bit of a wild character who was a sparring partner for the bare-knuckle fighters who trained on Hackney Common. He started out working for a printer and eventually became an advertising manager, running a bill posting business in East London.

On my father's side the women were Londoners who married into our Italian family line. Great great grandmother was born in Oxford Street, at the St Giles end. Great grandmother was a tiny woman from south of the Thames, Newington in Southwark . She was at sometime a confectioner. Both her mother and father were tailors and had both died before she was 12. Her mother had been a widow when she married Mary's father , so her elder half-brother and half-sisters looked after her. Mary must have been a wise women as she left shares in a hotel to her eldest son when she died.
I've traced some of her great grandchildren to South Africa, Durham, as well as London.

My father's mother was from Norfolk. Her Whiting ancestors lived near Norwich and were mainly blacksmiths, shoemakers or market gardeners.
They married local women in most cases, but later generations moved away, often to London.
My grandmother was tall and fair haired ,and showed her Anglo-Saxon or Viking blood.
Her mother Emma Bullen had fifteen children at least, of which my grandmother was the 10th..

My grandmother's mother ,Emma, came from Suffolk and a line of agricultural workers. Their name was Bullen, and a fellow researcher believes all Bullens came from the same origin, which would make Anne Boleyne [Bullen] who married Henry VIII a leaf on the family tree.
This line I think was the poorest on my family tree with a lot of infant mortality.

My grandfather helped run the family advertising business in London. After his father died, he moved his own family to Canterbury, where the last of his 5 sons was born, my father.

Most of my ancestors came from a small fishing community in Easter Ross. My mother's father was born to a couple who held the same surname , but so far I've been unable to trace a link between them prior to 1800.
The men used to fish for herring as far north as the Shetlands and the women sometimes followed the fleet down to Norfolk, or sold the fish in neighbouring districts. They were very religious people for whom the church played a central role in their lives.
My grandfather, however, was a blacksmith and worked in Aberdeenshire. He died of influenza during the 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic.

My mother's maternal grandmother 's mother was a Bannerman from Helmsdale in Sutherland. Her family had been crofters and been relocated from the Strath of Kildonan at the time of the Clearances. She had a number of brothers of sisters who married locally,but the next generation often emigrated and I have traced family members who emigrated to Canada and USA in the 19th century, where some became prominent figures in local government.

My maternal grandmother came from Aberdeenshire and spoke with a broad accent, if I remember correctly. Her father was a farm labourer and later a gardener. His father worked on the railways becoming station master.
Most of the women were in domestic service, often as housekeepers.
Great grandfather George's mother 's father had been a weaver, and I have traced back to 1680 in one of her lines.

My maternal grandmother's grandfather MacGregor came from Banffshire. He was born about 1796 .He had been a soldier and became a Chelsea pensioner and then a mason. I have just learned he fought in the Peninsular War with Wellington , and then went to Calcutta where he served many years under the British Raj, before being discharged with impaired vision. I am still trying to trace who his ancestors were, though I know his mother was a Grant..
Grandmother herself was a good knitter and used to sell to a high street chain.

So I come from varied stock- tenant farmers, a professor of languages , artisans and fisher folk. Some were literate, others could only sign their name with a mark X. I wonder what they'd make of us today. My brother and I with children of Asian and African blood; all grand-children university graduates including a doctor. I hope they'd be proud of them all.