Life, Death and Research...

[Penny Gallo]

Hi to everyone. I've listed my current family research name as Harston/Haston, which is what drew me to this site, as a google search conjured you up and actually gave me a new relative! We might even be going to meet up soon. Pretty impressive result!

We have already done the other side of my father's family, as my greatgrandfather came from Germany, naturalized in the 1880s. Because of WW1 he never spoke his native language again, never went back there, and all contact was lost. When my grandparents died, we found the "Todesanzeiger" (the death announcement) of my greatgreatgrandfather. This gave the name of the village. My parents wrote to the German embassy, who supplied the name of the Burgermeister. He in turn (luckily my Mum had been learning German at eveningclass for years!) sent us details of the head of the family who were still in the village. My parents wrote and heard - nothing.

The following summer on their way back from Austria, they detoured and pulled up in the little square. Suddenly a man came round the corner on a tractor, took one look at the English registration plate and stopped. It turned out to be my father's cousin! There was a tremendous party, and meeting of everyone. My parents discovered the reason for the earlier silence: my greatgrandfather had been the oldest son, and they thought we might be coming back to claim the vineyards and farmland!!! My father loved it out there, and learnt his own brand of German very quickly. He hoped to spend more time out there when he retired. Unfortunately whilst on holiday there in summer 1988, he had a fatal heart attack. We decided to bury him there in the cemetery of his ancestors. I am still very good friends with my German family - and it was certainly an amazing series of coincidences and results of persistence.

We were intensely relieved to discover that one brother has been a prisoner on the Russian Front, and another here in Devon - well you never know!
Another coincidence was that in 1987 I saw a house in an estate agent's window, liked the look of it, went in and discovered it was in the village where my greatgreatgrandfather George Harston, had been born, and where there are quite a few 18th century Harston headstones. I lived there for nearly ten years, and was able to tell the miserable farmer who called me a newcomer (less politely) a thing or two!

At the moment I'm trying to delve into the life and death of a greatgreat uncle who died as a Conscientious Objector in Dartmoor Prison. It's interesting to see how far current attitudes differ tfrom those of his contemporaries. I have been fascinated by social history for many years, and had the good fortune to work in several museums before being diagnosed with a terminal illness. Still, this has given me the opportunity (I am flagrantly disobeying the docs who gave me "3-4 months" 16 months ago!) to continue with some research. I am finding this website compulsive reading! xxx Penny

[pipsqueak]

Penny - what a brilliant story about how your dad found his German family, and how wonderful that he was buried with his ancestors. Absolutely fascinating.

You are also lucky to have been able to live in the village where your g-g-gf was born - and tell the locals a thing or two!

I hope you continue to have fun with your family history and your research for a long time to come!

[ChristineR]

Hello Penny

what a lovely story! Welcome to Brit-Gen forums. I see that you have been here for a day or two, or three Hope you are enjoying yourself and getting some help with your great greatuncle. It is always lovely to meet new cousins too, that is happening a lot on here.

[Waitabit]

Penny, so good to hear your story, gives hope to others who may be stumbling along still looking.

Wendy

[Penny Gallo]

Yes, it just shows that life-changing forces and opportunities can arise out of fascination about our ancestors! We were very lucky in Germany, by the way, as a family member out there had already rsearched back to the 1790s (as far back as it seems possible to take it in that particular part of the country). We now have a copy of the apprenticeship document which my greatx3 grandfather earned when he worked as a "Fassbinder" - barrel-maker, ie cooper, in Vienna in the 1830s. It describes him as of middle height, with blond hair and blue eyes, and that he was "fleissig" - diligent. The original is a beautiful engraved document (the personal details were filled in by hand) showing the city of Vienna with some interesting military fortifications. The village where my family came from suffered a massive migration of young men comparable to that which occurred in rural districts in England in the 1850s/60s, except this followed the Franco-Prussian war of 1871, and, personally, the drying up of the stream that turned the family's watermill wheel (climate change is nothing new!). Most of the young men from Rheinhessen went out to USA, Ohio I believe, to farm there. My greatgrandfather worked in England as a Baker (not a sugar baker, which is another common German immigrant's occupation), firstly in London, then moving to Nottingham. My grandfather lived his young childhood in a house which backed onto Highgate Cemetery (pause here for a bit of envy!). Of course his half-German blood must have caused him a lot of shame in WW1. I know that he signed up under age (I have a photo of him - looking incredibly young) in uniform, but his mother, a tough Londoner, marched down to the recruiting office, gave them a piece of her mind (she was apparently a woman not short of invective!) and got him back. As soon as he was old enough he signed up for the RN, and we have fascinating documents relating to his time both on "Iron Duke" (eg at Smyrna) and also in submarines.

Thank you very much for your welcome - and I hope that your research also takes you to exciting discoveries and strange coincidences!
With best wishes xxxx Penny

[Feen]

Hi Penny

I loved reading the stories of how you discovered your German relatives, and found a house in the village of your ancestors. How satisfying being able to shut the miserable farmer up with your C18 forebears .

I was also very interested to hear that your grandfather grew up in Highgate. Mine did too, and other ancestors who I am researching, lived next to the Cemetery. Would you mind if I PMd you with a query?

All best wishes,

Feen

[Penny Gallo]

Be my guest, Feen. In fact this very week we were in London and went off in search of (1) my grandfather's birthplace and (2) the location of the family given in 1901 census. We had a good wander round Highgate East Cemetery first then walked round the outside to Raydon Street, the street named on my grandfather's birth certificate. I remember having this pointed out to me once as a child by my father but now what do I find but a load of 1970s flats and a kids' playground with a concrete snake? I remember them as three-storey brick terraces. On Charles Booth's Poverty Map, this street was coloured Light Blue: "some comfortable and some poor" but I suspect judging by the surrounding streets which survive (my childhood memory might not count for much) they were decent houses just needing a few mod cons. After this depressing start, we trudged on in the rain towards Hargreave Road, not really expecting much. Lo the whole street is there intact. I wondered if the Hargreave Hall (now a Montessori school) was originally a Sally Army Hall.

Since that, I've sent off for my grandfather's older sister's birth certificate to find out what part of St George in the East they lived at prior to Islington. This evening, I have also tracked down another wedding, and feel really excited.

Please do message me with any thoughts or questions you may have about this area. Best wishes Penny

[Marie C..]

Hi Penny,
What an amazing story of your German ancestors. Also of your seeing the house of your Harston relative and then being able to live in it. These things seem to go beyond the realm of mere co-incidence.
You have done amazingly well in tracing your family. Hope you are writing a book about it all.
Regards, Marie

[Penny Gallo]

The local Archives are happy to have them, but they have suggested a closure period of seventy years. I feel this is too long. On the other hand, coming back to find one of my friends lying full length on the settee reading the latest volume is going a bit far in the other direction LOL. When I snatched it off her, she was highly indignant, "I was enjoying that!"

We didn't live in the exact house, just the same village. In fact it was rather hard to pinpoint the exact house due to the way the 19th century censuses (censi?) were taken in villages, but in the end we suspected it was the tiniest, most run-down hovel named Raspberry Cottage. I would have loved to have lived there, as it had a lovely garden, but it was still in the ownership of the Squire. His grandfather by the way, had ordered most of the doors of his tenants' cottages bricked up on the front so that the peasants couldn't stad gossiping in doorways and ogling his wife as she rode down the main street!

[Feen]

Hi Penny, I was going to PM you to ask whether your grandfather lived at the same address as an ancestress of mine in Highgate village - but now you've given more details it obviously isn't the same house. I know that after she died the next people to live there had a vaguely Germanic sounding name so I was getting all excited about a mega-coincidence (I've already had one recently of which more in a minute...).

It's very disappointing about those houses in Raydon Street having been pulled down and replaced - are you talking about the development on the east boundary, not far from Karl Marx?

I became interested in my Highgate ancestors in the spring of this year and went to look for them in Highgate East Cemetery. The guide actually pointed out their grave, although I hadn't asked her about it and she had no idea who I was. I am now a volunteer there too. It is a very special place; the West so OTT gothic and spectacular, and the East a gentler more tranquil place. People get less excited about the East Cemetery but I'm actually rather glad my family is there.

Did you find any family in the Cemetery?