This evening I was speaking to someone who remembered my great-grandfather, and who could clearly recall what he looked like. Which, given that my dad's dad's dad was born around 1863, strikes me as pretty darn impressive.

Rewind to last year, when I first took any interest in this photo hanging up in my parents' living room:

Pictured are my great-grandparents (whose names I later found out were James and Ellen) surrounded by their 11 children. I'm not certain, but the photo was taken around 1910, by the way. Since nobody could even be sure of the children's names, I thought it might be a nice idea to find out. For the record, they are:

Daughters:

Eliza, Martha, Nellie, Polly, Dolly, Maud and Lily

Sons:

James, William, Walter and George

By speaking to umpteen relatives, many for the first time (!), a half-decent family tree has slowly emerged. Earlier tonight I was chatting to one of Dolly's children, Ruby, who's 72 tomorrow, when she mentioned that it would be a good idea to speak to her (older) husband, Arthur. And amazingly, since he'd been brought up in the same area of Ipswich as many of my distant family, he had vivid memories of James & Ellen Broom. Unbelievable.

If You Take Away With You Nothing Else
Grandfather, father, son:

1. did I mention that Walter, son of James, was a tattooist?
2. get everything down on paper
3. speak to your oldest family members while they're still around!

Be seeing you!

Ed