Aunt Lucy was my Mom's aunt and she was my Grandma's sister.
Aunt Lucy was a very tiny English lady who was very able to look after herself. She wore her iron gray coat and hat...a straw hat in the summer and felt hat in the winter. She always wore a substantial pair of shoes.
In the late 40's early 50's Aunt Lucy visited our place every year...usually late fall. A series of letters would be exchanged and arrangements made. Aunt Lucy would be picked up from the train. She had two large and heavy suitcases. We liked to see her come as she was a great visitor. She was a talker and had lots of stories.
After a ten days or two weeks she would move a couple of hundred miles down the line to where her twin daughters and grandchildren lived.
She would stay there about a month and then travel to the west coast. There she had two sisters and a son. She went from place to place and visited and in the late winter she would travel back to Winnipeg.
To us kids there were mysteries. We didn't know what happened to her husband. We didn't know how she made a living. We didn't know how she became this tiny independent English lady.
As kids we didn't know much about aunt Lucy .
So why am I telling you this. I recently got Ancestry and found aunt Lucy and a bit about her life so I can piece together a story about her.
She came to Canada in about 1900 and they decided to farm as there was lots of good cheap land. In 1914 she was left as a widow with five children with her youngest child only two years old. I'm not sure what she did after that but records show that she was in the same area as the farm. Somehow she raised 5 kids. I would guess that she received some support from relatives.
Later on she moved to Winnipeg as some of her children lived there. Now When she visited us and went on to the coast she probably still lived with family as she was able to leave her place.
So with a little inference it was fun to put together more of aunt Lucy's life.
So far with ancestry I've found much more than I thought I would. I know I won't find any famous or high class people. The people on my Dad's side of the family were peasants who farmed. The people on my mother's side seem to have been farm workers in England. For example, my Grandpa did butchering. When a farmer was going to butcher an animal my grandfather was called and did the job.
My husband Tom is deep in the weeds in genealogy. He is currently searching in Swedish records in the 1600's. So far, in his years of research, there are no famous ancestors, and very few scandals.
ReplyDeleteWhat amazes me is that he's back in the 1600's
DeleteAunt Lucy must have been an extraordinary woman to have raised 5 children on her own. You've really discovered some wonderful things about your family.
ReplyDeleteYes she was and particularly for that time.
DeleteMy grampa and gramma did butchering, too!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found some interesting information...
They each had their own job. Grandpa always wanted to be at our place when we did butchering.
DeleteI really should do this. My daughter has done some, but then stopped as she had to live her own life.
ReplyDeleteI have dithered for a long time and then my son in law gave me ancestry but there are free programs too.
DeleteHello, nice story about your Aunt. Sounds like she enjoyed traveling. The ancestry research can be fun and addicting. Wishing you a happy day and week ahead!
ReplyDeleteIt just takes a lot of time.
DeleteMy brother is the only member of my family who is interested in learning about our ancestors. He's learned a good deal and shares it with the rest of us. I cannot imagine a more difficult job than being a butcher. I get the shivers just thinking about it.
ReplyDeleteI am sharing things as well. It's actually meat cutting . the learn how to properly cut the meat into the right cuts.
DeleteI love that you can piece together your family history like this. I've done 23andMe, but not Ancestry. Your post makes me want to try that next.
ReplyDeleteTry another free one which is called family search . It's the one by the LDS church.
DeleteYou have done some good research. Well done for making these discoveries. Though she was small Aunt Lucy must have been a tough woman. She was probably from Yorkshire like your own tough woman.
ReplyDeleteMy grandparents were from Devon...where ever that is? Isn't that terrible. I'll have to look.
DeleteShe sounds like she was quite a lady.
ReplyDeleteMy father's side of the family included a museum curator in the Netherlands. My mother's side included a man who supervised landscape gardening at one of the Dutch royal palaces.
These people would have been somewhat well off.
DeleteCan you imagine being a widow at that time, raising five children alone? Holy cow. She must have been a tough woman.
ReplyDeleteI can think of few things I would less want to do than butchering an animal.
Yes things were much tougher then...no help.
DeleteI love your line, "She always wore a substantial pair of shoes." It so perfectly describes those shoes that we have all seen a little old lady wear :)
ReplyDeleteGood luck as you continue your search.
The first stuff you find is easy and then it gets hard. I have a few things to learn.
DeleteSounds like a really fun journey. You discover interesting things when you join these sites!
ReplyDeleteRed, I have used Family Search to start my own family tree, and it is a good site and being free is great. Also sometimes local libraries have ancestry sites that can be accessed as a patron without buying the program. Our library lets patrons use ancestry.com for no charge, gut only while at the library on the computers there. Interesting reading about Aunt Lucy who I agree was quite a strong woman.
ReplyDeleteyou are so lucky to find out about your mom's aunt
ReplyDeleteshe seems character from old novels
really interesting ,wise and loving
her widowed part of life made me sad but how incredible that she was managed to brought up her kids so nicely as they settled down well and she visited them yearly
i always find older people so wonderful and fascinating
much civilized and humble
so glad to read your lovely post dear Red!
It’s wonderful you were able to find some facts and figure out some things about your Aunt Lucy. Imagine being a widow on a farm with five little ones! How on earth would she have managed. So sweet she could travel and visit family in later years and have a little fun. By the way, do you say AWNT or ANT on your neck of the woods? Minnesotans say AWNT and now people look at me funny because South Carolinians seem to have ANTS and think i am putting on airs! :-)
ReplyDeleteYou are having fun with this site, I need to try it a bit.
ReplyDeleteMost interesting. I wish I had learned more about my Germanic heritage. My Aunt lived to 99 and she knew the details. My assumption were my Grandfather came to America about the time of the Franco Prussian War. So according to my father he was either a draft dodger, a poor peasant who owed somebody money or stolen it...Not much to go on there now...:)
ReplyDeleteYou have been successful finding some info on the Ancestry site. The story is interesting glad you came across it. Maybe you will find more info on family. Good luck in your searches, sounds like the site is fun to explore.
ReplyDeleteHi Red, Interesting story on Aunt Lucy. I have thought about giving that Ancestry thing a try but just haven't done it yet. I wonder how much it ends up costing. Have a happy weekend ahead!
ReplyDeleteThe tales that abound in our past and those of our forebears is a wondrous mine of information.
ReplyDeleteMy husband is finding out about some of his relatives too! Interesting about your Aunt Lucy!
ReplyDelete