Genealogy Chat

Well all I can say is, that I'm fortunate at age of 77, can remember vividly back to 1935, and also tales from Aunts and Uncles and Grandparents relating to lIfe back as far as 1890. Perhaps I'm blessed. Pete

It helps if your deceased relatives were sentimental! My grandmother could not bring herself to throw things away. My grandfather died in 1947, before I was born, yet I remember going to her house and in the cloakroom/downstairs loo there hung his coats and hats well into the 1960s! She had three daughters - my mother being the eldest - and she kept things like their old Brownie uniforms, etcs. Needless to say she had lots of photos, and my sister and I are lucky to have many of them. I also proudly possess 3 diaries written by my grandfather, whom I never knew, for 1931, 1932 and 1933. He mentions his work slightly (he was in the Air Ministry), but most of it is taken up with reports of the children growing up, my mother at boarding school, and two family deaths - one being my great-grandmother. So I have a vivid account of my great-grandmother's last year. His accounts of family holidays in Cornwall are wonderful, and I have such a sense of his personality - humurous, intelligent and devoted to my grandmother and children. I prize this even more as on other branches all personal mementos seem to have been discarded long ago.