Roots, shoots and stories

In 2022, The Folly, a museum in the South Yorkshire Dales, ran an exhibition entitled " Three generations of studio photography 1864-1960", featuring digitised images from their recently acquired 'Horner Collection.' The Horner photographers are my daughter-in-law Lucy's 2 x great grandfather, his brother and one of his sons. It had been with funding from the Arts Council/Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant support and successful crowdfunding that this exhibition had come about. The collection comprises over 1000 photographs depicting the people of Settle in Yorkshire and the surrounding area.  Michael Horner (1843-1869) had started his photography business in Settle in 1864 after having spent four months working in one of the leading photographer's studios in Manchester. He shared premises with his father, Thomas Horner, who was a painter, gilder and glazer, so it must have been quite cramped. By 1865 he was advertising stereoscopic pictures and postcar

My mum's name was Helen, but for as long as I can remember my dad called her Nellie and as a child, my dad and I used to sing 'Nellie the elephant' together, in a nice way, not unkindly.  My dad's brother George also addressed her as Nellie and, although we never called her that when talking to her, both my husband Martin and I referred (and still refer to her) as Nellie.   But not everyone called her that. Her brother and sisters called her Ellen. Her friends used her 'real' name Helen. My dad's name was John. You wouldn't think there was much that anyone could do to change that, but his sister in law, George's wife, Margaret always called him Jake. And she also called her husband, George, Mac! John (Jake), Helen ( Nellie, Ellen) George (Mac) and Margaret. My paternal grandmother's name was Christina and virtually all of her children who had children themselves named a daughter Christina. I had 4 cousins christened Christina, all of whom ended u

My husband Martin's great grandparents, Jozef Ciupka and his wife Joanna Kozlowska lived in Gliwice, Poland for the latter part of the 19th century. We do not know whether they inherited any of their businesses, but they came to own land in Gliwice and elsewhere, a granary and mill and we have learned they also bred elite horses for the wealthy in Germany and in Russia, including the Russian Tzars. Ciupka family circa 1904 Their wealth and influence was such that they have a street in the city named after them. Family photograph In the later 1890s, the family moved from Gliwice to Nieszawa, a village north of Warsaw on the River Vistula. They had land on either side of the river and a private ferry. On the eastern side of the river they had a mill. Their house on the other side of the river was three stories high and had eighteen rooms. This is where Martin's grandmother, Janina, was born. However, within a decade or so the family moved again, while retaining all the property t

 A few years ago, I came into the possession of a family bible. It was the family bible of my paternal grandparents, John McAra and Christina Walker. Until her death in 2018, the bible had been in the hands of my Aunt Inez, widow of my Uncle Will McAra. When I started enquiring as to its whereabouts, I found that it was her grandson, John, who now had it. John himself had no real interest in it at all, so he was quite happy to hand it over to me. However, it was, to say the least, in a bit of a state. The front cover was completely detached and there were many loose pages as the spine of the book was also damaged and detached. I had no choice but to take it to a book repairer in Glasgow, where it was repaired as best it could be. The bible itself had been originally published in Glasgow in the late 19th century. In Victorian times it was common for Christian families to have such a large bible in which they could record events such as births, marriages and deaths. The one I have also h