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 al...

According to church parish records, my 4 x great grandparents on my direct paternal line, John McAra and Ann Angus were married on the second of July 1768 in Cramond. However, the Kirk Session minutes provide a little more detail than the actual date of the marriage. Extract from Kirk Session minutes: "After prayer, Sederunt the Reverend Doctor Gilbert Hamilton, Moderator, Messrs. Cleghorn, John Hay and John Black, Elders, John McAra and Ann Angus, both of this Parish, after Citation compeared* and acknowledged their irregular marriage and produced their lines dated the 2 of July 1786 at Edinburgh" * compeared is legal term in Scots Law meaning to appear in court personally or by attorney. In this case the couple appeared in person. So John and Ann had been involved in an 'irregular marriage'. At this time there were three types of irregular marriages in Scotland, all legal, but not marriages in the eyes of the church. The first type was the couple making a declarati...

Many people come from families with a long tradition of serving in the Armed Forces, others find their family only serving in times of war. Neither of my parents, nor any of my grandparents served in the forces. During WW1, both my grandfathers were 'too old' and both in "reserved occupations". These were jobs which exempted you from serving in the military as they were seen as being vital for the defence and smooth running of the country. John McAra as a miner and John Anderson as a metal and steelworker fell under this banner.  During WW2 my own dad was also in a reserved occupation , being a civil engineer. This job took him away from his native Lanarkshire and as such he spent some time during the war living down in Hayes, Middlesex and in Wrexham in Wales. While there however, he did serve in the Home Guard - I vaguely remember him mentioning some of his duties included ensuring people got safely into air raid shelters, but I am sure there was more to it than tha...

Almost everyone will know a blended family - a 'step' family formed with two partners and the children from one or both of them. Nowadays this is likely to have arisen when one or both adults have been divorced from their previous partner(s). However, although divorce today is commonplace, it wasn't always the case. Until the 20th century the only grounds for divorce in Scotland were desertion or adultery and it was not until 1976 that in law provision was made for 'divorce by mutual consent'. However, blended families have always existed - families brought together, not by divorce or separation, but usually by death. My great grandmother, Mary Boag, died three weeks after giving birth in 1869 at the age of 40. The child, a boy they named Hugh, died the day before his mother. My great grandfather, John McAra, had lost both his wife and newborn baby within 24 hours, yet he still had four children under ten years of age to care for. He likely registered both deaths at...