The Greenwood Tree – September 2024
Posted on 25th August 2024
The theme of the September issue of The Greenwood Tree is My Favourite Ancestor. EditorPaul Radford previews the edition which will be mailed to members at the end of August and which SDFHS members can already view or download from the Members’ Area of the Society’s website.
Perhaps it was inevitable that an edition focussing on My Favourite Ancestor would throw up some extraordinary characters. If you like to read about people who defied the social norms and mores of the day, particularly in the supposedly straight-laced Victorian era, this issue will not disappoint.
Karen Hansen tells the story of her 4Xgreat-grandfather who had a predilection for ladies named Elizabeth, having illegitimate children with two women by that name before marrying a third Elizabeth, who just happened to be his brother’s widow. Wendy Morgan’s great-grandmother had a philandering husband who thought nothing of impregnating his servants and then expecting his wife to bring the children up in the family home.
You might think this edition could be renamed Men Behaving Badly but there are women here too whose life choices might be frowned upon by those of a judgmental nature. Patricia Fear writes about a woman who left her husband and moved in with a married soldier, even going as far as to ‘borrow’ the wife’s name and keeping it for the next 30 years, even when she married another man much later.
Dawn Sharman’s Great Nana Gertie was a feisty lady who divorced her husband and, when asked by a judge if he had beaten her, replied: “No, but I would happily have beaten him.” She went on to adopt her lover’s surname as her own for 30 years before he was free to marry her.
More than a dozen members responded to the Favourite Ancestor theme, providing an interesting variety of great characters. I included my own paternal grandmother as my personal favourite, relating her oft-told tale of the day she picked up a broomstick and chased a Nazi officer out of her grocery shop during World War Two. She is also on the front cover.
In our continuing interview series, The Greenwood Tree editor meets Nicola McConnell, family history expert at The Dorset History Centre who readily admits that her job is also her passion.
Regular features include Somerset Spotlight, this time on Wedmore, the SDFHS Photo Project, Book Reviews and Letters to the Editor.
Paul Radford