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May 2008
"L'Angleterre est une nation de boutiquiers." ~ NapoleonWelcome to the May issue of FTF Magazine which is looking at member's shop keeping and business owning ancestors. In addition, Muggins in Sussex describes the occupation and liberation of Jersey.
The vast majority of images in this issue have been donated by FTF members and the magazine team would like to take this opportunity to thank all those contributors, as well as the authors of the articles, whose efforts all go to make the magazine a great success!
In this issue, we also take a look at member's 'Family Treasures' - possessions passed down through the generations into the hands of a keen family history researcher! Three members tell us the stories behind their family heirlooms. More of these stories will follow in next month's issue.
| A Nation of Shopkeepers | Butcher, Baker and Milliner.
Our traditional image of a pretty village centre, inhabited by the butcher, baker, candlestick maker and perhaps a milliner for a Jane Austen character to buy a new bonnet from, evolved slowly from the middle ages and only really came into being in the 19th century.
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| The Ironmonger | Uncle Sid's Ironmongery Shop
In the 17th Century Lowestoft was a prosperous port. The rich merchants built houses high on the cliff overlooking the sea and the lower town. Lowestoft grew and prospered and many of the merchants' houses became shops.
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| The Shoemaker | Following in his father's footsteps
On my dad’s side of the family there were definitely four generations of boot and shoemakers, and one of my great grandfather’s grandchildren knew the boot and shoemaking trade, although he didn't take it on as a career, as he was a leather merchant until the 1940s.
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| The Baker |
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Learned from her uncle
During the Second World War my mum, her sisters and parents were evacuated from Eastbourne to Thrupp in Gloucestershire, where my grandfather, a carpenter by trade, worked in a local aircraft factory.
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| The Grocer |
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"The Grocers, oh the Grocers"
In one of my favourite parts of Charles Dickens’ 'A Christmas Carol' the ghost of Christmas Present takes Scrooge through the streets of London, and just before they reach the Crachitts’ there is an evocative description of a grocer's shop at Christmas.
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| The Coal Merchant | Ewing’s Coal Business
William Ewing and his wife Elizabeth Duncan are my great x2 grandparents on my paternal grandmother’s side. They married in Newton Ayr, Ayrshire, Scotland on the 31st December 1849, when they were both 17 years old.
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| The Bookseller | At last, he's not an ag lab!
Little did I know that when I started researching my husband's family tree that I would cause him so much strife! It started when I discovered that his grandfather was discharged from WWI with glue ear.
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| On May 9th 1945 the Union Flag was raised at the Pomme d'Or |
 | The Liberation of the Channel Islands
On May 9th 1945 the Union Flag was raised at the Pomme d'Or. For the islanders of Jersey, this is one of the most important days in their history. On 1st July 1940 the island was invaded and occupied by around 11,500 German troops (about one for every three islanders), following the bombing and strafing of the main town, St Helier. One of my relatives (I shall call him John) had gone from England to live on the island a year earlier.
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| Family Treasures |
Marjorie's Ring
When I was about 13 years old, I was visiting my grandparents' house and we were watching the television programme, the Antiques Roadshow. They showed a beautiful ring, which was quite simple, with three small diamonds in it. My nan said that she had one just like that which used to belong to her mother-in-law.
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Mary's Story
A number of years ago my mother was very interested in her family tree and spent some time tracing her relatives here in New Zealand. Her great grandparents, immigrants from England and Ireland, had all settled in the South Island of New Zealand, but her parents had both moved to the North Island, where they met and married.
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 | Granny’s postcard collection
When we finally cleared my father’s house I rediscovered my Granny’s postcard collection. Some were in a couple of rather dog-eared albums and others were loose. I remembered playing with them as a child, and my daughter had also looked at them and enjoyed rearranging them. Now that I know much more about the family (my father’s side), the postcards took on a whole new meaning for me. My daughter gave me a nice new album to keep them in and I began the long task of sorting them...
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