I was looking back at some old photos I had and found these of my grandmother and her sisters. They were sent to me by a distance relative in Canada who saw an inquiry I posted on a genealogy website a couple years ago. I feel very lucky to have them because I never saw them before and I don't know anyone in my immediate family who had these pictures. In fact, I didn't even know my grandmother had sisters!
To the best of my knowledge, these photos were taken in England when each of the girls became engaged. Since they were all taken around 1900, the clothing they wore and the fact that they had photos taken at all says to me that the family had money--at least by the standards of the day.
The first photo is my paternal grandmother, Charlotte Pearson Ashdown. I never knew her because she died before I was born, and my dad didn't talk much about her. I think he had bittersweet memories of her because he loved her a lot and he missed her.
I remember him talking about her fig pudding (an English favorite) and how she used to fix it at Christmas. I remember him saying she had red hair when she was younger, too. I'm surprised no one in my family has red hair, at least no one I knew.
But by far the best story about my grandmother happened when they were preparing to come to America. My grandfather had already come over by ship to find work and a house. He sent for my grandmother and their six children: Silas, Nellie, Frank, Ivy, Florence and Stanley (my dad). They had two little girls who lived with them, too, but since they were only foster-parenting and hadn't legally adopted the girls, they couldn't come with them. I never heard any stories about these girls except that it broke my grandmother's heart to have to leave them behind. After I was in London and visited Kew to research family history, I discovered that my grandparents had two other children, little girls, who died within their first two years of life. I often wondered if that's why my grandmother opened her home to the other little girls, but since there's no one left in my family to talk about it, that will forever be left to conjucture.
Anyway, back to the story about coming to America. My uncle Silas, who was at that time 16 years old, went with my grandmother to purchase the tickets for the trip. When they got to the ticket office, the salesman tried to sell my grandmother tickets on a brand new ship that was setting sail on her maiden voyage. Did I mention that the year was 1912? Can you guess what they name of the ship was? That's right! The Titanic! My grandmother would not hear of it, arguing that the ship was too large and was for rich people, not them. She absolutely would not be talked into buying those tickets, but bought ones for the U.S.S. Philadelphia, which set sail in August of that year. (Good thing Grandmum had that gut feeling about the ship or else I wouldn't be here and you wouldn't be reading this blog!)
I don't know much about my aunts in the next photos, except that they were sisters. The Thwaites settled in Canada and one of their relatives is who sent me the photos. The first photo is Alice Pearson Chappell and the second is Rebekah Kate Pearson Thwaites. I have a story about Rebekah, but I'll save that for another time.
