Second cousins of my grandparents: a window on times past and right now the present

No question I have fond thoughts of my grandparents. They (mostly) lived in my era, and they also lived in the previous, fascinating, era of the early-mid twentieth century. They knew older people. All four grew up in towns. But even towns weren't that industrial back in the previous generation. Before long you are back in the countryside, which feels a healthier place to research, and definitely easier, even if the lives they lived back then are more illusory. My own history on farms and rural landscapes around Britain in 1990s informs my view, as does the many diaries I've read, some published, some not. The January Man (2018) and Village School (1955) and others just about get us back to this epoch.

Grandparents' second cousins  - they give me a full tour. So let's hop on.

Maternal grandfather (born 1925); these are the second cousins of his I met: Doris Prosser-Evans (first contact 1991 near Swansea), Tom Davies (at his caravan on the Exe estuary 1992), Annie Powell (as I came off the hills 1995 Morriston), Richard Lamont Shugg (missed him 1990s), Barbara Vanstone (c. 1998 Plymouth she's genetically closer than the third cousin that she really is), Jean Hewitt (c. 1998 Weston-super-Mare). I corresponded with several more. And then the final surprise of Hazel by post in about 2004, the final link, granddaughter of the mysterious 'Mrs Hubbard' on our family tree, 15 years before DNA finally confirmed that connection. Her death in 2019 brings down the lights on this generation.

Tom had worked for many years as a pharmacist, with his first day of work age 20 being when war broke out (1939). He and his wife were the first generation to have this thing called retirement, and were contented to be travelling down to the Exe estuary in their caravan.

Maternal grandmother (born 1921); these are the second cousins of hers that I met on the maternal side: Joan Waldron (by post and phone only 1992); Anita Hardenburg (1999 Leatherhead); Mary Lintott (1999 St Albans); Florence Headworth (via son 2006); May Smith (2014 Romford). I didn't meet Florence Headworth but she passed useful messages to me. Then on the paternal side: Dick Padfield (by post and phone only 1992); Hilda Hunt (ditto); Kingsley Padfield (2000 Ashford Kent), and a few others by post, grandchildren of the highly mustached William Haine Padfield (born 1849). The list of the 'missing' on this line is as compelling: Philip Bell, who closed the extraordinary Bell saga in USA, 1977 Oregon, leaving my grandmother as his closest living relative. Also featuring in my blog 'end of the line' is Treasure Peach (third cousin twice over) who had the horrific duty of burning his history, as his line would close no heirs. Muriel House (1895-1993) another third cousin twice over, was '98 and living in Toowoomba' and probably met my grandmother's great-great-uncle Haine in another century and another lifetime. We think there is just one second cousin remaining - sole representative of more than fifty grandchildren - living in Northamptonshire.

May Smith grew up in a close-knit community of streets in Bethnal Green - all now gone, her own mother of Huguenot descent being born in the same property. She was a 'Cockney'. She recounted many of the people that lived in her street in the 1939 register, as well as details of the caravanning they had around Northamptonshire with the extended family. The closest she came to our shared Norfolk ancestry was going to visit Diss in Norfolk where her hard-working father had been born, but on getting home they realised it wasn't Diss, it was Deopham!

Paternal grandfather (born 1902); second cousins were a distant dream for this Irish grandfather, with the earliest mutual forebear being born about 1790. (One such cousin was a potato farmer's wife in northern Maine, long since deceased.) However, an old notebook revealed in 2004 that Loretta Brodie, ancient retired telegraphist, in South Boston USA, from the 1790 line, was likely still alive in 1970. In fact she was not-dead-yet in 2004, but this fact only emerged later. I have now seen the beautiful gravestone she prepared for herself and her family. In 2015, I found a former neighbour, up a ladder, of another second cousin, Peggy (South Boston too), but she had died some time prior. Against the odds though, with a helping hand from Irish late motherhood, a second cousin named Geraldine was living in Massachusetts, little did I know, but this connection was only revealed some years later through DNA after she had died. Old father time has snatched further connections from me, but that's ok, we are going back a lot of years, and have grabbed a few things from him too. We're even.

Maternal grandmother (born 1905); considering her cousins pre-dated Mussolini and Maynard Keynes, I expected nothing on this line: her second cousins in Liverpool, the Draycotts, were long gone. Due to a rejuvenated great-uncle (born 1836), my research led to a surprise second cousin John Ingledow (1921) who I believe I did hear from by email in about the year 2005. I learnt too late that others from this line had recently passed away in Manchester, at an advanced age. Grandma's remaining three grandparents had no siblings, or so I had thought. Then in about 2006 it emerged great-aunt Mary Ann had a young son Walter Gregory living with her, but oh blow! he was eventually identified as a step-grandson. So Grandma's mother Henrietta had NO first cousins, and that was that!

Except in 2021, when the identity of Henrietta's birth grandfather was identified through DNA. Astonishingly, Dorothy and Irene Potts (born 1920s), his legitimate great-grandchildren, appear to be still alive in Canada (2022), in their twilight years. They are grandma's half-second cousins, and a great place to conclude. There will be no more chapters.

Collectively these folk are the vessels by which our 3rd great-grandparents and their history have poured down to us.