A pillow and duvet garden...

...since the weather forecast said hot...yes that is red ink on my pillow, I am always falling asleep writing...
Then the Met weather said imminent thunderstorm...13 mins later it was cancelled...phew...
But then a few minutes later the Met weather alerted me again...hail and lightning and more at 2pm...
Hmmm...
Met weather never mentioned anything about this wind that is getting up...

Continuing from yesterday's blip...I am still looking through the newspaper articles from 1880's 1890's, and still another 50 to go...more stuff in my Great Grandfather, my Grandma's dad...
I knew there were some secrets my Grandma held and my dad knew some of them at least. When my father and I were in the local church near Grandma's he pointed out an old grave. "That's Grandma's twin sister." Of course I am only a child at the time and I bombard him with questions. To which he said it was the family scandal, held his fingers to his lips, and said shh we will never speak of this again. As you can imagine I have thought all manner of things over the years. I found a marriage in the records for the same name as my Grandma's twin sister and the husband's name rang a bell. I checked the 1901 census. Grandma's twin sister was still living with the mum, my Great Grandma on their own...but up the road on the next farm on the same 1901 census were some gypsy caravans. And the name of one of the occupants was the same name on this marriage certificate. And the same profession. The age tallied too. I was lucky because the whole marriage certificate with all details was available. It said her father's profession too. So 100% match.
There were no family members named on the certificate.
So it looks like she ran away with the gypsies. That would have scandalised Grandma. It would definitely be going down in the world.

Sadly though, when I find her on the 1911 census she is living on her own and she is now a teacher in an elementary school.

So what happened? She says on the census she has 1 child and it is still living.

So I track down hubby in the 1911 census. He has gone back to his gypsy travelling family. He also lists 1 child and still alive, but no child with him. The child can only be a few years old.

It was a very unusual spelling for a boy's name. I found him immediately on another 1911 census and he was 3 years old and labelled as nephew to the family he was with. So I felt sad initially, but then I realised he was in a large family of children, and in a house. So I am assuming he had a stable upbringing. I don't know of course. But it is what I want to think. The surname of the family means nothing to me...so more research?

Why did she give up her child? I can only assume the marriage broke down. I am assuming she did it initially to escape and maybe excitement and maybe she was in love, or, was she in love with the idea of love? If she had not been shunned by her own family, then they might have taken care of the child while she worked. Hubby was back in the bosom of his family, still travelling in gypsy caravans, as the 1911 census labelled their abode. Another child would have made no difference to the size of that brood. So I am assuming he left and abandoned her and the small boy.

She died 20 years later, Grandma's twin sister, and someone brought the body back home. Grandma might be unforgiving but in that she would do the right thing, if only to keep up appearances. Something my father said that when he was intimating stuff over all this, gave me the understanding that she has never reconciled with Grandma. There was a knowing look in my father's eye. Thinking about it now I think Grandma had set him the task of bringing the body home. She gave him a few tasks to do, that I know of, when he was still living at home, because she thought my Grandfather was not man enough. That's another story...

Back to researching my Great Grandfather...and old newspapers...