Annie Mellowship

I've been reading one of the family history books written by Mum.  This particular one is about a study she did of her paternal grandmother's maiden name 'Mellowship'.  It is all the more precious as it was the book Mum worked on and completed shortly before she died in 2015.

As I child I used to say I wished that 'Mellowship' was my surname and partly inspired by our like of it, Mum decided to investigate it further, in the process discovering it is a very unusual surname and hence more easy and interesting to study than other more common names.

Its been moving to read the book.  It starts with a description of the origins of the name, moves on to explore her known ancestors, and then focusses in on the life of her grandmother - Annie Mellowship (1895-1974) - pictured here with her eldest son Ernest.  My grandad (1920-2010) was one of her youngest sons and I discovered he was named 'Fredrick Charles' after one of her brothers and one of her husband's brothers both of whom were killed in the First World War.

The family has its roots in London and Surrey and in the working classes, brick making and green grocery being common occupations.  My great-grandmother worked in the Bassett's sweets factory in Wood Green (north London).  In January 1945 one of her daughters and her husband, young daughter and 3 week old baby were killed when a bomb was dropped on their home.  She and her husband were re-housed in two rooms which constituted the top floor of a house in Grange Park, Enfield.  This is where my Mum and her parents lived  (sharing with her grandparents) until Mum was 8 years old. 

I know I am so fortunate to have had the life I have had but the immensity of the improvements in standards of living and level and breadth of opportunities I have experienced , is deeply humbling.  I am so grateful to Mum for writing this book, for keeping alive the precious memories of the people of my family. 

As Mum put it 'It soon became apparent this is a history of mostly poor men and women, whose lives, for the most part, we can only glimpse through the official documents they left behind.  In many aspects their lives seem unremarkable, yet this history is as significant  and worthy of record and rememberence as those who possessed great social status and wealth and those whose lives are often more chronicled.'  She loved social history and I hope that I can add to her legacy by adding more detail to the records of the lives of the people of our family.