Private Family Tree on Ancestry

This post is for my family members. I've been working the past couple of weeks adding ancestors and sources to my Jowers/Gilley/Langdale/Kirkpatrick private family tree on Ancestry dot com. If you are interested in seeing this family tree, leave a message here or email me or leave a message on facebook or call me. I will get in contact with you with more information on how to get access. One important thing to know is Ancestry never posts any names or information of living people in the tree. I'm the only one who sees that. This tree is not public for just anyone to see and the only people who can view it are ones I approve. I am by no means finished putting information on this tree. It's just a start.

So . . . contact me if you're interested.

Edna May Bourne Langdale

My Aunt Edna died a few months ago. She was married to Uncle George, my mother's brother. Cousin Georgina gave me permission to post the wonderful tribute she wrote that appeared on the website of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, a charity Aunt Edna supported.

Edna May Langdale

Enda May Langdale nee Bourne died on 11th April 2011. 

Mum was born and brought up in North West London and lived in Cainfield Avenue her whole life. As a girl she attended Wykeham School where she was a bright and exemplary pupil and a Prefect. Mum made long term friends, some still to this day.

During the war Mum was an evacuee and sent to the south coast to a nunnery arranged by Aunt Alice. When it became too dangerous she was sent to Western super mere [Weston-super-Mare in Somerset] , but was found starving with a jam sandwich, living in a coal hole and was promptly bought back to London, where she did experience the bombing.

Mum eventually met Dad - George. They married and together brought us up their two children Dale and Georgina. Among their many happy childhood memories are the big family Christmases that were celebrated at Aunt Peg’s or at home. The only thing we didn’t like was having to wait until the evening to open our presents.

After school Mum became a hairdresser. She worked for a number of years at Barry’s in Neasden employing all the techniques of the day such as tonging. When we came along she stayed at home to look after us, but continued to work from home cutting neighbour’s and friend’s hair. Mum was lucky to learn the style of cutting from Vidal Sassoon for Aunt Peggy. We will always remember the smell in the house on Thursday which was always perm day.

In the early 1970s Mum joined BT. She was involved in clerical work and rose to become a Higher Executive Officer. She was once invited to become part of the computer team due to her knowledge of Binary Code. Mum worked at BT until her retirement at sixty.

It was a proud day when Georgina married David in 1978. The family has now expanded to include grandchildren Mark and Alex.

There have been a number of things Mum has enjoyed over the years. She was a talented portrait painter and produced work that anyone would be proud to hang on the wall, Dad and ourselves were her models. She always loved music of all kinds and from all eras and she loved to dance. She continued to paint and dance into her latter years and she also took up knitting.

Another of Mum’s loves was shooting. She represented her club in Kiel in Germany and Fuengirola in Spain, where she came second in the ladies competition. In later years Mum’s arthritis prevented her from competing, but she still enjoyed watching Dale shoot and especially looked forward to trips to Bisley. At one time the family owned a caravan at Bisley which was painted in Mum’s colour choice – vivid blue. She enjoyed gardening, flower arranging and Bowls down at Roundwood Park playing in competitions.

There always have been dogs in the family. The last three were Skipper, a Black Labrador, Milly, the mad Patterdale terrier, and Benjamin, a Miniature Dachshund who was always at Mum’s side, following her everywhere.

Mum was a proud grandmother and she always took great pleasure from her trips to visit Mark and Alex. Mum loved her visits to Bedfordshire. The boy’s memories are of her coming to pick them up from school and their visits to London for lavish meals and play with her dogs.

There are two events in Mum’s life which both involve flying and were highlights for her. On her sixtieth birthday Dale arranged for her to go up in a hot air balloon helping her fulfil a lifelong ambition. The other flying experience took place in Canada where her nephew took her up in a plane allowing her to take the controls and once even wing tipping around the CN Tower.

Unfortunately Dementia started in her late 60s, but she was still able to enjoy holidays at the caravan, at Shirley’s in Southsea and Havant and with Gina and David and boys in Bedfordshire and Devon. In her final years she loved to sing and dance, and listened to 50’s to 70’s music till the end.

We would like to thank all for their kind words and hope that you will remember Mum in your own way.

Dale and Georgina

When I come to the end of the road

When I come to the end of the road

And the sun has set for me,

I want no rites in a gloom-filled room.

Why cry for a soul set free?

Miss me a little ~ but not too long

And not with your head bowed low.

Remember the love that we once shared.

Miss me ~ but let me go.

For this is a journey that we all must take

And each must go alone.

It’s all a part of the Master plan,

A step on the road to home.

When you are lonely and sick of heart,

Go to the friends we know

And bury your sorrows in doing good deeds.

Miss me ~ but let me go.

Author Unknown

After Glow

I’d like the memory of me

to be a happy one.

I’d like to leave an after glow

of smiles when life is done.

I’d like to leave an echo

whispering softly down the ways,

Of happy times and laughing times

and bright and sunny days.

I’d like the tears of those who grieve,

to dry before the sun

of happy memories

that I leave when life is done.

Added by: Georgina Faithful on 15 May 2011.

This tribute can be found online at the RNLI website.

http://www.friendsandrelations.com/partners/rnli/html/detail.php?id=8906

World War I Draft Registration Cards

Ancestry dot com has been celebrating 15 years of being in business and has offered free access to some of its records. Today it is World War I Draft Registration Cards. I was looking to see if I could find something new in that department, but I didn't.  I would like to share a few records I had previously downloaded for the Jowers and Gilley families from the aforementioned website.

The first card belongs to my grandfather, Hilliard Edgar Jowers. He registered for the draft on September 12, 1918. He was 36 years old at the time, married about 11 years, had 3 living children: Sammy (who died almost 3 months after the date of this registration), Hubert and Mozelle, and one child on the way who was born 4 months after the draft registration date, Thomas Henry.

Hilliard Jowers lived in the country, RFD #5, near Hartford, Geneva County, Alabama. He was a farmer. He didn't list an employer's name, so he may have been an independent farmer. His birthday was written as July 27 1880, when in fact he was born on that date in 1882. I don't know why there is a discrepancy in the year. He was of medium height with a medium build, had dark brown (D. B.) eyes and black hair.

The interesting thing about this registration card escaped me the first few times I looked at it after I initially downloaded it. My grandfather probably couldn't read or write as evidenced by the "signature" at the bottom of the left page. Sandwiched between his middle and last names is this:  X and the words "his mark." I never knew about that until I saw this card. It made me a little sad to know about it. I was 10 years old when he died and he was 75 years old. That he couldn't read or write was never discussed in my family.

He was a farmer all his life, having grown up in a farming family and farmed as an adult. He and my grandmother, a farmer's wife, raised nine children to adulthood. Today we would probably view it as a hardscrabble life, but in his later years, my grandfather was able to buy a house and land in Holmes County, Florida, near the spot in the road named Leonia. I'm not sure the exact year that happened, but most of the nine children had "left home."

The remaining World War I draft registration cards were for my grandmother, Annie Gilley Jowers' five brothers. Except for Green Gilley, I have seen my grandmother's brothers at family reunions at her home near Leonia, Florida.

Marvin Gilley, born November 28, 1879, was 39 years old when he registered for the draft. His permanent address was RFD Black, Geneva County, Alabama. That's where his wife, Lula Gilley, lived. (Lula Bell Jowers Gilley was the sister of my grandfather, Hilliard Edgar Jowers.) Marvin Gilley worked as a logger for Alabama and Florida Lumber Company in Holmes County, Florida, just over the state line. At the time of his registration, September 19, 1918, he had two sons. He was tall, of slender build, with brown eyes and dark hair.
 

Ernest Gilley lived in Holmes County, Florida when he registered on September 12, 1918. His address was RFD #1, Noma, Holmes County, Florida. He was 34 years old, married and a farmer. He was tall,  had a slender build, brown eyes and dark hair. His wife was listed as Mrs. Ernest Gilley. (My research notes show her first name was May, but I don't know her maiden surname.) He had four children at the time.

Lee Gilley was 28 years old when he registered for the draft on June 5, 1917. His date of birth was May 20, 1889 and he was born in Newlon, Alabama. (I haven't been able to locate Newlon, Alabama on a map.) He was a farmer who worked for Leon D .... (can't figure out the last name) in Hartford, Geneva County, Alabama. He had a wife and one child. According the my research his wife was named Fannie and the daughter was Ruby Lee Gilley.  He was tall, had a slender build, had brown eyes and black hair.

Warren Isaiah Gilley, born January 18, 1894, registered for the draft on June 5, 1917. He was 23 years old. He was born in Wicksburg, Geneva County, Alabama and lived in Bonifay, Holmes County, Florida at the time of the draft. He was a logger who worked for Babois Lumber Company in Bonifay, Florida. He had a wife at the time. His wife's name was Essie, according to my research. Like his other brothers he was tall with a slender build, brown eyes, black hair.

Green Gilley was the youngest of the Gilley brothers. He was born November 27, 1897 (year is unreadable on the draft and I wrote the date from my research notes).
 He was 20 years old when he registered for the draft on September 12, 1918. He was a self-employed farmer and married to Lela M. Gilley (no maiden surname listed, but I have now learned her full maiden name was Leila Maude Steverson). They lived in Hartford, Geneva County, Alabama. He was tall and slender with BLUE eyes and LIGHT hair.

While he was the youngest Gilley brother, he was the first brother who survived to adulthood to die. He was 25 years old when he died in 1923, leaving a widow and three very young children.

So . . . there you have it for the World War I draft registration cards for the Jowers and Gilley families. To my knowledge none of them participated in the war.

Ancestry dot com

I've been spending some time the past couple days working on family trees on Ancestry. I currently have two trees: 1) a public tree named Jowers/Gilley/Langdale/Kirkpatrick Family Tree and 2) a private tree named Jowers/Gilley Family Tree.

If you are a registered member of Ancestry, you can access the public tree. That tree contains barebones information for several generations of ancestors, American and British. The private tree isn't available for viewing. I'm putting detailed information on this tree.

You can get a FREE account on Ancestry.com to see the public tree listed above and take advantage of their other free things. You don't have to pay.

William and Sarah Lenny

Today I found my 3rd great grandparents (as in great great great grandparents) in the UK 1861 census!!! They are William and Sarah Lenny. It's a female line - Lenny - who married into the Kirkpatrick family. Their daughter, Maria, married James Kirkpatrick December 22, 1850. James and Maria Kirkpatrick are my grandmother's grandparents.

William Lenny was born about 1807 in Hursley, Hampshire, England.  He was 54 at the time of this census. He was a tailor. Sarah Lenny (maiden name unknown to me at the present) was born about 1801 and was 60 at the time of this census. There is no occupation listed for her. She was born in Panton, Kent, England. No children were living with them in 1861.

They lived at 243 Edward Street, Regents Park, London, England.

Look for them in the census below.