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We reach out to all, regardless of Race, Colour, Creed or National Origin, with support for researching family and documenting cultural inhertance
If you are interested in anyone listed here, email us with the name, date and reference number, and we will happily do a look up, you might even get a whole tree!
Family Events for today 28 February
1718 - Birth: William LAWS-167376, Bristol Parish, VA British America
1747 - Marriage: Robert ADAMS-6511 and Mary (Mrs) LAWS-8035, Mayfair MDX UK
1759 - Marriage: Cuthbert LAWES-30688 and Isabel RICHARDSON-30689, Ryton DUR UK
1833 - Christen: Thomas LAWS (Servant) -41285,
1842 - Marriage: Henry SEDGWICK-34337 and Selina LAWS-34336, Shoreditch MDX UK
1845 - Baptism: Elizabeth Master LAWS-31590, Great Yarmouth NFK UK
1846 - Death: Elizabeth LAWS-30028, Sutton Scotney HAM
1852 - Marriage: Henry ROGERS-27543 and Dinah Eleanor LAWS-27542, Ovington NBL UK
1854 - Marriage: William WALTON-47110 and Elizabeth LAWS-47109,
1861 - Birth: James Milton LAWS (Farmer) -41184, Jewett, Cumberland Co IL USA
1866 - Marriage: Ebin Taylor LAWS-31996 and Emma Dallas MARK-31997, Fauquier VA USA
1871 - Marriage: Charles Vincent LAWS-43742 and Mary ANN MCGARREY-43743, Liverpool, NSW AUSTRALIA
1876 - Baptism: Matthew LAWS (Scholar) -3812, Bedlington NBL UK
1882 - Death: Thomas LAWES (Farmer 66 acres) 1389, Tilshead WIL UK
1884 - Marriage: Geoffrey Cecil Twisleton Wykeham FIENNES-58762 and Marion Ruperta K Murray LAWES-58758, St Mark, North Aud;ey Street, St GHS MDX (RD)
1884 - Will Proved: Robert LAWES (Servant) -1260,
1896 - Marriage: Thomas Henry LAWS-37665 and Rosa Ella HEWETT-37666, Mt Vernon, Franklin Co TX USA
1896 - Death: Luella LAWS-32004, Warrenton VA USA
1896 - Death: Louisa LAWES (Imbecile at birth)-1614, Homington WIL (St Michaels) UK
1899 - Birth: Pamela LAWS-119467, Derby DBY UK
1907 - Birth: Ernest Arthur LAWS-116071, Onehouse SFK UK
1908 - Birth: Robert Curtis LAWS-54508, Ashington NBL UK
1908 - Birth: Reginald Frederick Earle LAWS-50634,
1916 - Birth: Sidney Miller LAWS (Dock Worker) -50485, Kingston Upon Hull ERY UK
1917 - Birth: Alice LAWS-119202, Westminster MDX UK
1917 - Birth: Bertie Windsor LAWS-114988,
1918 - Death: Barrington Thomas LAWES (ARMY Private G/22441) -1060, Treviso, Veneto, ITALY
1920 - Death: John Simms LAWS-56184, Clarksburg Carroll TN UK
1926 - Burial: Mary Ann Rowell ELL (Drapers Assistant) -7698, Efford DEV UK
(My Grt Grandmother)
1931 - Death: William James LAWES-2459, Brislington GLS UK
1934 - Admon: Herbert LAWS-117265,
1938 - Death: Annie LAWES-45398, Brooke Twp., Lambton County, ONT CANADA
1941 - Will Proved: George William LAWS (Electrical Apprentice) -39126,
1941 - Miscellaneous: Evelyn Mary LAWS-39121,
1943 - Marriage: John Robert LAWS -7648 and Margaret Dorethy MOONEY- 7650, Whinchmore Hill MDX UK
(My Parents)
1944 - Residence: Alfred Harry LAWS-57507, Fulham MDX UK
1944 - Death: Jacqueline J LAWS (Civilian War Dead)-45096, Fulham MDX UK
1945 - Miscellaneous: Edward James LAWS (ARMY L/Cpl 2061525 REME) -121046,
1953 - Marriage: Duane Marvin LAWS (Cert. marriage counselor Mich/ Educator) -39231 and
Jo Ann MITCHELL-39232,
1955 - Birth: Michael James LAWS-118605,
1957 - Burial: Charles O LAWS (PFC US Army) -37913, Beverley NJ USA
1964 - Birth: Matthew Thurlow LAWS-124489,
1971 - Birth: Tanya Marie LAWS-44056, Kings Lynn NFK UK
1976 - Burial: Jean LAWS-35230, Sydney NSW UK
1987 - Birth: Heather Maree LAWS-54310, Sydney NSW AUSTRALIA
1993 - Death: Rose Myrtle LAWS-48729,
1996 - Death: Evelyn LAWS-125113,
1997 - Death: Sylvia Sadler LAWS-167734, Newcastle upon Tyne NBL UK
1997 - Death: Norman Ian LAWS-125123, Gateshead DUR UK
1998 - Burial: Victor LAWS-110667, Stockton-On-Tees DUR UK
2006 - Death: Tobie LAWS-34080, St Clair IL USA
MISC
1806 - Death: Elizabeth PEARSON-34167, Feltwell NFK UK
1814 - Baptism: John Summers WOODFORD-24419, Iwerne Courtney DOR
1846 - Birth: Jane A MARQUESS-5815, Hamsterley DUR UK
1849 - Birth: Charles Winthrop BLISS-55333, Northampton MS USA
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A suburban childhood of the Twenties
seen from the Ninteen Nineties
by John Robert Laws 1921-2008
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A Child of the Twenties
A suburban childhood of the Twenties
seen from the Ninteen Nineties
by John Robert Laws 1921-2008
Part 2.
The cat which had used the table leg as a scratching post was
known by the unlikely name of Ma. It appears that I christened it with the only
word in my vocabulary at a very early age. It was an undistingushed tabby which
would catch the occasional unwary mouse but would spend more time snoozing in
front of the fire. It seemed that every house had mice at that time. Food was
more acccessible before fridges and freezers.
The kitchen was decorated in the deco of the period. The
matchboarding of the lower part of the walls was painted a light brown like the
dresser, and the upper walls were done in a strong cream gloss. I'm ptretty
sure there were lace curtains the same as the rest of the house. Just a touch
of an earlier period was the fringe to the mantle piece where the tea caddy (an
ornamental tin), the candlesticks and the spill jar stood. The fire guard had a
nice brass rim at the top, well polished by the constant touching of handsand
glistened from the fire and the gaslight. Behind it was the black kitchen
range, a solid fuel stove with two ovens and a back boiler for hot water. Much
of the cooking was done on it in the winterusing heavy old iron cooking pots
which must have been heirlooms. It the only heating in the house till late
afternoon unless the bedroom gas fires were used to dress by. The kitchen stove
was lit at six in the morning normally by Lottie, though I remember my
dad doing it on one occasion with me looking on. Everyone else must have
been out of action I reckon.
The scullery next to the kitchen saved the yellowish shallow sink
and the black iron gas cooker with its brass taps from spoiling the kitchen. It
was definately a workplace. the built-in copper had a fire below it to boil the
wash. the mangle was enormous with big wooden rollers to get the water out
before and after rinsing. the corrugated washboard had not yet been
passed on to the skiffle group. Clothing must have been tough to withstand the
battering. It all had to be ironed of course which was done on the kitchen table
on the ironing cloth conveniently kept in its end drawer. Two heavy flat-irons
were used one in use while the other was reheated on the gas cooker. No
thermostats on these, a drop of spit on the finger applied to the hot iron
would tell whether the sizzle was about right.
The one convenience, so to speak, about the scullery was the
downstairs loo was entered from it. At that time they were normally out in the
garden waiting for the first hard frost to put them out of action. Indeed so
were most of those of the houses built in the larer building boom of the early
thirties.
There was one other work area, the coal cellar, prohibited to the
infant population. This too was better than the thirties houses which had coal
bunkers in the garden from which the fuel must be fetched come rain snow or
shine. The descent to the cellar through a door in the hall passage was
steep to go down and perhaps steeper to climb up laden with a bucket of coal,
so some may dispute my feeling that it was better than going out in the rain.
The coal came into the cellar through the coal hole in the top
front step which was recessed into the house to give a small porch with the
iron cover of the coal hole in the centre. Four of five sandstone steps led up
from street level and the coalman would carry his enormous sack up and
upend it over the hole. Needless to say, this spouiled the pristine cleanliness
of the whitened step and was not a popular event. Personally I liked to see the
patient carthorse observing the proceedings while digging into his nosebag and
enjoying the enforced rest. Having delivered his orders, the coal man would
patrol the streets calling 'Coal' at intervals in the hope of casual customers.
Much the same perhaps as the 'butanero' delivering gas in today's
Spain, though he needs no call, the clatter of his lorry enough to rouse the
customers.
As well as the coal store there was plenty of space in the cellar
with a sort of second room into which a feeble light filtered bt a small window
below the 'front room' bay. I remember it as a junk store but maybe it was just
things one couldn't throw away. Perhaps the most valuable tning in the cellar
was the cold tap which didn't freeze even in the coldest snap when everybodies
pipes were frozen and standpipes had to be put up in the streets.
As well as the coal store there was plenty of space in the cellar
with a sort of second room into which a feeble light filtered bt a small window
below the 'front room' bay. I remember it as a junk store but maybe it was just
things one couldn't throw away. Perhaps the most valuable tning in the cellar
was the cold tap which didn't freeze even in the coldest snap when everybodies
pipes were frozen and standpipes had to be put up in the streets.
If the cellar was inelegant, the other rooms were much better.
After the kitchen, the most used room for living was the 'front room'
often called the dining room. today it would be called the living room but room
usage in middle class houses was different then, mainly due to the lack of
central heating. In cold weather a fire would be lit in the front room in the
late afternoon on weekdays or well before lunch on weekends. Its heat output
could only be controlled by stoking it up or letting it burn down with a
little bit of draught control at the front and the alternatives of feeding it
with lumps or slack.
The tiled fireplaces of the thirties and forties had not arrived,
the fire was ornamented with tiled inserts on either side, enclosed by an iron
surround. Above it the overmantle enclosed a big mirror and supported a heavy
green onyx clock in a Palladium style with a gilt dial and ormolu mounts.
If this were not enough, it was flanked by a pair of blue-brown Doulton glazed
vases which served as spill holders.
It all belonged to a rather earlier age, even at that time, the
product of a rather late marriage before WWI of a couple raised in late
Victorian times. Furniture was good and solid, even a dining chair took a bit
of lifting, but there was no fear of it wearing out or falling apart and the
room was big enough to hold a lot of it. As it was really a living room rather
than a dining room, the fire had a large overstuffed armchair on either side
and there was a matching sofa along the opposite wall. One recess beside the
chimney breast was occupied by a tall glazed mahogany bookcase and the other
held a dropfront coal scuttle which provided a little table top beside the
chair. An enormous mahogany sideboard sat against the wall opposite the window,
the back of its tall overmantle filled by a mirror. tapered square columns
supported the tester style top on which stood a reproduction bronze statue of
an athete. I suppose the original statue must be greek but although some thirty
years or so later I spotted a full size replica in a public park in Liege, I
remain in ignorance.
Ornaments abounded and on the sideboard were an epergne for fruit
and flowers and a couple of silver plate and glass urns which never contained
anything. More useful was the plated silver stand to hold the soda syphon
and the plated vegetable dishes sitting on the long lacey cloth.
'Cleaning the plate' was a regular chore and but one of many labour intensive
housekeeping of those days. There was of course a heavy mahogany dining table
and half a dozen chairs for the main purpose of the room. Apart from mealtimes,
a dark crimson chenille tablecoth with a fancy fringe all round covered the
table and in the middle stood another epergne, plated and just for flowers this
time. Last but not least the obligatory aspidestra sat in a magnificent state
of growth on an ornately carved ebony stand in the window bay, its pot enclosed
by a handsome china jardinaire of deep blue and white. from this window at dusk
the lamplighter could be seen on his rounds lighting the gas street lights one
by one with a long pole he carried over his shoulder.
To be continued tomorrow
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With grateful thanks to Simon Knott for permission to reproduce his photographs on this site see :-http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/
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