Family

Today i went to meet my Auntie Iris.
I have met her before but only as a child so i was very nervous and had butterflies.
She was really nice and talked really freely about everything we asked.
I think the first thing i asked was if they had ever found Roses grave. As she had been uried a pauper she had no headstone but apparently she is in Burngreave cemetary and so i am now on the case to find out the grave number.
She mentioned Harry, her father, and how she had tried to find him as a girl. She knew when he died. Apparently he was found underneath a hedge. He allegedly died from pneumonia but it's likely he drunk himself to death.
I asked about Green Wheel house where Mum had been born and she confirmed that they used to live there. They used to share it apparently and the lived on the ground floor. She remembers there being a very big apple tree next to the house and a little stream ran by which she used to go too and make mud pies. Below is a picture of the house and also a map from 1885 which shows the Mill and the house in situ . The outhouse to the left of the house is all that remains of the Green Mill works today.



They had to leave the house(although i'm not sure when) because they fell behind with the rent. From here i believe they went to Jenkinson street.
From looking at the 1901 census i knew that Roses parents were Alice and Ambrose. I also knew she had 2 siblings in Eveline and Alice. However it turns out that Rose was one of 10 children. In addition to the 3 there were Ethel, Freda, Frank, Fred, Tiny(not his real name i hasten to add!), Ambrose and Lillian. This is why i cannot understand why she was buried a pauper when she had so many living relatives.
Iris remembers so much about her childhood, i was amazed by her memory. She had some amazing info for me too. She let me have some sheets of paper that Doreen had given her. They were records obviously from Fulwood cottage Homes showing there dates of birth, when they first went in(26th June 1945, a month before the incident with Harry and Rose), which cottage they went into and where they moved about too, fosters and adoptees are named too and when they eventually left. This was like finding the golden ticket for me, it answered so many questions. I'll now scale the newspapers again to see if anything was written in the newspaper about the children going into care. Iris recalls that she came home from school and remembers an ambulance being outside the house. They were all taken to Lodge Moor Hospital and never returned home. They saw Rose regularly but never saw there father again.
Iris was aware that Harry had been married before and what i recently found was a child that Beatrice and Harry had. iris was also aware of this. They all have a half brother called Leslie who was born in 1930 and could still be out there somewhere.
Iris showed us some lovely pictures and she said she would get them copied for us. It felt really weird to see photographs of our grandparents, albeit only a couple. After all this time we actually know what they really looked like now. My sister however is a little bit more impatient(hard to believe) and so snapped a couple of pictures with her camera phone. The one of the little girl is my Mum! and that didn't turn out too bad. the one of Harry and Rose on their wedding day is a little bit more difficult to see.

Iris talked about her brothers and sisters. She wasn't particularly close to my mum but was and still is to Sandra, Doreen and Rita. Rita unfortunately died from Ovarian cancer last April but Doreen and Sandra and still in good health, as is Iris. Gordon turned out to be the black sheep of the family and without going into detail he did some terrible things. he died in 2006. Michael is not known to anyone as he never stayed in touch.

i think that's about it for now. I'm sure i'll remember more at a later date :) All in all it's been a good day x