JARVIS
-
Misheard, Misremembered, Passed Down
I do love a good mondegreen. What’s a mondegreen? The term was coined in the 1950s by American writer Sylvia Wright, who recalled that as a child, her mother had read her a Scottish ballad. The original lyric read, ‘They hae slain the Earl o’ Moray / And laid him on the green.’ But Wright Continue reading
-
Missing census entry as a key
The puzzle For many years I couldn’t find my grandfather Sidney Walter JARVIS (1889-1986) in the 1891 census. He would have been just three weeks short of his second birthday when the census was taken on 5 April 1891. By the time of the 1901 census the family are in Sheffield. The record shows his Continue reading
-
My Grandparents’ Golden Wedding
Marriage… My CLARK grandparents were childhood sweethearts. Sadly though the story of where they now met is lost. Perhaps at school – their Girls and Boys Junior schools were next to each other; perhaps through the Church where grandma became a Sunday School teacher; or perhaps simply through growing up in neighbouring streets. Before they Continue reading
-
Books you might not have read
The internet brings much uninvited rubbish and a few hidden gems. One such jewel was a 100 page publication that had hitherto somehow quite escaped my attention, namely James Haffenden’s 1820 Account of that Most Excellent Cordial and Restorative Medicine, de Coetlogon’s Vulnerary Styptic and Balsamic Tincture, which Is Prepared (Only) and Lately Much Improved Continue reading
-
Hop picking in Kent
My great grandad Charles William JARVIS (1861-1940) never seemed to hold down a job for very long. I’ve inherited twenty-two postcards showing scenes of hop picking in Faversham. The cards have been heavily glued into some sort of scrapbook and then taken out.One of the cards has in feint pencil on the back, ‘Bought in Continue reading
-
My Grandad’s war poem
My grandad – Sidney Walter JARVIS (1889-1986) – never spoke about his experiences in the First World War. Growing up in Kent Sidney was a sickly child, diagnosed as having ‘a shadow on the lung’ and – as he used to joke to us long after his ninetieth birthday – his mother was told, ‘if Continue reading
My Ancestors 