Heritage

In my early teens I took an interest in my family tree. It was a good time to do so as I was able to quiz my grandparents and their sisters and brothers. My grandfather on my mother's side Harry Turner was extremely supportive and interested in my efforts to find out about my heritage. In more recent times I have used ancestry.co.uk to confirm many of the snippets of information I was given and in some cases find out other facts that are further back in time than the memories shared with me.

My Great Grandparent's families were mostly from the North of England, although the Smiths themselves originate in North Berwick, Scotland about 15 miles east of Edinburgh. In 2005 I visited North Berwick, which is a beautiful fishing village on the estuary of the River Forth and wondered why my namesake Andrew Smith, a tailor by profession, had ever left there to move to Bradford, a mill town? :) 

Andrew my Great Grandfather who I was named after, was born in 1844 in North Berwick and moved to Bradford before December 1871. I know this because that is when he married Elizabeth Sharp, who was from York. These two were the parents of four girls and three boys, amongst them my Granddad John William Smith who married Annice Pogson in 1912. She was from a mining family that originated in Stalybridge, Lancashire. Both her father and grandfather had died in mining accidents. Sadly I know nothing of the Daveys, my Great Grandma Pogson's birth family.

My Great Grandfather Joseph Turner, born 1859 was a Journeyman Mason. The son of John Turner the village cobbler of Great Horton, Bradford. They lived in a house in Crossley Street, the one that had a natural well in the cellar. Each morning the neighbors came to the house to get their buckets filled with water! Harry Turner and his 3 brothers and 4 sisters, Joseph Turner and John Turner were all born in that house. Joseph Turner married Kate Jameson on Christmas Day, 1887 at Bradford Cathedral. Kate's father was the caretaker of the Opera House in Harrogate and the Jamesons lived in Parliament Street in the first house to have gas fitted.

My maternal Grandmother Daisy Fisher's family were from the Bradford area. Her father Ernest married Rosanna the daughter of Henry Carter and Rosanna Dykes. Henry was a Cabinet Maker from Huddersfield and the Rosanna Dykes was from Norfolk. The fact that all these people lives were involved in bringing my parents into the world, so that I could be born is an amazing heritage and my ability to learn much more than I have written here about them is a blessing to me. I know my roots are not just in Bradford but in other parts of the UK. The fact that I live in Sheffield seems to me like just another unfolding of my families story! :)

Beginnings!

I was born by "C Section" on 2nd November 1957 in Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK at St Luke's Maternity Hospital in Little Horton. In those days fathers were not allowed to be present at the birth of their children, instead my Dad was invited to look through a glass window into the nursery as the nurse held up the babies for the new dads to see. I was born almost three weeks late and as a result I was the largest of the babies with the littlest of the Dad's (my Dad was just 5 feet 1 inch tall). All the other Dads were claiming me as their son, till the little fella was told, I was his! :)

About a week later I was taken home to Noble Street in Great Horton where my parents lived and this house was to be where I would remain until the age of almost 23. My parents married a little later in life than some, my Dad was 33 and my Mum was 24 at the time of their wedding in August 1955. My Dad served in the Army for 12 years from 1939 to 1951 when he left his rank was drill sergeant. With his identical twin brother, they were allowed to serve together in R.E.M.E. for the duration of the Second World War, this was because they signed up before their "call up" papers arrived; they were aged 17 at the time!

My Mum left school at age 14 and went to work in the bakery at the local Co-op Grocery Store, she was larger than life and as a result was the center of attention in her large group of school friends, work colleagues and local church members. It was at a church social in October 1954 where my parents first met. They had both been sitting on a bench, when everyone but my Mum stood up, the bench became unbalanced and as a result she fell on the floor, so being the chivalrous type my Dad went to pick her up; it was love at first sight! You could say "she fell for him!" ;)

My Dad was from a large family, he had two brothers and three sisters, and my Mum was an only one! However my mother's extended family was large as her parents were both from large families. So when I began this life I was surrounded by Aunts and Uncles and many cousins! My Dad worked as a boiler man at a city center textile mill (Bradford was known globally for its woollen and worsted mills) and my Mum worked at the local Summerseats Post Office. In Noble Street and round the corner in Dirkhill Street were many elderly neighbors who were known to the family, it was a close knit local community and no doubt I was the center of attention for quite a while. :)

I have said "I was born at an early age my mother being present at the time, they called for hot water and I've been in it ever since!" but now you have heard a more detailed introduction to my life! We all have to begin somewhere and our parents, their families and the local neighbors have a major input in those formative years. It is so easy to take for granted all the blessings that surrounded us as we grew up and still surround us to this day. I am taking time right now to be thankful for the wonderful beginning this life had for me, surrounded by the love of my family and their friends. :)