Telling

Benjamin Thomas: Coastguard 1845

Have recently discovered my earliest known ancestor, Benjamin Thomas, who was a coast guard in Falmouth.  I have a romantic idea that my Cornish ancestors looked a little like me and my family - tall, reddish and freckled – but was rather disappointed that Benjamin’s physical description in his Seaman’s Ticket of 1845 was,

• ­         Hair: Brown
• ­         Eyes: Blue
• ­         Complexion: Fair
• ­         Marks: Pockmarked.

However, at least..

• ­         Can write: Yes

The Seamen’s Ticket system only lasted from 1845 to 1854 so I was really pleased to find Benjamin in them, particularly as he was a coast guard and not a merchant seaman.  Anyone born prior to 1837 is very hard to track because it is only at this date that national registration of Birth’s, Death’s and Marriages (BMD) became compulsory (the ID card scandal of the day).

Anyone with British ancestry will find seafaring in his or her background.  It was such a major part of British life.  Most of our imports still come by sea but the seafaring aspect of British cultural and economic life is much diminished.  It’s still very much embedded in the lingo though as I discovered a couple of years ago on my first sailing holiday in Croatia – ‘tell tails’, ‘leeway’, and about a hundred other little snippets which I hadn’t even realised came from sailing but forget now.

My happy coincidence in Portishead

I get quite excited when I get to go to places I haven’t been before so I was very pleased when I got sent to Portishead to do some depth interviews. When I got the addresses for where I was going, one of them looked very, very familiar.

West Hill, Portishead.

I realised that I had seen the words ‘West Hill, Portishead’ only two weeks before on a copy of my great grandparents marriage certificate which I had received in the post. Peter Bramidge and Dora Thomas. They had married just after the Great War. Dora had moved from Wales and was working as a domestic servant in West Hill in Portishead. We have no other connection to Portishead and I had never been there before.

It was so nice to be able to stand on the street where my great grandmother worked. My respondent was very helpful and pointed out the most likely house. He said that the house was still employing servants well into the 20^th century and he had met an old lady who had once been a servant there too. It must have been a hard life for my great grandmother, but she did have a really wonderful view! I will post a photo when I get them developed.