The Lion The Witch and a Photograph Album

When I was a little girl, my dad’s mother Nana Laura had a wardrobe which I always imagined was taken out of the Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe. Just like out of the story, this wardrobe held something magical for me, In the form of a mysterious book that whenever it was opened played a little melody, and should my Dad be present it always seemed to make him cry. I often wondered over the years what this book was and why it made my Dad cry. Sadly in 2001 my Dad passed away very suddenly from a Aortic Aneurysm, a few weeks later whilst going through some of his papers and belongings that had originally belonged to my Nana I came across the “Mysterious Book”. It wasn’t a book at all but a beautiful if slightly battered Victorian Photograph Album that still played its haunting melody when you opened the pages.

The album was illustrated with seaside scenes and one of them reminded me of the quay in Wells-Next-Sea in Norfolk (a place I had spent many happy holidays with my parents, nana, and brother.) It appeared that many of the photographs had been taken out as it held just six or seven photographs one of which caught my attention. For some reason I  couldn’t explain I was drawn to this one photograph and remember looking at it and actually saying out loud to the man in the photograph “ Who are you”?.

The only clue to the man in the photograph was that the photograph had been taken in Thetford, Norfolk. For some totally illogical reason I made the connection of Norfolk with the sea and decided that this man was a “Old Sea Captain”. I had no idea who he was, or what connection he had with my Family History but decided I was going to find out and so began my journey into the world of Family History.

I knew there was a connection between my father and Norfolk because we spent a lot of holidays there when I was a child, and my Dad had told us many time that he had been christened in the same church as Lord Nelson.  I also had a vague memory of us visiting some old  people who lived in a house at the side of a little stream. There were ducks swimming up and down and to get into the house you had to use a little wooden bridge. When I mentioned this visit to my Mum she told me that the people we had visited, were my fathers godparents Aunt Nellie, Aunt Edith, and Uncle Horace and their mother Aunt Tottie and that they had lived in a little Village called South Creake near Fakenham and that my dad used to spend virtually all of his school holidays with them at their house. She couldn't remember their last names only that they had been brothers and  sisters.  I assumed that my Granddad had befriended these people whilst serving in the R.A.F during world war2, or that perhaps his family had come from Norfolk.

Ignorance Isn't Blissful

In June 2002 we decided to go to Norfolk on holiday. I was still grieving for my Dad and it was a place I knew I would feel a little closer to my Dad who had loved spending time there. I also wanted to show my children the places I had spent my childhood holidays and had so much fun. We booked a cottage in South Creake, and decided that whilst there we would have a look through the church records and perhaps ask around for anyone who might have some information. Sadly there was no-one available at the time to check the records with. So we asked at the local pub the Ostrich Inn if anyone remembered a family called Lord or a family of two sisters and a brother called Nellie, Tottie and Horace. But again we hit a brick wall, in the end we came home a few days early because my daughter was poorly, and I put the whole thing out of my mind it just felt like tracing my family History was too much like hard work. Then in July 2004  I bought a scrap book and decided that it would be nice to be able to put the Family Tree inside for my children's children to one day look at it, and so I started again to try to trace my family.  I dug out the papers that I had found after dads death, one of which was  my Granddad Lord’s birth certificate. This gave me his mothers Maiden name (which was Johnson) and her age, a certificate of employment for my Granddad (for when he left school) , my Granddads wedding certificate, and a receipt for the purchasing of a grave which his mother bought in 1943 at the time of his fathers death.

I then rang my dad’s cousin who lives in Lancaster and asked if she knew anything about my Dad’s side of the family in particular his godparents from South Creake. She told me that all she knew was my Dad used to spend his holidays there and that she also had been taken to visit people there when she was a little girl, but most importantly that it was my Dads Grandmother Martha Ann who came from there. Armed with this new information I searched the internet and found the FreeBDM website where I searched for a Martha Ann Johnson and found a entry for her being born in 1875 and her birth being registered at Docking (which was the registration district for North Creake and South Creake). Once I had obtained her birth certificate I was then able to search the census records which I did using Ancestry.co.uk and was able to build up a picture of Martha's family before they moved to Lancashire. Unfortunately I was still no closer to finding out who the “Old Sea Captain” was in my photograph.

By this time I had traced Martha’s family to Lancashire. I had found all the relevant marriage entries for Martha's marriage to my Great Granddad and for her brothers and sisters. One of these was for Martha’s youngest sister Susannah, she had married a Lewis Whittam in 1906. I was chatting to my mum one day and happened to mention the name Whittam and to my surprise my mum said she knew a lady that had been called Whittam before her marriage and she was sure my Nana had once told her that Brenda and my Granddad were related. After a lot of too-ing and fro-ing  I managed to track this lady down and rang her one Sunday afternoon. I explained to her that she didn’t know me but she knew my Mum and could she tell me was her mother called Johnson before her marriage. To my delight she said “Yes” her mother had been called Johnson and she was indeed related to my Granddad and that they were in fact cousins. Bingo! I felt like I had won the lottery.

Identity Parade

I visited Brenda and took some of the photographs with me from the Photo album to see if she could recognise anyone in them. Fortunately she did recognise my Granddad as a little boy because she remembered her mother having the same photograph hanging on the wall at home. But she didn’t know who my “Sea Captain” was or anything about the Johnson family before they moved to Bacup, only that her mother had once received a postcard from her elder sister Emma who was staying in North Creake about 1912.

There was another photograph showing my Dad aged about 6months and I had a feeling that the photograph had been taken either just prior to his christening or the day after his christening and  therefore must have been taken in South Creake. Sadly Brenda couldn’t help me identify any of the people in this photograph either apart from my Granddad and Nana and the lady in the white blouse who was my Dad’s Grandma Martha Ann. She did say however that I could contact a man named Alan (who was also her cousin through the Johnson side of the family), he was the grandson of  Martha's eldest sister Emma, and she was sure Alan also used to spend a lot of his holidays in Norfolk as a child due to having bad asthma attacks. So again I  found myself making one of my “You don’t know me but” … phone calls. Alan like Brenda had very little to tell me about the Johnson and their connections with Norfolk but he said he would have a look through some of his mothers things and see if he could find anything. To my surprise a couple of weeks later Alan rang me and said he had looked through his late mothers papers and had found a name, address and telephone number for a lady called Mollie in North Creake, he thought the information was quite old and probably would be out of date now but I could give it a try. The chances were that this lady would now be dead but I decided to look up the name using Directory Enquiries service online and to my great surprise found that there was a lady of the same name still registered as living at the address Alan had given me. I felt a little apprehensive about making another of the “ You don’t know me calls” especially as I thought the lady would surely be quite elderly by now. But after a few sleepless nights wondering what to do I decided to ring the number. I can say I have never been so nervous in my life waiting for the phone to be picked up. When the lady on the other end did pick up I explained that I was doing my Family History and did she know of Martha Ann Johnson. To my delight she did and after chatting for hours we discovered that we had more in common than just Martha Ann. My Dad’s godparents Nellie, Tottie and Horace where Mollies cousins and their last name was Howell!

 I asked her if she would mind if I sent some of the photographs I had found to see if she could recognise any of the people and she said she would be pleased to do so. So off to the post office I went with several photographs including my “ Sea Captain” and a photograph of my Dad, I believe had been taken just before his christening and therefore must have been  taken in Norfolk. A few days later a very excited Mollie (now aged 88)  rang me and her first words to me where “You wont believe this but the lady holding your Dad in the photograph is my Mother, the lady with the dark coloured cardigan is his godmother Aunty Nellie, and the old man that you keep calling a “Sea Captain” is my Grandfather Zacharias Walker". 

And So To Zacharias

Zacharias Walker wasn’t actually a sea captain he was a Tailor. Up until recently I knew very little else about him other than he was a lay preacher and was also the District Secretary of the Agricultural Labourers Union in 1871, when the union was in it’s infancy. Through bits and pieces that Mollie has been able to tell me I have managed now to trace Zacharias family.

 Zacharias was born in Kings Lynn in 1843, the second son of James Walker a Methodist minister who had been born in South Creake and married Maryann Wright in 1838 in Swaffam Norfolk. Besides Zacharias there was his brother James (born in 1842) and his two sisters Elizabeth (born 1844) and Susanna (born 1845). In 1848 Zachariah's father died but Maryann is shown running a business on Goal Street, Great Yarmouth, were her mother is also living with her and the children as well as 3 lodgers. Maryann was struggling to bring up her three children alone and so sent Zacharia to live in South Creake with his uncle Thomas, to learn the trade of tailoring. It was here in South Creake that he met and married Emma Johnson, eldest sister of my Great Great Grandfather Henry Johnson. Zacharias had four children, James, Elizabeth, Helen and Mary Ann ( Mollies Mother).

In the meantime Zacharias sister Susannah had married a Rev George Rudram, they had three children Georgiana, Ernest Luther and George Ebeneezer. Here again I was extremely fortunate, because a few weeks back whilst looking for information on Rev George Rudram I happened across a photograph taken in 1906 of the Rev George Rudram and his Wife Susannah's 40th wedding anniversary.

Mollie and I

"So" my friend said to me the other day " how exactly are you and Mollie connected and did you find your Dad's Godparents"?.

I answered, "My Great Grandfather Henry Johnson  had a older Sister Emma, Emma Married Zacharias Walker. Emma and Zacharias had  four children, their youngest daughter Mary Ann married a Hubert George Howell and they had a daughter born in 1918 this was Mollie.

Mollies Grandmother Emma, was the eldest daughter of Michael Johnson, and her brother was Henry Johnson my Great Great Grandfather, therefore both myself and Mollie are connected to Michael Johnson, she being his Great Granddaughter myself his Great Great Great Granddaughter.

Now here is the bit that gets a little complicated:

Emma and Henry Johnson had a younger sister named Laura, in 1870 Laura gave birth to a illegitimate daughter Lillian, Laura being my 2nd Great Aunt, Lillian being my 1st Cousin 3 times removed. Lillian married  Harry Anthony Howell who was the brother of Mollies father. Lillian and Harry had three children,

Edith, Nellie and Horace, these were my Dad's godparents.  So once again myself and Mollie share a connection, Laura Johnson being Mollies Grandaunt, and Lillian being her 1st Cousin once removed.

 Does the story end here.... No definitely not!