Weekend at the seaside

We spent the bank holiday with the two youngest grandchildren, and their parents of course

They had the greatest fun with their fishing nets in the rock pools while we sat in the sun and talked and enjoyed the lovely weather and the beach. Then they walked back to the caravan and we strolled back to the car and drove there to find the boys washing the sand off their feet while watching CeeBeebies .
A smashing weekend.

Uncle Steve and Aunty Doreen

I have just received this picture from Seth DeGeer, grandson of Uncle Steve and Aunty Doreen.

Isn't that wonderful? Now you can see just how beautiful Aunty Doreen was. That beauty was still so evident even in old age and she maintained her elegance too.

Aunty Doreen and Aunty Chris

Most of you know through my emails that Aunty Doreen passed away at the end of April. Sandy (daughter of Stephen Henry and Doreen) and Bob were able to be with Stephen (son of Stephen and Doreen) and Annette and with her so that was a little comfort to them.

I searched my pictures file but I don't have a single picture of Aunty Doreen to share with you. I wonder if Sandy or Steve have a picture of their wedding?

We didn't see Aunty Doreen much when I was small. We visited them in various houses around Cardiff. There was one rather wonderful place that I remember as a country cottage. Steve was just a little boy then and Sandy and I - and I think cousin Bernard or perhaps it was Yvonne and Jacky - anyway we went across the field to the stream where we picked some watercress. We all thought it would be rather wonderful to have it for tea and carried it back triumphantly.

The leaves were washed thoroughly and when we all sat down for tea I noticed that everyone tried the watercress except me and Aunty Doreen. My Mum asked me why I wasn't eating it and I replied "Sheep walked in that water." everyone except Aunty laughed and carried on munching. Aunty caught my eye and gave a little tiny nod of her head as though she too knew about the sheep and their dirty feet.

Then came the news from Cousin Pete in Canada that Aunty Chris had died on 11th May and with her passing we, that's all the grandchildren of Frederic GIBBON became the older generation.

sometime in the 1950s

I have several memories of Chris, mostly they are memories of Chris and Val and Kath because it seemed that until Chris left to work in Africa the three of them came as a package.
I know this isn't true but it did seem that way. to a small person. Chris worked in the offices of an architectural firm and one of the reasons she went to Africa was because she had fallen in love with her boss. It's amazing what you can overhear when you are lying quietly on the hearthrug "reading".

I don't know details but I do know she came to my mother for advice and my mother told her to find a new job because he was married and never going to leave his wife and family or risk losing his reputation, while at the same time not giving a fig for Chris's reputation.

Cornwall 1952/3

 My mother was usually right. As a result of this advice Chris got a job in the Crown Services and went to Nyasaland, as it was then. From there she went to Borneo and places east and eventually she found a job in the Yukon in Canada.

She was always full of fun when she was young, although she could be the responsible big sister to the other two.

I don't have any up to date pictures of Chris so if anyone does please could I have a copy for the blog and for our website. That's the website we have had for a year and not done anything with yet.

Chris, Val and Kath with Ma standing behind them

Mai Jones and the Royal College of Music

You might remember that I said I would begin the research into the life of our famous relative, Mai Jones. We all know, through the Welsh Dictionary of Biographies that she was Born in 1899, went to school in Newport and played the organ at the Methodist Church on Stow Hill. She gained a scholarship to the College of Music in Cardiff and, it is said, she then went to the Royal College of Music in London.

I was idly surfing this here intarwebby and put the RCM into the search engine. I looked at the website and there was a little thing that said "contact us". So I did. I Explained that I was researching my family tree and that one of my father's cousins had been a student at RCM. I gave the probable dates, her name and her year of birth. Several days later I received an email telling me that the very kind lady had searched the registers from the opening of the RCM until today and there was no entry for Glady May Jones or May Jones.
There is a list of External students who just take the exams but don't actually attend the college. On this list there is a Gladys M. Jones in July 1941. It says she gained an ARCM Diploma in Piano Performing.
The very kind lady suggested that I try the Royal Academy of Music as the two places are very often confused. I thanked her.
I had already tried the Royal Academy of Music a couple of years ago and she is not on their registers as a student or anything else there.

My father once remarked that we would probably discover that she had gone to the RCM to visit once and ever after she allowed people to believe she had studied there when all she actually said was "I went to the Royal College of Music in London". A fellow researcher once told me that his mother used to travel on the same train to London as Mai, when they were "going back to college" I have added the emails to the information on the family tree. I wonder if anyone has a picture of her. I only have a couple of poor photocopies from the BBC archives.

Mai or May, is the daughter of Thomas JONES, station master at Pontypool Road Station, and Beatrice May GIBBON daughter of James GIBBON and Mary FRANCIS. I still haven't narrowed down which is the correct birth. I have bought a couple of certificates but they were the wrong ones I will have to go to the register office and ask them to search.  OH and here's a spooky thing. Cousin Andy GIBBON and his lovely wife Jayne spotted a delightful house in New Inn and decided to buy it because it was so quirky and old. They told Andy's Dad, Fred GIBBON and he said "The Station Master's house? that's where Uncle Tom and Aunty Beat lived - it's where Mai Jones lived for years"
So now Andy and Jayne live in Uncle Tom's house. Isn't that weird?