The family clown.....

Post by **emanday** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 2:29 am

This forum always cheers me up and tonight I needed that. I just downloaded the DC for an uncle I never met.

One of my mother's younger brothers died before I was born but the family had always talked of him with great affection. Even though their loss was still evident, they could always come up with a funny story about him. One of these, which could not possibly have been funny at the time, was often told.

When he was 19 he fell through a glass roof. The story was that they had finished work on the roof, but he realised he'd left his hammer behind and, rather than carry the wooden plank back up to lay across the glass, he reckoned he was light enough to get there and back OK. He was wrong, of course. He broke both legs.

The family joke was that he'd rather break his legs than buy a new hammer! He could walk once he'd recovered but, instead of still being in the building trade like the other boys, he worked as a clerk. Just a few years later he died of TB.

I printed that DC out and sat here crying. My Grandfather's signature against the death registration of the son who was named after him! I think this one affected me more because, although I never knew him, I did grow up knowing all about him because his memory was so well kept by his parents, brothers and sister.

Post by **Liz Turner** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:00 pm

Dear Mary

I like to read your posts so much because you seem to find out such a lot about the family you are researching. Keep up the good work.

Liz

Post by **emanday** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:18 pm

Thanks for that Liz.

I'm actually discovering, as I do the research, something clicks on a memory in my mind and it sets me off to find out more. In this case, I grew up knowing all about my Uncle's accident and other the daft things he used to get up to, but never knew how he died until I found his DC.

I'm way past just trying to find out who my ancestors were - I want to know who they were too. I also promised myself I'd only stick to my direct line. Well, that just wasn't to be. When you discover new siblings of folk that you didn't know about its just too tempting to find out all about them too.