Tuesday, 28 February 2017

My Maternal Grandfather

Nonno Giulio was born in Milan to Jewish parents. He lost his mother when he was seven years old. I think he grew up in Salò with his father and stepmother, and four younger brothers and sister. He attended a college at Bergamo where he was unhappy and expelled, and also trained as an accountant. I believe that by his own account he was headstrong and fiery. He told me he lived with a girlfriend while a student. I have recounted elsewhere some stories of my grandfather's life:
"It was after the loss of his wife that Silvio Schiff undertook the project in Tripoli, and my grandfather became a boarder at the Collegio Berretta in Salò, a beautiful town on the western shore of Lake Garda. One of his teachers, and his favourite, was Giulia Grana, whom he introduced to his father and whom his father married, probably in 1915. It was at this time that Silvio Schiff converted to Christianity, for his second wife's sake, and my grandfather from this time was also brought up as a Catholic. Silvio and Giulia had four children: Italia, Umberto, Albino and Gino, who was only six months older than my own mother. With the new family, my grandfather seems to have been displaced in his father's and stepmother's affections, and continued his education as a boarder, progressing to the Collegio San Alessandro in Bergamo. At the age of fifteen occurred the drama that is now part of family folklore. He took a young girlfriend to the Politeama Donizetti - some theatre - but without permission. He was punished with six days' solitary confinement, during which time he was brought the same bowl of soup to eat, which he repeatedly rejected. The finale on the sixth day involved him flinging the soup in his 'jailer's' face, leading to his expulsion. His father met him at the railway station and, final humiliation, slapped him across the face. He left home and continued his studies as a day student, taking lodgings with a girlfriend."
He seems to have had a difficult relationship with his father and stepmother. Short in height, he was a handsome man in his youth. I admired him, as he was forceful and decisive, even if at times opinionated. His love affair with my grandmother was typical. She, a woman of humble origin, but of considerable beauty, gave herself to him, and he reciprocated with commitment. His parents' opposition to the relationship meant that there first child, Fausta, was born and died out of wedlock. He relinquished an inheritance, he told us, in return for permission to marry her less than two months before the birth of my mother. He achieved subsequent success in his life completely through his own efforts, becoming an employee of the Bank of Sicily as a result of winning a public competition. The years in Sicily were happy and successful, two children being born there in Catania, to add to my mother born in Gorizia and her sister born in Trieste. The introduction of the Race Laws saw the abandonment of Sicily following his dismissal from his post, and the move to Albania. These were difficult years when my family struggled to survive. When my mother left in 1943 with her mother, brother and two sister to go and stay with family in Gorizia, my grandfather was forced to go into hiding and I Never heard how he managed to make his way from German occupied Albania to German occupied Gorizia. The danger lasted till 1945 and the end of the war in Europe.
My grandfather had to rebuild his life having lost everything, and although he returned to the bank there were barriers and penalties. By this time my grandmother was struggling, her psyche damaged by a lifetime of terrible experiences, but it was in March 1945 that she became pregnant with her last child. About this time the family removed to Milan, living in viale dei Tigli in Cusano Milanino, and it was my father who drove my grandmother to hospital in an army vehicle in January, 1946, when she was in labour.
My grandfather worked for the bank until, I believe, my grandmother's death in May, 1960. I think that following her death he took a post as Finance Manager with Impresit, a large construction company, working on the Kariba dam project, which was in fact completed in 1959, and then on the Aswan dam project. This was constructed between 1960 and 1970. I have a memory that his office was in Khartoum in neighbouring Sudan but this may be wrong. I believe that his secretary here was Nadia Assal, a young Egyptian who had been educated at a French convent school in Cairo, and who became his wife, in a curious sequence of events that, I believe, involved his nominal conversion to Islam, a marriage, a divorce because proper permission had not been sought and received from her father, and marriage. I think that this must have been in 1961, as, the story goes, he flew back to Milan to be greeted at the airport by his children still dressed in black within the one year of full mourning for their mother, to be introduced to his new wife. I think that my grandfather was 55 and Nadia 21. Their son, my half uncle Alaa-el-Dine, was born in Cairo in June, 1962. Their daughter Magda was born two years later in Monza. The shock of his marriage and the unexpected presentation of the fait accompli caused a family rift and the sending of unpleasant letters which he dealt with courteously. I believe it was my mother who made the first signs of acceptance that led to the eventual restoration of some family harmony. To her great credit his wife, known to me as Nonna Nadia, was always accepting and tolerant of her husband's first family, always welcoming my parents to stay, and myself as well.
Not very long before my grandmother's death my grandfather and grandmother moved from their apartment in via Alcuino, in central north west Milan, to a large, new, luxurious villa he had built at Monza on the western side of the town. Here I stayed in about 1965, when I got to know my step grandmother, her own grandmother, my half uncle and half aunt, and my grandfather, who took me with him each day when he went in to his office in Milan, and gave me an allowance so I could explore the city on my own. I would go to his office, where he kept, as I recall a diary of family life, and then go off. I have little recollection of where I went. Once, sitting beside him as he drove his car, he asked me what I thought of his new wife: a difficult question for a sixteen-year old. He was pleased with my reply, when I said that she was like a good wine, that te first taste was pleasing, but that the pleasure grew greater with each sip. I recall his aunt Elsa visiting him at Monza on his birthday on 14th August, and I recall going on holiday with my uncle Sergio, his wife Reine, their young children, my cousins Giulio and Catherina, and I think their young cousin Éric from France. We all camped at Lignano Pineto. We had an outing too to Gorizia where my uncle bought pastries to visit my grandmother's sister zia Maria and her husband zio Nin, then an elderly man who spoke with the help of a device disguised as a pipe because of a laryngectomy. In his youth I believe he was a very active communist. We also drove through Trieste, my first visit to the city that was to become so important to me.
I think that at that time he was already building the large villa at Peschiera that was to be his home in his retirement. I remember driving there alone with him, so he could supervise the construction work. I remember too that the journey was quite terrifying, with a near accident that he avoided by violent turning repeatedly to left and right to decelerate, so that I feigned tiredness and lay down across the back seat. There were then no seat belts. I have a memory of the roof being large inclined planes of concrete slabs awaiting their tiled covering.
It was at the end of this stay that my grandfather generously provided me with a single train ticket to travel back to England, and I, just sixteen years old I think, noticing that the journey allowed unlimited breaks in the itinerary, decided to take full advantage of the opportunity, I stopped in Turin, I stopped in Lyon for several days, where I received hospitality from Mère Claret, a nun at the Cenacle convent in Place de Fourvière. My spoken French was very limited but I survived. I caught trains to town that would be the last to arrive at a particular station and thus spent the night in the waiting room. I visited Bourges, I explored the chateaux of the Loire valley, I paid for a wet shave, I learnt that asking for 'd'eau' was meaningless, once asked for 'de l'eau.'
My grandfather lived at Peschiera with his wife and children, with a large garden that he planted with fruit trees and flowering shrubs, and with the many Dobermann Pinscher dogs bred by his wife. He went daily into Peschiera to collect the post and to have a coffee at his favourite café. When he was seventy he and his wife decided to have a third child, my uncle Samy.
My grandfather received a good education, even if he did not always enjoy it, but it has always surprised me that he never encouraged or financed his children's education. My mother, of course, missed an education because of the war. My uncle Sergio studied at university in Milan when married with children and in full time work. I believe he too worked for Impresit. My uncle Dinosaur (Alla-el-Dine), received his education through his successful career in the Italian Air Force, becoming subsequently an Alitalia pilot. My aunt Magda became a successful journalist through her own efforts. Sami worked hard, through scholarships, to receive his education and to pursue his academic career in neuroscience.
My uncle Sami, although a very late arrival in my grandfather's life, did benefit from a few advantages, mostly that my grandfather lived for another twenty years and was able to spend time with him. It was mostly after his father's death that Sami was able to pursue his studies.
I do remember my grandfather as strong willed and determined. I remember helping him once at his villa, when he asked me to paint the wooden shutters with green gloss paint. I was able to rub them down to remove loose paint, but despite my protestations that they needed some primer and certainly an undercoat, to change from the light colour, he insisted dogmatically that the green gloss would suffice, and despite giving them two coats the finished result was very poor in appearance.
My grandfather was not a lover of literature, art or music, but he was a passionate acquirer of technological gadgets. He was one of the first radio amateurs in Italy, in fact working with Marconi at the beginning of his career. He was a keen photographer with fine Leica cameras. He was an early fan of super eight cine film to make home movies. Although he was nominally Jewish, Christian and Muslim in the course of his life, I don't think he felt a particular allegiance to any one of them, though he did say to me once that he was "the last 100% Jewish member of the family". 
My grandfather always worried about his health, and in extreme old age he did suffer from heart trouble and had a pacemaker fitted. His death eventually came at the age of 91 I believe as the result of a tumour in his chest that restricted his heart. I flew over to Italy to see him before he died, and said goodbye to him at the clinic near Peschiera where he was being nursed. Although I knew he wouldn't see me again he was unconcerned, being much more involved in eating his meal, so the farewell was perfunctory. We had no final farewell or words to share. His funeral was a simple interment in the cemetery at Peschiera without benefit of prayers or ceremony.

Tuesday, 14 February 2017

The Thomson Family

Draft

[Mother, her father and motherThomsons: Scottish? early death. Status: gentlemen, property, marriagesMother's relationsJJ Thomson: life, career, work, Nobel and his son: life, career, work, Nobeland descendants
Ebenezer ThomsonBooksellersPresbyterianism]

Firstly I have to acknowledge the debt I owe to Irene McIntyre of Linlithgow, wife of my father's cousin, who has fed me a daily diet of information and discoveries about these ancestors.
I can start with what I know from oral tradition. My great grandmother was Georgina Henrietta Thomson. She was the eldest of three sisters. the others being Beatrice Jemimah, known as Aunt Mimah, who died in childbirth at the birth of her late second child. My grandmother remembered seeing her body lying with that of her child. The youngest of the three sisters was Sarah Jane, known by us as Auntie Janie. I was told that she had a son who was learning disabled, whom she used to tie to the signpost near her home, and who died after being poisoned by eating an indelible pencil. Indelible pencils do indeed often contain an aniline dye which is in fact poisonous to humans. I believe that Auntie Janie married twice but I know no details.
I believe that Mother, as my great grandmother was universally known by all her descendants, was Scottish on her father's side, and Welsh on her mother's, and was herself born on March 1st, St David's day. Mother was supposed to have come from good family, and to have married below herself. I knew that Mother and her two sisters were orphaned when quite young, and I was told, probably by my grandmother, that they then lived with an aunt.
My great grandmother had a 'shotgun' marriage to Ted Neild, a gardener, in 1899, the year of my grandmother's birth. Mother lived in Withington, in St Paul's Place, and Ted Neild lived in Northenden, a short distance away and along the same road, perhaps two miles, and just over the river Mersey in Cheshire.
Georgina Henrietta Thomson was the daughter of Robert Augustus Thompson. He was the son of Joseph Anderson Thomson, himself the son of Ebenezer Thomson. Ebenezer was the son of James and Sarah Thomson. This James was born in Manchester in 1751 and died there in 1831. We know little about James, other than he was probably the son of Nathan Thomson and Mary Sidebotham, but quite a lot about Ebenezer.
Baptism of James Thomson, 21st July, 1751, at what is now Manchester Cathedral.
Ebenezer Thomson was a bookseller with premises in Market Street, Manchester.
Tradesmen called Thomson in Manchester in 1825.Ebenezer is listed.
Bookselling remained a family occupation for several generations.





'Silurian Cardiff Merthyr and Brecon Mercury' of 3rd January 1852 (Courtesy of Irene McIntyre)
A CESTRIAN "MAN OF ROSS" 
The Chester Chronicle announces the death of Mr Ebenezer Thomson, a gentleman probably not very extensively known amongst the elite of the city, but beneficially known and respected by vast numbers of the poorer classes of the community. Mr Thomson was a gentleman of property, and for the last six or seven years has passed the greater part of his time in Chester, where a systematic course of unobtrusive philanthropy and benevolence has won for him a grateful remembrance. Somewhat singular in personal appearance — his huge straw hat, worn mostly winter and summer, formed a very noticeable feature of his attire — and eccentric in his general habits, he was yet ever intent upon doing good, and no needy applicant but could gain readily his ear and charity. During the autumn he has lived at the Pied Bull, where a number of his poor pensioners used weekly to resort for the accustomed bounty. On Saturday week he left Chester, for the purpose of passing a short time at the residence of his son, in Manchester. Previous to leaving, however, he said to the landlady, Mrs Thomas, perhaps he might not be spared to return; and that these poor people should be provided for during the winter season, he would leave in her hands ten weeks' pay for them, to be distributed as by himself: this he accordingly did. On the following Monday his foreboding proved correct, and this truly benevolent person breathed his last at the house of his son, in Manchester.
I like this man, my illustrious, charitable and eccentric forebear.


A portrait of Jeremy Bentham, looking remarkably the description of Ebenezer Thomson, with his large straw hat.


The next bookseller's shop on the same side was that of Ebenezer Thomson and Sons, who occupied the shop No. 20, at the comer of Cromford Court, next to the one in which I was apprenticed, which was then No. 21, the numbers running consecutively at the time. In 1790 the same shop was occupied by James Thomson, bookseller. In 1810 it was divided into two shops, one being occupied by James Thomson and Son, the son being Ebenezer, who lived at the back of New Windsor, Salford. In 1815 the shop was restored to its original dimensions, and Ebenezer had the business to himself, the father having retired, and residing at " Cheetham Cottage Town," Red Bank. In 1824 the firm was still Ebenezer, but in 1829 it was, as I have stated, E. Thomson and Sons, and a year or two after was changed to James and Joseph Thomson. They were known as dealers in books on mechanics and the various branches of civil engineering as well as general literature, their stock of new and second-hand books being one of the largest in the provinces. Their printed catalogue in 1829 extended to something like 600 octavo pages, and contained the names of 20,000 volumes. They dealt also in stationery and stamps and did a good business in book- binding. The younger brother, Joseph, died some years since, but I had the pleasure of meeting with James three or four years ago, when he was staying at the same hotel in Southport as myself, his residence being near Bowness. 



'Reminiscences of Manchester Fifty Years Ago', J. T. Slugg, 1851

When he was 20 or 21, Ebenezer married Mary Anderson 



These are the entries for their burials in the Rusholme Road Cemetery, Manchester.








The will of Ebenezer Thomson

[Transcription by Irene McIntyre] 

This is the last Will and Testament of me Ebenezer Thomson of the City of Chester Gentleman   I give devise and bequeath unto my sister Sarah Smith widow and her assigns during the term of her natural life all that messuage or dwelling house which she now resides in situate in New Windsor Salford in the County of Lancaster   And I also give grant and devise unto my said Sister Sarah Smith and her assigns for the term of her natural life one clear yearly annuity rent charge or sum of forty pounds to be issuing and payable out of all and every my messuages or dwellinghouses in Salford aforesaid except the said messuage above mentioned the said annuity or rent thereof to be paid to my said sister by equal half yearly payments the first whereof to be made at the expiration of six calendar months next after my decease and always to be paid free and clear of and from property tax and all other taxes charges or impositions whatsoever to be taxed charged or assessed upon the said annuity or upon my said Sister in respect thereof by authority of Parliament or otherwise whosoever   And if it shall happen that the said annuity or rent charge of forty pounds or any part thereof shall be behind or unpaid by the start of twenty days next after either of the said days whereon the same is made payable and ought to be paid as aforesaid then and from thenceforth and from time to time as often as the same or any part thereof shall be so in arrears and unpaid it shall and may be lawful to and for my sister Sarah Smith and her assigns upon the said messuages or dwellinghouses every or any of them (except the said messuage before mentioned) to enter and [distrain] and distress and distresses therein found to take load drive and carry away and to impound detain or otherwise to sell and dispose of the same until thereby or otherwise she and they shall be lawfully satisfied and paid over annually or yearly rent charge or as much thereof as shall be in arrears together with all costs charges and expenses whatsoever as shall be occasioned by such outlay distress and sale   I give and devise all my messuages or tenements land chief rents and hereditaments with the appurtenances situate in Salford aforesaid and in Manchester Chorlton on Medlock Ardwick Levenshulme and elsewhere in the County of Lancaster and also the said messuage or dwellinghouse devised to my said Sister Sarah Smith for life subject to her interest therein    And all other my real estate and personal of what nature or kind soever or wheresoever situate not herein otherwise devised or bequeathed unto my sons James Thomson and Joseph Thomson their heirs and assigns for ever equally between them as tenants in common and not joint tenants   I give and bequeath unto my Grandsons Andrew Patten and James Thomson Patten their executors or administrators or assigns all my shares stock and interest in the London and North Western Railway Company or any other Railway Company equally or between them share and share alike and in case either or both of them my said Grandsons shall die in my lifetime leaving lawful issue then I do hereby direct that the presumptive share or shares of them or him so being as aforesaid shall go and be payable equally amongst his or their child or children if any and if but one such child then the whole to such one child   I give and bequeath to the Reverend William McMorrow of Manchester in the County of Lancaster the sum of nineteen pounds and nineteen shillings.  I appoint the said sons James Thomson Joseph Thomson and William McMorrow Executors of this my will and I do hereby revoke and make void all former and other will and wills by me at any time heretofore made and do declare this to be my Last Will and Testament   In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand on this and the other side of this sheet of paper this twenty first day of August in the year of out Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty one.

~~~ Ebenezer Thomson ~~~ Signed by the said Ebenezer Thomson the Testator in the presence of us present at the same time was in this presence at the request and in the presence of each other have hereunto submitted our names as witness

T.H. Massey Solicitor Chester   John Blake Confectioner Chester   John Thompson Bookseller Chester

Proved at London the 10th July 1852 before the Judge by the Oaths of James Thomson and Joseph Thomson the sons and the Reverend William McMorrow the Executors to whom administration was granted having been first sworn by _____ duly to administer.


'The New Manchester Guide', 1815

From the title page of Joseph Aston's "A Picture of Manchester', 1826

Ebenezer had two sons, Joseph and James, and two daughters, Ellen and Mary.

Joseph Anderson Thomson married firstly Margaret Cuthbertson Sword, of a Glaswegian family. Their daughter Mary Anne Denistoun Thomson, born in 1832, married the Scots-born surgeon George Turnbull. The first son, Joseph James Thomson, born in 1833, married Emma Swindells of Manchester and had two sons: Professor Sir Joseph John Thomson, a Nobel Prize winner for Physics, and Frederick Vernon Thomson.
Joseph Anderson Thomson's second son was James Sword Thomson, born in 1835, and who married Harriet Hodgson. They had five sons and three daughters.
The third son, and the youngest, was Robert Augustus Thomson, born in 1838, who married Kezia Davies, and who had three daughters: Georgina Henrietta, Jemimah Beatrice, and Sarah Jane.

Extract from the will of Joseph Anderson Thomson concerning his youngest son Robert.



Sunday, 12 February 2017

Mother, Grandad Neild, and Sharston Farm


Family tree by Chris Preston, a lawyer in Australia

Notes I took from my grandmother in about 1962 while she was preparing Sunday lunch.

William Neild with his wife Hannah and their children. Courtesy of Chris Preston.






Pages from a record of household accounts for 1879. I do not know whose these were.

Sampler by Kezia Davies, embroidered c.1853. Now in the possession of Pamela Jenner.


Marriage certificate for Edward Neild and Georgina Henrietta Thomson
My great grandparents on their wedding day

A family photograph. I can recognise Mother, with her husband, and a child.




William Neild FRHS

A letter from auntie Maggie, Ted Neild's sister



















Letters concerning the purchase of Sharston Farm.

My grandmother on the right, uncle Billy on the left, and their paternal grandmother Hannah Neild née Steele

The barn at Sharston Farm, that became the tearooms.

Sharston Farm. These were painted by a travelling salesman who was a customer at the tearooms as a gift for Mother.

Sydney was killed walking home from school. He dropped his marbles, leaned over, and was hit by the dished wheel of a passing horse-drawn cart and crushed to death.


A school photograph


A school photograph

I would guess a pageant for the coronation in 1911

The Neild family: Eva, Ted, Phyllis, Mabel, Billy, Georgina and Walter

Ted, Billy, Walter, Eva, Gladys, Phyllis, Mabel and Georgina.
I think this is Gib Lane, Wythenshawe



Scout camp at Sharston Farm



Flowers being grown for market.

Sharston tearooms set for a wedding reception




Mother feeding geese




Eva Neild

Eva Neild

Eva Neild


Eva Neild with Phyllis

Eva Neild with Mabel and Dora Gent



The family guests at the wedding of Walter Neild and Ethel Hewitt




Gladys and Mother preparing her cake for her wedding reception at Sharston Farm.

Gladys Neild with her father Ted at her wedding


Gladys Neild and Leslie McConnell at their wedding.


Mother


Mother with Phyllis

Mother with her dog Nigger

Mother with some of her grandchildren



Mother

Mother with uncle Jimmie







Hannah Neild with, I believe, Polly, in Chorlton





Georgina and Ted Neild


The tombstone of Georgina and Ted Neild at Northenden

A recipe for apple chutney

Mother's Recipe Book