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| Wendell Rd., Hammersmith |
When I lived in London, I went to see the house in Hammersmith where my great-great-grandparents had lived just before the turn of the last century. The hubs had been poking around an internet genealogy site and the address of this place was one of the nuggets he had uncovered.
The family lore I had always heard was that great-grandma Bea, having been born in Hobart, Tasmania, came over from the east coast of England to San Francisco on her own, and that she'd sent for her siblings later. This is, thanks to the hubs's digging, largely incorrect. While the Ceiley family does hail from Norfolk, Bea, her siblings and her parents had lived both in Australia and London before moving to California. Wendell Road in Hammersmith, West London was last where the family hung its hat for a spell before moving to San Francisco. Bea, her mother & sister came over to San Francisco first with her father and brother following sometime later.
The documents found on the internet list Henry Ceiley's profession as 'carpenter' in England, Australia, and California. I wonder if he had been attracted to the building booms that were probably happening in both Tasmania and California just over a hundred years ago. Henry's skills certainly must have been in demand here in SF after the resulting fires of the 1906 earthquake destroyed huge swaths of homes and businesses.
The hub's research showed that great-great-grandfather Henry, sometime after the death of his wife, left San Francisco, and returned to Australia. He lived for some years in Bankstown, New South Wales, before being fatally struck by an automobile in 1940.
I will leave you with a photo of my great-grandma Bea with her two sons, Wellman & Raymond. Ray is the one wearing the interesting headdress & he is also my grandpa.
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| At the house on Mission Street, San Francisco circa 1915. |
Did that story come from the ancestors themselves, or was it one you cobbled together from family stories and such? It's interesting the lies our family tells as well as how we interpret the stories we hear.
ReplyDeleteWe had bits of the story, but the picture was incomplete until digging around records. I had no idea that there was so much moving back and forth from the UK to Oz then back to the UK (London), then onto SF as a family. I also did not know that Bea's father eventually returned to Australia (NSW) to live out the rest of his life sans family (as far as I understand).
DeleteIt's also interesting how family information can simply become lost over the ensuing years.
It is always interesting delving into the past.
ReplyDeleteTravelling was a huge deal at the time too. It must have cost him a relative fortune and taken months.
ReplyDeleteI do find family history fascinating at least in part because I know so little of my own.
Yes, you're right. And that certainly was a lot of travel. I had assumed it was for work/a better life, but if they'd had £££ to travel such distances, then did they really need to leave the place/s they were?
DeleteIt's interesting to know some of the story, but I always wish to learn
As an adopted person I have no past, and I've never been interested in finding my birth parents. And for some reason, it really doesn't bother me that I have no blood ties at all.
ReplyDeleteI hear you. My mother knew who her bio-mother was, but not her bio-father. She was never interested in finding out who he was. I knew my great-grandma Bea was English, but to find out a bit more of the specifics was kinda neat.
DeleteThey were very well travelled for those days -- Australia especially was sooooo far away!
ReplyDeleteYes, they were. As I understand, we did not come from money, so I now wonder how they were able to travel these great distances...steerage class, perhaps?
DeleteThat was quite an undertaking to move the family hither and thither! Although perhaps that's just looking at life through modern eyes. Most people could live out of a suitcase one hundred years ago, and went without fuss to wherever work would take them. That's a great photo for 1915!
ReplyDeleteYes, it's a pretty sharp photo. The house was razed decades ago. A fast-food joint marks the spot now.
DeleteIt certainly must have been a massive undertaking. -too bad that journey specifics have been lost to the annals of time.