LET
US BEGIN.
How
often have you looked at your
offspring and said the words, "He's got his mother's eyes", etc?
Has it ever occurred to you that he or she may have the eyes of his or
her ancestor who died over a thousand years ago? Most of us find it difficult to
cast our minds back that far and even harder to imagine that not only are we not
ourselves, but are the product of a thousand generations and more. The genes
that determine our base physiological make up are those that we inherited.
Of course, we all differ in that our learning processes are individual
and each of us reacts to our own experience of life. However, our capacity to
love or hate or to appreciate beauty or music is inherited.
Perhaps,
to illustrate this fact, I will mention the faulty gene that seems prevalent in
many of the descendants of my grandparents, William Lee and Mary Shardlow –
Norcop. This gene has determined that in serious situations, our
natural reaction is to giggle. The
more serious the situation, the greater the reaction.
Bouts of uncontrollable mirth are a frequent event at funerals or other
sad times and the more one tries to control one's emotions the greater the
outburst.
Never
more so has this faulty gene reared its ugly head than at the funeral of dear
aunt Lizzie, the youngest of the four children of William Lee and Mary Shardlow
– Norcop. On this sad occasion,
at Marple in Cheshire, I well remember the contagious giggling that swept
through many of the congregation. The
only consolation being that, had aunt Lizzie been among the mourners, it is a
certainty that she too would have been overcome by the mirth.
As a matter of fact, aunt Lizzie would probably have been the instigator
for she was a classic example of a giggler.
Given
that this faulty gene is present in many of today’s generation, it begs the
question; where did it come from? This
question leads me to the reason why I became interested in family history
research and, consequently, the writing of this document.
When
I was a young man I had no interest whatsoever in my ancestors for I was far too
busy doing young men's things. When
I married and had my own young family, I was totally occupied in the task of
raising them. It was only when they
were young adults that I had the time to sit back and contemplate the fruits of
my former years and, in so doing; I was drawn into contemplating the
complexities of family life. Those
years of contemplation led me to wondering about the origins of my family and my
natural curiosity created in me a desire to discover more about the people who
were responsible for my being and, consequently, my children's existence.
Out
one day at an antique fair, I bought a last will and testament of Henry Onions
of Broseley in Shropshire. The
document, drawn up in 1790, was so interesting that it provoked me into
considering researching my own family. And
so I began a task that was to take me many years to complete - if ever a family
history is complete. Fate has a
habit of selecting the strangest of reasons to direct us through the maze that
we call life. Bizarrely, it was a
long dead yeoman from Shropshire who directed me towards an opening in the maze
clearly marked, "Genealogy". Had
I realized on entering that adventurous route, the many hours it would take or
the countless miles I would travel, then perhaps I would have selected a less
time consuming pastime. However, I
did enter that genealogical exit and this humble document is the result thereof.
The
writing and compilation of this genealogical essay has brought immense pleasure to me.
It has been the vehicle for renewing the acquaintance of relatives who
had been lost to me for decades and for gaining the acquaintance of some who I
never knew existed. I have enjoyed
travelling the miles between the settlements of my ancestors, and the discovery
of their former dwellings has been an added bonus.
The
delight of delving into the many old documents which lie in various repositories
is a thrill in itself and, from these documents, history comes alive to the
imaginative mind. Consider this
vivid description of life in seventeenth century Brassington...
Anthony
Radcliffe of Glossop, "a common frequenter of alehouses", was accused
"that...hee did make two affrayes & bloodshedds upon German Buxton gent
without any just cause; And did pull the hayre off from the said Buxton's head,
and struck him upon the head...and spurned at the said Buxton his privy members
with his foote, having on a great paire of boote Cloggs, full of iron nayles."
I am indebted to Ron Slack for highlighting this piece in his book,
"Lands and Leadminers: a history of Brassington, in Derbyshire".
Ron Slack's books have been invaluable to me in my own research and for
those who wish to have an in depth history of the area where first we find our
Lee ancestors, then his Brassington books are a must.
The books I refer to are: "Lands and Leadminers", "Paupers
Venture - Children’s Fortune", "Near To This Place", and "Brassington
Forebears 1700-1900
One
of Ron's ancestors was a Briddon of Brassington as was one of ours, so it is
probable that Ron is distantly related to our own family. Perhaps he, too, giggles when he shouldn’t.
The final piece of the genealogical jigsaw [as far as I am concerned] came on the 13th day of November in the year two thousand, at exactly eighteen minutes past midnight when my grandson, Samuel, was born to my son Anthony John Norcop and his dear wife Sharon. Fittingly, he was given the middle name of Lee in honour of his paternal ancestors. That act speaks volumes for his parents and in the centuries to come, their descendants will look back and see that tradition and a love of family is their birthright.
Even
that event is not the end. My dear daughter Lorraine has three children from her
marriage to Mark Dennis. Katie Rebecca and her identical twin brothers, Mathew
and Scott, form part of a much wider Jigsaw puzzle. However, that wider puzzle
will be someone else's task to put together.