Searchin' For a Past...

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Just an update on the rabbit hole that is genealogy: I've confirmed, by cross-checking, much head-scratching and a good deal of swearing, that, I think, maybe possibly, I might just be getting somewhere. But it ain't easy: in fact it's like swimming upstream in porridge with a headwind. Just when you think you've got a real grip on things, new names crawl out of the woodwork and familiar names seem to quantum leap about the parish at will. But the one thing that is at the centre of it all, is a very small hamlet, that even today is home to only around 350 people.

My family comprised a fair tranche of what would probably have been an even smaller number 150 years ago, and while the name Southall is not particularly rare or unusual, not that many show up in the parish at that time, and all are within shouting distance of each other. Add to this the fact that when I stopped in Fromes Hill on my way back from a business trip to London about thirty years ago, and had a jangle with a chap from Postin's Farm [blog posts passim], he remembered all my family, some of whom were still living and farming not more than a couple of miles from there.

I'm fairly confident that I can pick the bones out of all of this, and indeed we plan to spend a day in Fromes Hill and the Bishops Frome parish in general, when we head off for our break in Shropshire in just over a week. If I can possibly arrange it, I'll see if I can get access to the parish records, but whatever, I intend to visit the family plot in the tiny graveyard of the former chapel in the village - the chapel's now a private home, but my kin are still there in the little plot at its front, nevertheless, and shall be visited! Some of the other names on the stones there might also be of help in our quest, too; so I look forward to making some more progress whilst on holiday.

Apologies for the awful old picture above, but it's the only one I could find on the 'net of the old chapel, and anyway it kind of sums up the mentality of some people when it comes to redeveloping places: a total disregard for the history of the building and the people - my forbears included, that were baptized, married and sent off to their maker there - never mind in this case the design horrors they were committing in the process. This image must be at least twenty years old, but could be older. I'm hoping our visit will find the place in a happier state than then. I'll put up a new picture of it, and I'll keep you posted!

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