Growing up my Grandma Bliss would occasionally tell me about her Grandmother Elsie Drury Rushton who was married at 14 and died at 27 giving birth to twins after having already produced a LARGE family. Elsie was always interesting because 1- she got married at 14.....which is insane, 2- her husband was 30.....which seems wrong, 3- she died leaving a whole gaggle of children to care for themselves, and 4- her parents loved her older husband.
Recently Hubby has been working on our family history. A couple of Saturday's ago he hollered at me to come into the dining room where he had discovered that Elsie was born and Christened in Ospringe, Kent. WHAT! Ospringe is not far from our house, and is an easy drive. We piled in the car and headed to the Church and the town where Elsie was born and Christened. Hubby also discovered that her Grandparents were each born in towns that were close by Ospringe called Molash and Charing. Challenge accepted. We were off to photo archive our family history. Hubby and I have wondered what took the Drury's from England to UT and have figured it was most likely to be close to the LDS church. We aren't sure if she was baptised by her husband or if they met after they moved to UT.
Ospringe Parish. Bits of it date back to the 12th Century and has the Original Christening Font.
As fate would have it, the Vicar just so happened to pop over to the church while I was meandering around the church yard. I was able to go inside, have a chat about the church, and take pictures inside. This is the Font that Elsie was Christened in. After chatting with the Vicar I learned that there is a Drury in her congregation. The Vicar took down my information to pass onto this Drury who may or may not contact me to chat about the Drury line. Wouldn't that be cool?!
The Vicar allowed me to take the lid off of the Font and take pictures inside. The lid was huge, medieval, and incredibly heavy. Let's just say that they don't make them like they used to.
Stained glass in the 12th Century part of the church.
This is a picture of a house in the village, you can see just how charming the homes are. The area is very rural and the village is small, but beautiful.
Elsie's grandfather Thomas Drury was born in Wye and Christened in this church in Molash. The church was closed up so I was not able to go inside and take a picture of his Christening Font.
Hubby bent down to take a closer look at a head stone only to nick his lip on a stinging nettle plant. OUCH! I, of course had to document it :)
We tried to locate the headstones, but it is really hard to read the names because of the weathering. We found headstones from WWII that had weathered so much we could barely make out the names, a stone from the 1800's would have been impossible.
This is a cottage in the village of Molash which was another quaint, small, rural village. I am sure the house my great great great grandparents lived in is still being used today.
We left Molash and headed to Wye to see where Thomas had been born. Hubby and I wondered why he was born in Wye, but not Christened at this church in Wye, but was Christened in Molash? We took some pictures of the church in Wye and then wandered the graveyard in search of the Drury or Bills family names.
This lane reminded me of the scene in "Pride and Prejudice" where the girls are walking along the country lane.
This particular headstone scared me to death. Nothing seems to comfort your family like staring at a trio of skulls every time they come to pay their respects.
As we were walking along I told Hubby that I could smell lavender.....he couldn't. I looked down and there was a whole bunch of lavender along the walkways of the church yard. There had been a wedding earlier and so we are reckoning that as the happy couple came out of the church the friends and family threw lavender. There was such a lovely aroma as we sauntered around that I sniffed and sniffed away.
When we sold our house in UT and were staying with Gucci, she had been recently separated. Gucci and the Pink One were both a little despondent, so Gucci went and bought a dog. She was a pekinese, and looked like she should be sitting on a Queens lap, so I named her "Queenie." The Pink One loved this dog and I feel like she saved my life in a number of ways. We were cracked up when we saw a headstone for "Queenie."
The Pink One was less cracked up :(
Where this blue plaque is there was once a well that supplied water for all the villagers.
Hubby and I got a kick out of the name of this pub "The Tickled Trout." Awesome!
We left Wye and headed to Charing to visit Elsie's grandma Harriet Bills home and church. The town was still sporting their flagged decor in honour of the royal wedding. Sweetest little village yet.
High Street Charing.
The Archbishop's Palace home was given to Henry VIII. What wasn't right?
Remains of the Archbishop's Palace and Church storehouse and stables.
This is the church where Harriet was Christened.
I was cracked up by the Vicar's podium, very fancy and ornate.
The Font that Harriet was Christened in.
This was an AMAZING day. I loved each of the little villages I explored and felt very much at one with my ancestors. I have been struggling trying to find my purpose in being over here feeling sad, lonely, but mostly bored :) I am very much a mover and a shaker, but this move has really thrown me. I feel like this excursion was an answer to prayers about what I can be doing with ALL of the time I have on my hands here. Living in UT I would have never thought two straws about my Grandma's family and her English heritage, but here it has become accessible and real.
I am going to start attending the family history centre in my ward house on Tuesday's and will be helping out people as they come to do some work. I have always been interested in my Swedish heritage because my dad is 1st generation American on his mom's side and 2nd on his father's. I grew up with a grandma who spoke Swedish and her English was spoken with a Swedish accent. Grandma had a lot of Swedish decor and traditions. I inherited my grandma's Swedish crystal when she died and have treasured it. I am going to Sweden August 1-4th with my dad to see Stockholm and Norkopping where she is from. I am super excited. I feel really blessed to be close enough to see where my family came from and to be able to take pictures for the rest of my family and anyone who is interested. I believe that it is important to remember where you came from, and I also believe in recording it for future generations. Thus, the blog.
Our next adventure will be photographing the Talbot family line near Cornwall. I have the bug.
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