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52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #19 – Mother’s Day
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #19 – Mother’s Day

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #19 – Mother’s Day

“Yesterday was Mother’s Day in the US. This week, let’s take a look at the mothers you’re researching. (They do make up half of your family tree, after all!)

Greetings. After several – ahem, 13 – weeks of neglecting my blog, I felt inspired to write something based on the most recent “52 Ancestors” prompt, and a recent re-discovery of my Nan’s family bible. This originally belonged to her grandmother, Hannah Elizabeth Wright – a loving mother who I’d love to think about and remember while writing this prompt.

Hannah Elizabeth Wright, known as Elizabeth – born in Snelston, Derbyshire around 10th February 1866. This photo was inserted into the bible along with various notes and newspaper clippings.

Below are some photos of the bibles pages, 138 years since she appears to have received it for her 16th birthday. Elizabeth’s parents were James Wright of Snelston, and Elizabeth Yeomans of Roston.

“Elizabeth Wright Snelston, Febry 10th 1883 aged 16 years”

The bible itself is in a sorry state. It’s clung together with sellotape down the spine, with pages torn, creased, and hanging out, newspaper clippings taped to pages.

Written in Elizabeth’s handwriting is, “Stanley Large, from his affectionate mother. May the Lord bless and keep you.”

I don’t know what the future holds for this delicate family document. I’m unsure how to go about preserving something that is already in a poor condition, but I know that it needs to be kept safe as it has clearly been a precious gift passed from mother to son, from husband to wife, and then from mother to daughter. At this time, it’s still in my Nan’s hands.

An unlabelled photograph from my Nan’s collection. (L to R) The two girls on the left are unknown, Hannah Elizabeth Wright holding a black terrier, a young boy possibly Joseph Stanley Large or James Henry Large with his hands on a large shaggy dog’s back, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Large, and Josiah Large. It’s possible that one of the girls on the left is Sarah Large. The date the photo was taken is unknown. Likely taken in Longford, Derbyshire.

The most wonderful thing about this family bible is that it has three generations of women’s handwriting in – my Nan, my great-“Nanny Etwall” Irene Griffin, and my great-great-grandmother, Hannah Elizabeth Wright. My Nan’s birth is written in it in my 2x great grandmother’s handwriting, and that seems like such a beautiful and important relic of our family’s history. Unfortunately I can’t share this as the writing from my Nanny Etwall and my Nan pertains to living people.

Elizabeth passed away on 13th October 1955, and she was buried in the new cemetery at Longford where her husband, Josiah Large, had been buried in 1941. My Nan has memories of her wearing her Sunday best and attending St Chad’s church in Longford, Derbyshire.

Elizabeth with another little dog, again looks a bit like a type of terrier. Her daughter, Lizzie Large, bred terriers and that’s how she made her money.
On the left is Joseph Stanley Large, known as Stan, who was gifted the bible by his “affectionate mother” Elizabeth. On the right is his wife, Irene Griffin, known as Rene. Stan passed away on 26 September 1980, according to notes in the bible, and his wife inherited the bible and continued to write BMD events within it. Photo was likely taken at South Lodge in Longford which can now be used as a holiday let!
My “Nanny Etwall” holding me as a baby. Great grandmother and great granddaughter, 1996. Irene passed away on 25 December 1999, and the bible passed to my Nan, who continues to keep the bible up to date by inserting notes of pertinent family events.

Do you have a family bible? If so, how do you preserve it?

If you’re a Large, a Griffin, or a Wright from South Derbyshire/East Staffordshire area, or you just think that we might be related based on some of the information in this post, feel free to get in touch through derbygenes@outlook.com, or through Twitter or Instagram @derbygenes. I’d love to know if we’re related.

2 Comments

  1. What a lovely post and how lucky you are that this treasure has been passed down! And I love all the dogs. I keep meaning to do a blog post on the ancestral dogs—there were so many!

    There are no family Bibles that have made their way close to me from any branch of my family, although I’ve found information on Ancestry from several.

    1. Sophie

      Yes, I feel so lucky to have this in our family. The dogs are certainly one of my favourite things about this branch – there’s at least another two photos with two different dogs in. I’d love to read a post on the ancestral dogs!

      I’m glad you’ve managed to locate information from family bibles. Perhaps you could start your own?

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