Family documents are a tossup- what was considered worth keeping for one hundred years? I have documents that date from 1910 to the 2000s- a school memoir, the draft of a will, travel diaries, photos, ephemera, and hundreds of letters that start ‘Dear Mummy’. Trivia from the past becomes fascinating when a window into a different way of life opens- even if one only gets a peek.
This family history starts in the middle of the eighteenth century when the Hazell brothers left England and ended up in St Vincent, West Indies. My mother, Cynthia, recorded what she and her cousins worked out about the family tree, and also wrote stories about her mother’s life in the 1890s and the early twentieth century. The blog follows chronologically from the early posts with those stories; a memoir written by my grandmother, Carol, when she was seventeen; family photos to illustrate the posts, to the 1920s when Cynthia’s letters begin. I hope you enjoy the twentieth century from her perspective.
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Family Letters
When I first thought of reading my mother’s old letters to my grandmother, it was because I had been listening to CBC radio talking about the polio scares of the 1950s. My husband Pat is five years older than I and can remember the public swimming pools in Windsor being closed because of fear of… Read more
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January 11 1970
Jan. 11th 70. Dearest Lindy,Forgive my long silence! but here I am to wish you a very happy 1970. May it be full of fun & hard work! From what my Cyn writes, you all seem to have had a wonderful Christmas with lots of entertaining & lovely presents. Your poor Mum I gave her… Read more
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January 6 1970
The Costains drove down to Brantford to visit the Moors (Cec’s sister Merle and extended family) for New Year’s and dropped Linda at her residence in Peterborough on their way back to Ottawa. Tuesday 6th Jan.Little Christmas. Dearest Lindy,I have been doing N.S. accounts & have to go to the Bank with cheques, so this… Read more
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A Family History in Letters 