Prologue: England 2018 (Part II - Grandma's 1988 Trip)
I remember it being mentioned to me, perhaps even several times, that my Grandma Scheffert had visited England. I hadn't given it much thought until recently, specifically when my dad started cleaning out my (and his) childhood home and bequeathing things to me that were hers. Dad told me that he found photos from the trip, so I started going through the tubs of stuff in hopes of coming across it. You can imagine my excitement when I opened a box to find this.
I looked at the cover for a few moments and my eyes got teary. Finding this felt like the culmination of all my research. I felt more connected to England than ever and my wish to travel there this year was stronger than ever. I was eager to see photos of my grandma's trip in 1988--something that, for her, was a dream. (Knowing it was a dream trip for her also brought an emotional aspect to this for me.)
My elation was swiftly swept away when I realized that the album was kind of empty. In fact, it's probably only about halfway full. The really great news is that my grandma religiously captioned photos. Every single one had words on the back describing the location or event; some of them made me laugh out loud just because of the cute, detailed things she wrote. My grandma was also a flower enthusiast, so mixed in with architecture and landscapes is, for example, a photo of a single rose bush in bloom...just a random, pretty rose bush. Charming.
As I thumbed through the album for the first time of many, I noticed that my grandma (and great aunt, Edith, and second cousin, Cathy, who went on the trip with her) visited many places I went to during the summer of 2010 that I spent in the UK. The all-inclusive list of places we've both been: London (Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge), Hampton Court Palace outside of London, Bath, Stratford-upon-Avon, Stonehenge, Chester, York, Edinburgh, and Grasmere. I really wish that I would've known she visited all of these places when I was there!
Three other places that are links specifically to our ancestry are the towns of Durham, Bishop Auckland, and Crook. Durham and Bishop Auckland was already on my radar given the family tree research I had discovered, but Crook was a new one for me. I wondered what the link was with Crook, but shortly discovered that my grandma had corresponded with someone from Crook during and after WWII. I found a series of letters that my grandma received from this person named Edith Cooper. I will share about the letters when I visit Crook on this trip; it's really fascinating.
The majority of my trip is based in the Durham area and I will visit Bishop Auckland and Crook, as well as a few other small towns nearby.
I looked at the cover for a few moments and my eyes got teary. Finding this felt like the culmination of all my research. I felt more connected to England than ever and my wish to travel there this year was stronger than ever. I was eager to see photos of my grandma's trip in 1988--something that, for her, was a dream. (Knowing it was a dream trip for her also brought an emotional aspect to this for me.)
My elation was swiftly swept away when I realized that the album was kind of empty. In fact, it's probably only about halfway full. The really great news is that my grandma religiously captioned photos. Every single one had words on the back describing the location or event; some of them made me laugh out loud just because of the cute, detailed things she wrote. My grandma was also a flower enthusiast, so mixed in with architecture and landscapes is, for example, a photo of a single rose bush in bloom...just a random, pretty rose bush. Charming.
Here's my mom, dad, me, and Ryan watching Grandma's plane leave for England in 1988.
As I thumbed through the album for the first time of many, I noticed that my grandma (and great aunt, Edith, and second cousin, Cathy, who went on the trip with her) visited many places I went to during the summer of 2010 that I spent in the UK. The all-inclusive list of places we've both been: London (Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge), Hampton Court Palace outside of London, Bath, Stratford-upon-Avon, Stonehenge, Chester, York, Edinburgh, and Grasmere. I really wish that I would've known she visited all of these places when I was there!
Aunt Edith, Cathy, and Grandma Scheffert at Tower Bridge in 1988; me at the same spot in 2010.
Three other places that are links specifically to our ancestry are the towns of Durham, Bishop Auckland, and Crook. Durham and Bishop Auckland was already on my radar given the family tree research I had discovered, but Crook was a new one for me. I wondered what the link was with Crook, but shortly discovered that my grandma had corresponded with someone from Crook during and after WWII. I found a series of letters that my grandma received from this person named Edith Cooper. I will share about the letters when I visit Crook on this trip; it's really fascinating.
The majority of my trip is based in the Durham area and I will visit Bishop Auckland and Crook, as well as a few other small towns nearby.