Last in the series of my school photos 1971

Okay Kitten, I know when I'm beaten, you are obviously too shy or too polite to hazard a guess at which child I am on the photos so I am posting the last in the series of my school photos and I now refuse to admit which boy was my boyfriend when I was 11 and which boy I had a crush on for 4 years on this photo.

OMG - look at us all on here.  The girls all have very mini skirts, we are wearing tights, and most of us have trimmed our eyebrows to that stupid 70s fashion of being very short, you had to make sure they gave you no more than a 45 degree angle!!!!  To do that you took a pencil, placed one end at the bottom of your nose, turned it to 45 degrees and checked where your eybrow ended!  Yikes, what were we thinking of.

Now the big question again is, which one is me?????

Answers on a postcard!

My husband's Dutch grandparents

I think I have already explained that my husband's mother was a Dutch lady from Rotterdam who met her future husband when he was stationed in Rotterdam after the war.  She came over to England and married him here in Worcestershire.

The photo above is of her parents.  Johannes Antonius Van Schijndel born 1889, died 1976 her father.
Geertruida Maria Smeehuizen born 1894, died 1965 her mother.

They had the following children:

Maria born 1923, died 1924
Maria (my husband's mother) born 1925, died 2003
Hendricus Jacobus born 1926, a son
Jacoba Johanna born 1927, died the same year, a daughter
Antonius born 1928, died 1977, a son
Geertruida Jacoba born 1931, known as Truus still living

Just like me, Bb was not aware that his mother had other siblings, he was not aware of the ones who died in childhood, however I was given this information by the daughter of Truus, a cousin of Bb's.

Maria was very much like her mother, I can see that from this photo.

Bb always tells the story of his grandfather having smoked a pipe from his teenage years and living until a grand old age - his excuse for smoking his pipe me thinks!

Mind you when I met Bb he smoked the most horrible stinking cigars I have ever smelled.  To be honest had he not given them up and taken up the pipe on my instruction,  it would have signalled a very quick end to our relationship.  He started smoking a pipe and we went through numerous flavours of tobacco until we found something we both liked, me for the smell and him for his palate.  We opted for Black Cherry - enough said.

Elizabeth Dobson nee Keld

I think it's time I added some more photographs of my ancestors to this blog as I have been a little lax at doing this lately.

This photo is of Elizabeth Keld.

Below is a paragraph from the family tree book I am busy writing at the moment about Elizabeth and John Dobson who she married:

John Dobson 1837 - 1906 and Elizabeth Keld 1841 - 1919

John was born on September 17, 1837 at Thornton-le-Dale, Yorkshire and was christened on September 25; he married Elizabeth Keld on March 18, 1861 at Pickering. Elizabeth was born on June 16, 1841 at Pickering and was the daughter of Isaiah Keld and Jane Lightfoot. In 1861 John and Elizabeth were living with her parents in a private house at Burgate, Pickering and his occupation is given as a Groom.

Should you have any connection with any of these people do make a comment on my blog, I would love to hear from anyone who may be a distant relative of mine.