Our first article in this Issue reveals more
information about a family we first wrote about in Issue 6 - information
we found in an unlikely place while searching for something quite
different.
Doreen Norton returns this month with a
thought-provoking article which invites us to think about who we are. A
line of descent isn't just about genetics - our physical make-up is just
one manifestation of a complex palette of attributes that we inherit -
and we don't seem to get them in equal quantities from each of the
families who came before us. Two parents, four Grandparents, eight Great
Grandparents and so on - how is it that many people feel drawn to one
particular family group out of all those possibilities? When you've read
about Doreen's meeting with her Stentiford cousin from across the world,
spare a moment to ask yourself who you are.
The four weddings and two funerals all happened in
the June Quarter of 1910 and show just how useful the GRO can be,
especially after the role of the parish church diminished in the 20th
century.
When we first began to prepare the article about
Sir Ivan Stedeford, we could not believe that no photographs were
available of a man , much of whose life was dedicated to public service.
His appointments ranged from a governorship of the BBC to becoming
Chairman of the first government committee set up to review the future
of the railways in April 1960, before anyone had even heard of Dr.
Richard Beeching. We do know that he was photographed on at least
one occasion by Philip Glass because his name appears in a catalogue of his works but the overall
impression is of an unassuming and committed man who fought shy of
publicity but who was seen, in his time, as an extremely safe pair of
hands.
