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Found this letter

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maggiewinchester

maggiewinchester Report 4 Mar 2021 11:56

I found it amongst mum's stuff, Ann.
When gran (who was a bit of a hoarder) died, we found all sorts - old Christmas and birthday cards, receipts for grave payments, 'Oddfellows' insurance papers, love letters, maternity payments before the NHS, wartime letters etc - even notes from my grandad saying there's no milk!.
The Christmas and Birthday cards were damp, and mum wanted to throw them out.
I took them, dried them out (with no damage) and put the oldest ones in frames.
I was also allowed the love letters. Mum took the rest back to Portugal.

When mum died, I ended up with all her genealogy stuff - we were researching together - and many of her folders held duplicate information, so I weeded them out - still have quite a few to do :-S
When I moved, I found a folder labelled 'Archive Letters' - and it has letters from my gran's cousin in Suffolk to my gran - though how gran ended up with a letter from her cousin to HER gran, I have no idea.

The folder also contains the piece of paper - originally in an old photo frame at gran's - that started me on my genealogy quest many years ago.
The paper is a carbon copy, and due to the way it was folded, all you could see was 'Death of the Heaviest Man'.
I asked gran what it was about - she said it was someone on grandad's side. Grandad died 6 weeks before I was born, so he couldn't be questioned!
She took it out of the frame, and opened it out - it was about the death, in 1842, of Henry Floyd (Floyd wasn't a family name we knew), from Romsey - apparently the heaviest man in England at the time!

After a fair bit of amateur detective work (not much genealogy stuff online then), I worked out that Henry was my g x 4 grandfather :-D

AnninGlos

AnninGlos Report 4 Mar 2021 10:59

Aawe what a shame it has been left to decay Maggie, what a lovely looking old farmhouse. an interesting letter to find. Where did you find it?

maggiewinchester

maggiewinchester Report 4 Mar 2021 10:49

It's from my gran's cousin, Lucy Marjoram to her gran - my gg gran - Amelia Baggott, on 13 April 1922.
Interesting that the school is closed due to Flu, when the 1918 Flu epidemic apparently 'fizzled out' in 1922

Dear Granny
We were very pleased to receive your letter, and glad you are better. Has the Flu been very bad at Middleton. We had to close the school because of the Flu.
Mother cannot come at Easter, but Dada will be over in a few Sundays. Mother cannot leave as there are all boys to see after and Mary is not at home. Mary is still getting on all tight at her place with the old ladies.

How different the weather is now, than it was last year. Mother say she will be glad when we get some warm weather. It does seem to have been a long cold winter. Then the rhubarb and the cabbages will grow. We haven't had the greens since last spring.
You ought to come and spend a week-end with us, you have never seen our little cottage, which is called Sparrow Hall. Grandfather know where it is, when is he coming again. It is two years since he came.

Dada do not know what Mr Spalding means, he hasn't only one labourer now. He paid Mr Eley off so he has gone back to his home, and two more men besides. Charlie work at a farm near hear.
Dada will tell you the rest of the news when he come. George is coming with him, he was the baby when we left Middleton, so he is eleven now.

I remain your loving grandaughter

Lucy XXXXXX

Here's Sparrow Hall Farm in 2013
https://abandonedsuffolk.wordpress.com/2014/03/23/sparrow-hawk-farm-suffolk/