Newsletter No. 48: March 2008

News

• Betty Lyell is making a good recovery after her knee operation and has thrown away her crutches and walking stick after 6 weeks.

• Betty's grand daughter Alicia visited Maryborough to compete in the reverse triathalon and surprised many by winning the event.

• For those who did not know and/or had not heard about Maureen Robb's heart operation, here is a copy of a report that Chris sent to a number of the family.

I'm sure all will have had word. A bit more detail. Also helps me assess where we are at. One still feels "braced for possible hiccoughs". When we left Maureen last night all signs were stable and she had just had the ventilator removed so was breathing of her own accord. Our personal ICU nurse, Clare arrived at this time and assured us she was progressing exactly to schedule.

So.....

It was right on noon when the surgeon gave us the wonderful news. The operation proved a great success and the new valves are working perfectly. The "old" valves were in bad shape. Definitely of rheumatic fever origin said the doctor. He also said the heart had been compensating for a long time and was now just starting to "decompensate" which is a road to nowhere.

No by-pass was needed as no blockage. Artery just naturally narrow. Maureen's anatomy. This also shortened the operation time which was about 4 hours. But they did put a stitch in a small "hole in the heart". Surgeon said it is quite common and probably there all her life. Maureen will now have heaps of O2 coursing through her arteries!!!

All in all to say it was a HUGE day is an understatement. Maureen showed great courage and faith and Beth and I stood beside her bed this afternoon with great love and pride....and immense relief!! And a few tears and hugs through the day. Spoke to Anthony and Anna and will speak to Gerard tonight.

Thank you for all your prayers and support.
Love Beth and Chris xxoo

Meet Your Ancestors: George Clarke by Rob Wood

George Clarke is the maternal grandfather of George Stanley Wood, and great-grandfather of Eddie, Dot, Les, Betty, Barbara, John and Margaret.

George Clarke came from the parish of Foleshill in Warwickshire, England, located just to the north of Coventry (of Lady Godiva fame). His father Nathaniel grew up in Foleshill, while his mother Mary was born in Ireland. Nathaniel and Mary married in 1837 in Coventry, and they both worked in the local mills as weavers. They had six children, with George being the fifth. His siblings were Elizabeth (Betsey), Harriet, Edwin, Harry and the youngest Nathaniel.

In the 1840s there were about 7000 people in Foleshill, and it was not a very desirable place to live. In 1841, the following unflattering account of life in the parish was written: "The mass of the people, with the exception of a few young men, are brutally ignorant, and the intelligence which is to be found in the exceptions has manifested itself only within the last half-dozen years. It is not the population which has gone down into ignorance: it has never emerged from it. This is not surprising, for there is not an efficient school in the parish … The people are as ignorant as ever, and, in proportion to their numbers, more immoral. There is more profanity, more Sabbath breaking and more immorality than formerly. Their language is awfully depraved … At any little holiday time, the public houses will be thronged with girls ready for the lowest excesses. Both sexes are great drinkers, chiefly of ale. The place is also notorious for poaching, and robberies".

It is during these debaucherous times that George was born, sometime in 1847. Considering the town and era that he was born, it is assumed that he had limited education and was sent off to work at a young age. The census records from these times give an insight into their lives. In 1851, when he was three years old, his oldest sister Betsey was ten and already working as a handloom weaver at the mill. In 1861, aged 14, George was working in the mill as a ribbon weaver, the same occupation as his parents and siblings. There was not much of a career choice in Foleshill - in that year, of the 8,140 people in the parish, 78% depended on the ribbon trade. From that time onwards in Foleshill and surrounding districts, the weaving trade was in decline, starting when the weavers went on strike. Foreign ribbons flooded the market and many people went hungry and emigrated. By 1871 the population had decreased by nearly 2,000.

In 1867, George married a local girl Emma Chatwin at the registry office in Foleshill. They were both about 20 years old. The first two of their eight children, Mary Elizabeth and Edwin Harry, were born in Foleshill. Their eldest Mary Elizabeth Clarke is our ancestor, and would later marry Joseph Wood, the subject of the previous 'Meet Your Ancestors'. At the time of the birth of Mary Elizabeth, his occupation is listed as Iron Moulder. This hot and physical job in the Iron foundry required him to pour the molten iron from the furnace into moulds.

In 1870 George and his young family moved away from Foleshill, possibly in search work and a better life for his children. The story will be continued in the next newsletter.

Written by Rob Wood, with the information coming from English census data, marriage certificates, and various internet sources of information about the time and places they lived.

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