My Family History

Having concentrated for so long on investigating the ‘unknown’ branch of my paternal family tree, I realised that I had neglected thoroughly recording the history of the branch of the family tree that I have always known best – that of my maternal grandfather, John Snelgrove. William Snelgrove  It was back at the end of 2022 that I last posted on the history of how the Snelgroves had made the change “from New Forest gardeners to London florists”. In that post, I traced the ‘Snelgrove’ branch of my family history forwards in time from the 1851 census to the 1920s. In this post, I will explain how far I think I can trace that history back into the past. Jane Brown Tracing back from 1851 My starting point in the previous post was the 1851 census for the Eaglehurst estate in Fawley, on the edges of the New Forest. The census confirms that one of the workers on that estate, one of its gardeners, was my great-great-grandfather William Snelgrove. Alongside William (aged 31), that 185...

I still have memories of the dull car rides we used to take across London in the 1970s to visit my Mum’s sister, Auntie Gwen Snelgrove, and their mother Eleanor, my grandma, in Ealing. I can remember we’d sometimes pass the spectacular old factories on the Great West Road and stop somewhere to buy some sweets and a packet of cigarettes for grandma – ‘Guards’ if I remember rightly.  I remember the house in Woodfield Road, W5, as being dark and old-fashioned. It had a garden that had a back gate out onto the road behind but not a lot to keep me and my sister entertained while the ‘grown-ups’ talked. One of the things we’d be given to play with would be a jar of old buttons – but that was apparently entertaining enough for a small child! Grandma would be in a wheelchair and her skin could look uncomfortable. I later found out she suffered badly from psoriasis. We sometimes bought her coal tar soap for Christmas. In turn, we’d be given a Xmas gift of a box of Harrods chocolates – incl...