A History Mystery

Hello friends!

I have a little family history mystery which no one in the family can solve. So I put my best thinking cap on and try to work out what it is.

Going through a box of my late mother's belongings, I came across a small brass match case. It is very obviously something from the First World War and has two significant engravings on it out of three sides, all of which are engraved.

The least significant engraving is this one.

The main areas of engraving on this side are a Cross in the centre, which flanked by what appeared to be two oak leaves. There is a crown in the top part of the cross which might point to a regiment, or simply be indicative of the owner being a soldier of the King, and the date 1914 on the opposing side of the cross.  Directly in the middle is a capital letter W.

Let's take a look at the two sides and what's engraved on them. 

The opposite large side has the wording D Williams engraved on a banner across the centre and it is flanked by what appears to be two stylised daffodils.

I will come back to my thoughts and discoveries on this shortly. But first, I will share with you what is engraved on the spine of this book like box.

It is not easy to make out the engraving, because it is highly stylised. However, after much experimenting with letter combinations, I have. discovered it is AUDRUICQ.   Audruicq is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France.  

Further research revealed to me that during the First World War it served a

s a transport hub where goods arrived in bulk by ship and were broken down into wagon-loads and sent on by rail

 to the Front.  It was also a centres for collecting, sorting and despatching reinforcements to units in the field.

Now onto the name, which is the most important part.  D. Williams.  I know of only one D Williams in the family.  He was my cousin, the late Rev. David Williams and he most certainly was not born until well after WW1.  In truth, he wasn't old enough to go to the Second World War either. So it's not him. The only evidence of anyone going to the First World War I have on that side of my family is my grandfather J.G. Williams, who also happens to be the grandfather of Rev. David.

So, who is this D. Williams of the matchbox cover?

I have done some basic family research and I find it rather fascinating, but it does draw me in and becomes cost prohibitive by the time you order and pay for all your certificate copies, etc.  Unfortunately, on my mother's father's side, the information I have is scant at best.  Now that there is no one left to ask, as happens with so many other people, I am full of regret for not having asked questions while the relevant people who could provide answers were still alive.

Rev. David and I shared a grandfather, but we had different grandmothers because Dacu {Welsh for Grandfather} was married twice.  

Due to my grandmother being his second wife, I am finding it very difficult to go back further into the family history on that side. All of the history that I have to my fingertips came from my mother and does not contain much information from his first marriage.  I suppose if I really wanted to dig around, I could find the information. However, I did manage to do a little research in which I found out that my grandfather and his younger brother, apparently named David, ended up in the workhouse when they were around 9 and 7 years old respectively. How sad it that?  Orphans and in the work house at such a tender age.  When I learned they had ended up in the workhouse at such a young age, my research came to a grinding halt. I couldn't seem to get past that my grandfather had been in the workhouse from such a young age.

So have I found the D Williams, whose name is engraved on the matchbox? I think perhaps I have. Although scant, the information I have  certainly would make him eligible to be conscripted or able to be a volunteer for the war.

The only thing is this: everybody to whom I have spoken has no recollection of another David Williams, or for that matter, anybody with the initial D {Williams} in the family.  To date, I have not found any record of how or when D. Williams of the matchbox died.  Did he die in France, or did he return home?  My records are scant, and as happens there are many possible candidates on Ancestry and Find My Past with the same initials or names living in the general area.  

Anomalies and errors in the Censuses don't help, nor does the changing street names and construction over the relevant decades.  For example, there are few alive today who know the location of the Reading Room, or that Goat Street was formerly Ship Street, or that Oakley Street was not part of Nun Street as it is today.  Accurate family research is not limited to just censuses. birth certificates, death certificates and marriage certificates.  You have to be prepared to sift through maps and all kinds of other documents and records in order to correctly identify people.  Tithe maps are particularly interesting!  I digress.

I am wondering if my Uncle Billy, {father of Rev David Williams, and son of JG Williams} was the only one who knew of this other D. or David Williams? It is highly possible that he did know of him, and if he did indeed perish in the First World War, maybe Uncle Billy named his first born son after him.

Unless I decide to dig further, or someone in the family discovers something new, I guess we'll never know who D Williams was.  I am about to pass this little piece of history on to my cousin, Rev David's son.  Maybe he will pick up the baton with success?

So my friends,

Until next time

Stay well, Stay safe

Debbie xx

The Mysterious Nerines

Gentle Reader ~~~ I have been absent for some days.  Nearly a fortnight ago we had a rare and intense electrical storm pass over our area and a lightning bolt apparently hit something in our local telephone exchange and somehow fried all the BT HomeHubs across the village.  Oddly, other service providers were not affected!  

For nine days I spent hours on hold, and eventually my connection was restored. Had they listened to me I would have been back after only two days, but as it was they didn't listen and so I remained off line for all that time.  I learned how much I have come to rely on the internet, and that is a tale for another day ~~~

Apparently, it was quite a stormy night and while my friends and neighbours tossed and turned, some pulling the bedclothes over their heads in fright, I slept throughout the night as lightning thrashed and thunder clashed across the night sky ~~~

Here is a tale of mystery and intrigue, which is partly resolved and partly not ~~~

A long time ago, the gentleman who lived in the old farmhouse across the way told my mother that she could help herself to bulbs of the beautiful, multi~headed and intoxicatingly fragrant narcissus that flowered in his borders ~~~ time passed and my mother didn't like to go into the garden, despite being given permission, and eventually the old man died and the house was sold on.  The narcissus remained and bloomed every year in the Spring and each year my mother regretted not going to dig up some bulbs while she had the opportunity.

Many years passed, and a succession of owners came and went ~~~ then, four years ago the offer was made again by the then owners. Not being that shy, and with permission, I went along with my spade and carefully dug up a dozen or so of the precious bulbs and brought them home.  I didn't have a spot prepared, so I put them in a large terracotta pot and promptly forgot all about them!

The following spring, the pot was full of the healthiest, strongest leaves but not a single bloom was seen.  Time passed, and the same thing happened the following year, and again the year after that! What was happening?  I could not understand it, and thought that maybe they took time to settle in after being dug up, or maybe they didn't like being in a pot.  So, I made plans to get them out of the pot and in the ground this very Autumn.  

Now, as you know, my back is suffering quite a bit at present, so this task slipped from my mind ~ then, a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that there were some green spikes emerging from the pot, and there were the start of tiny flower buds in clusters on the top of these spikes.  What could this be?  Surely they had not decided to produce flowers at the end of the year and without leaves?

I waited, with curiosity ever growing as the flower buds grew bigger and bigger and began showing slight tinges of pink! Certainly not what I was expecting to see and so the mystery deepened ~~~ what were these strange flower spikes?

Then, one day, the mystery was partly solved ~~~ the buds burst and showed their secret ~~~ beautiful, bright, pink Nerine bowdenii!!! Imagine my total surprise!  Here is the first one to open and reveal the secret ~~~

More followed to open, and more again each passing day ~~~ so now there are a total of four ~ each with a cluster of the elegant frilly trumpets ~~~

Aren't they just so beautiful?  I have always loved Nerines and wanted them in my garden for some time but have always managed to spend the gardening budget on other things ~~~ but now I have them, and for free!  Those are the best kind of plants ~~~

They are opening more delicate trumpets each day, and soon will be transplanted to the ground where I hope they will multiply {for they are good spreading plants} to give a striking display of colour to the Autumn borders year after year ~~~ now that I know they are Nerines, the flowering spikes are correctly called 'scapes' and the leaves will follow and I will closely observe them, for I am certain that these are bonus bulbs accidentally gathered at the same time as the failed Narcissus, yet there are no Nerines in that garden in that particular spot.  Only time will tell now! Curiouser and curiouser ~~~

So, the mystery, however, is only partly solved ~~~ how did I managed to dig up and bring home the dozen bulbs of narcissus that have not yet flowered, and now four years later Nerines are growing in the very pot where the narcissus give leaf but no bloom in the Spring?  Watch this space ~~~ remembering that ~~~

~~~ A Gardener's Work Is Never Done ~~~