I have to admit that I’ve been fascinated by the TV series and it’s encouraged me do a little delving into my own family background. Rather like Jeremy Irons telling everyone he had an instinct that he was Irish, my brother and I both feel “drawn” to the sea (probably direct descendants of Lord Nelson?). Imagine my joy when the 1851 Census described my great, great, great grandmother as a “mariner’s wife” (her husband obviously being away at sea at the time of the census)! Unfortunately, I’d got my lines of communication crossed and had misread one of the links – in reality, the nearest we’d got to the sea seems to have been Banbury! As things stand, I’ve only been able to get back to Robert Broadway, born in 1791, and it seems that I come from a line of either brass workers or cabinet makers – probably ended up specialising in coffins?
PS (golf blog dated 26/10/06 refers): I didn’t wait 3 months before playing golf again! Played with long-time great mate Pete and his son Jason in Oxford yesterday (Dad lost on the final hole after hitting his ball into the water twice – something Jason found very funny and Pete didn’t!). I will definitely wait another 3 months before playing again….
2 comments:
heh Steve stick with the mariner instinct. I just put your surname into the National Archive website which lists everyone who served at the Battle of Trafalgar [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/trafalgarancestors/] and there were 3 men with your name serving on HMS Colossus, Mars and Swiftsure. You were there with Nelson!
Brilliant! Perhaps I'd better not investigate too deeply. I've checked on the website and will just assume John Broadway from Dublin (aged 40, who was on HMS Mars) was a relative - that way both the sea and Ireland (which explains my love of Guinness?) are in my blood!
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