Harriet Sophia

Although it's a Bank Holiday, I really felt like having a lazy day. I wandered round with my duster and after giving Harriet a bit of a spruce up, I thought she deserved to feature as one of my blips - she is the face of my avatar after all! It's a long post so you may need a brew!

My great grandma had the most amazing postcard and photo album. Whenever we visited, I would whisper in her ear if I could look through the album. I would be enthralled as she would show me all the embroidered postcards she received during from the war. I have so many fond memories of the album.

When I started my family tree, all my grandparents had died and that is such a regret.  I could have asked so many stories about their families and where they came from but when you're young, you don't think about sitting down with a notebook to write all the stories down. Dates and basic facts are fairly easy to uncover but it's the flesh on the bones you'll never be able to fill in. I attended my local family history group for many years and got back to the late 1700's which is where I am at the moment.

The photo I have blipped always stood out to me. Who was this fancy looking lady, was she a relative, what sort of life did she lead?  As I started my research, I was contacted by a cousin of my granddad and he sent me a few family photos.  One jumped straight out at me and I rushed round to my mum's so we could look at the album. I finally had a name to the face, it was my great great great grandma Harriet Sophia! 

Many years before, my grandma had given me a copy of a family diary. I smiled politely, read it and put it in a drawer where it stayed for 20 plus years. As the cogs started to turn, I pulled out the diary and was amazed to find that it was kept by her father William, my great great great great grandfather! 

William was a Wesleyan Minister and the diary covers their journey when they sailed from Liverpool on 18th February 1846 to start a new life in New Orleans. It is the most wonderful piece of family history and I feel privileged to be able to read it. I would love to share some of the entries:

26th February: The Captain informs us that not having been able to take an observation for the last 5 days, we have been taken 50 miles farther north than we expected. We were not far from Scotland.

28th February: It is just a fortnight today since we came on board ship and I suppose we are not one mile farther on our voyage than we were 9 or 10 days ago.

6th March: Yesterday we sailed by a water cask. The Captain says he is sure has belonged to some passenger ship and that ship must have been lost and entirely broken up. We have reason to believe that many have found a watery grave.

7th March: Early this morning we were awoke by the cries of the passengers saying we were aground. The wind blew from opposite points at the same time, enough to have shivered the ship to pieces.

12th April: This morning we came in sight of Jamaica. All round Montego Bay is very beautiful and picturesque. We could clearly see the sugar plantations; the canes looked beautiful, set in regular rows and waving their heads in the air.

18th April: We have sailed more than 12,000 miles since we left Liverpool being more than twice the distance we should have gone had we had fair winds. 

We are at length arrived at New Orleans. It is an ugly dirty place and after a shower, it smells dreadfully. We saw a number of slaves, male and female, in the slave market ready for sale. It was an awful sight.

The diary ends 'May the Lord bring us safely to our journey's end. Amen'.

What a journey! It took them 9 weeks to sail from Liverpool to New Orleans and then they had to take a wagon for 80 miles to Wisconsin.  Sadly they only stayed about 3 months as the land they bought was too poor quality to farm, and William's health deteriorated.

Although William didn't talk about his wife or children in the diary, knowing the journey Harriet made as a 14 year old girl makes me believe she was a strong, capable woman who lived to the grand old age of 81. 

Quote for today:
If you don't know history, you don't know anything. You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree.
- Michael Crichton