Bryan and Pat Lynk, generous contributors to the blog via commentarian extraordinaire David Evans, have been good enough to share some very personal effects with readers of the Brownhills Blog. Readers will, of course, remember the details of the house that Enoch Pagett built from a couple of days ago. One of the very personal items from the Lynk family collection, which I present here, has touched me deeply, and I have no idea of how to best share it with readers in a sensitive and respectful way.
After much thought, I’ve decided to just post these two scans as-is. The date – surprisingly to me, noted in what I thought to be a modern format, is of course, 1893. This condolence note is therefore 119 years old, which I find stunning in itself. I don’t know what relationship Albert was to Enoch, but this is achingly, painfully, heart-jarringly tragic.
I’d like to personally thank Bryan and Pat. This is a remarkable, sad and sobering thing. It certainly made this cynical old blogger weep. Thank you.
This must have been very hard to write, but with the high child mortality of the period, very probably a fairly regular task. I find that frightening.
I’m curious, although it seems flippant, as to why the letter is laid out on two half-pages. Is there some old protocol reason for this to do with letter folding, I wonder?
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Letter folding – my parents always used this method to write notes to school for me, back in the 70s/80s. Avoided using an envelope I assumed – but I suspect a long lost convention. They grew up 350 miles apart so it’s not a local thing 😉
They are your great grandparents – Midas Maude (nee Holden) and Charles McNeill. I have only one photo of your grandfather Archie let me see if I can find it again. She was from Hull, but favored living in Cardiff as he father lived there. Charlies was Welsh and they met there. They lived in Southport, until they immigrated to Australia in 1952 to join us there. Are we related ?because I was always told my great grandmother,Midas Maude (nee Holden) was Roma gypsy also ,I just got this from my cousin in America, she lived in Australia for some time,he remarried but my grandfather Archibald was there son,and i don’t know much about my great grandmother side of the family only that she defended from romany gypsy and her ancestors go back to India .