Wednesday 10 July 2013

Churches and Family History

Many years ago, pre university and teaching days, I used to collect money for an insurance company. One day I was filling in for a colleague and I was sent out to Tollesbury. After having driven for what felt like miles, I drove in to Tollesbury. The sun was shining and I couldn't find the house I was looking for. Driving round I found the waterfront, the square and other Tollesbury sights and fell in love! We had already sold our house and were living in rented accommodation, so I found a house and promptly put in an offer. I really felt like I had come home. That was 23 years ago and although I would like to travel more, Tollesbury will always be the place I return to.

Strangely, a few years ago, Mum was doing some family history and was looking at a London Census form from, I think, 1865. There was an entry about two of my great, great, great Aunts who were both married to Tollesbury fishermen. How spooky is that! They are both buried in the local churchyard. I like to think that they drew me to Tollesbury and I can honestly call myself a local having previous generations cemetery!

Here are the two churches, Saint Mary's and the Congregational Church. The two churches work together, for example on Remembrance Day the service is held in the Congregational Church and then everyone goes over to Saint Mary's to the War Memorial to lay the poppies. Saint Mary's is the more traditional church, parts of it are from the 11th century and it was completed in the 15th century. It is beautiful inside with its stained glass windows, wooden pews and flowers. The Congregational Church is also used as a community centre and we hold our club Laying Up Supper there each November.









8 comments:

  1. Gene memory is a wonderful phenomena &
    it often gets confused with as de javué

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  2. How lovely to find a connection like that to the place you love. I've had some similar finds whilst researching my own family tree.

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  3. That's a remarkable discovery that you had ancestors living in Tollesbury. Fascinating to think that you may have felt a connection when you first visited. The churches are interesting - is Keith Lovell still the reverend there?

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  4. Mel - I have always said that e inherit some of our parents memories, I didn't realise there was a proper term for it x

    Wendy - Keith retired a couple of years ago and unfortunately had to move out of the village as church rules say tht he cannot stay here x

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  5. No - you keep ending up in my spam box and as much as I keep telling them you are not spam, they don't believe me! Xxx

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  6. Lovely churches, Fran. The pool of tranquillity they harbour is rather special. I also think that inherited memory is real. I didn't know it was called Gene memory either, but I have it in France. My grandfather was French, and it is something really strong that I feel when I go to northern France.

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  7. Sorry I beat you to your next post! How wonderful to arrive there by accident and fall in love with it. I'm sure there is something behind a pull to locations where ancestors lived. It has happened to us so many times without us being aware of it!
    Sarah x

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  8. Sarah - you are absolutely right as you can see above, Mel has said it is called gene memory something I didn't know xxx

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