A photo of my 5x great auntie

[Tom Tom]

This is a tale of how I found a photograph of my five times great auntie, Susan Thompson (formerly Epton).

Susan was born 1807 and died in 1895. She married John Thompson at some point.

Anyway, to cut a long story short I decided to go grave hunting in Lincolnshire, mainly to Saltfleetby and Louth, but I visited other places that I knew relatives had moved to.

I pulled up outside the church in Somersby and was in two minds whether to get out and look around or not, but I decided to. I had to climb up quite a steep slippy grass verge to get to the cemetery (hadn't realised there was a path around the corner) and it was raining quite heavily.

The graves were all worn away and I was having no luck so decided to go back to the car. For some reason I hadn't thought about going into the church. Perhaps because it was only the place Susan had lived and she hadn't married or been christened in this church.

However, I thought I would pop my head in and shelter from the rain for a couple of minutes before the mad dash to the car. I went into the church and a section had been turned into a display about Lord Tennyson.

This jogged my memory that on one of the census returnes Susan gave her occupation as "Formerly Nurse to Alfred Lord Tennyson".

As I am looking up at the display but what should I see?

The following photograph:



The photo had the following caption;
Susan Thompson nee Epton, the children's nurse when a young woman

Also on the board was the following passage:

At the end of 1883, to the delight of his friends, Alfred accepted a Barony, becoming Baron Tennyson of Aldworth and Freshwater. He had declined the honour three times previously , and was criticised when he finally accepted. Some felt he should have remained the "Poet of the People" and this must have hurt him deeply. However, he received hundreds of letters congratulating him, and one that really pleased him came from the elderly, now almost blind lady, Susan Thompson.


So there you have it. I was pleased with my find and it brought this name to life in my mind.