Today in 1870 my grandmother Emma Jane Pearson was born in Dalston, East London.

She married William Hawke Headland & they settled in Holloway. Their only child, my

father, was born after almost twelve years of marriage.

I remember Emma Jane as an old lady in her Suffolk retirement cottage, enthralling me

with stories of the East End at the time of Jack the Ripper. She died in 1961 aged ninety

one.

Some years earlier she had given me a Victorian 'keeper' ring in the shape of a buckle

with a tiny diamond which I wore every day, until resting on the mantelpiece, it fell

into an open fire. I was hearbroken, as I had nothing else to remember her by.

But you do have her stories, vita. I hope you have written them down?!!

It was more along the lines of 'Oooooh, it was awful!' (Cue Dot Cotton voice, if

you're familiar with EastEnders) except for the Ripper stories which were all

about how women were afraid to venture out. I used to encourage her to tell

me these, then be too scared to go to her outside loos at the bottom of the

garden. I did love that ring, though. Never quite forgiven my self over losing

it that way.

My grandparents married on this day in 1923. Despite the fact that both had lived in Woldingham, Surrey for over five years, both gave their addresses as their parents' - presumably so that the Hornes could advertise that their son was getting married, and my granny could marry in Letheringsett, Norfolk, in the bosom of her family.

Problems attached to marrying away from home. My grandfather was a keen (if impecunious) amateur photographer and promised to bring his camera. He forgot. I have to rely on the newspaper report to discover what the wedding was like. He did subsequently take a photo of granny in her wedding dress: golden brown with the droopy hem fashionable at the time, set against the Surrey hills, but this alas has not (to my knowledge) survived.
The vicar was similarly forgetful, and their entries are handwritten in the gro indexes.

Great Grandfather Henry William Headland was born in Islington 1833. He took over the family silversmith business in Great Sutton St from his uncle, but within a few years had lost everything after failing to pay his apprentices for three years.
One of them gave evidence that it his master was entirely responsible for his own downfall & an officer reported that the family home contained 'scarcely five shillings worth of furniture.'As Henry William was led away to begin his sentence, he 'appeared to feel his position acutely.'
On release the family relocated to Hackney where Henry William again worked as a silversmith, making surgical instruments. He died there in 1886 aged 53.

My mum's oldest sister would have been 110 today she was born on 11.11.1911.

On this day in 1806 g/g/g uncle Thomas Hughes Headland was born. Dickens's 'worthy man with a genius for mistakes,' his discovery has given me so much & when funds allow I intend to get him a headstone.

It's the 100th anniversary today of my father's 21st birthday. Also the 121st anniversary of the day Queen Victoria died. Still working on whether or not he came before she went, which was at 6:30 p.m. her time.

Today in 1808 G/G/Grandfather Henry William Headland was was born. A dyer & scourer,
his first two wives died in their twenties & he died aged fifty one six weeks after marrying his third.

Today marks the death of my grandfather, four weeks before his son's wedding.