Friday 27 March 2015

BRINGING OUR ANCESTORS BACK TO LIFE


Inspired by a battered old case of photos and documents belonging to my grandmother (long dead) I took out a year's subscription to Ancestry.co.uk and discovered more about her amazing family - composers, musicians, artists, singers and dancers, theatre managers, actors and circus trapeze artists.
I had an inkling before I investigated and the search proved so exciting that it kept me obsessed for the full twelve months (and since).
My biggest regret is that I was barely out of my teens when my grandmother died and I was far more focussed on the opposite sex than on mouldy old family history. If only I'd talked to her! She knew these people.
My first sketch
Getting there but still a long way to go!


Her grandfather, my great-great-grandfather Joseph Bryan Geoghegan, who sang, played, managed theatres, wrote pantomimes and composed songs that are still sung and recorded worldwide today.
Her father, Sydney Bird, a burlesque performer and trapeze artist (who performed in the same theatres and at the same time as Liverpool comedian John Bishop's great grandfather).
Her brother, Sydney, trapeze artist and star of the show until he fell to his death at the age of 16, a tragic event that was recorded in newspapers throughout the UK.
Her sister Bessie, music hall and circus singer and dancer, who died of tuberculosis at the age of 21.
And all the others.
I've got a lot of information through Ancestry.co.uk but facts, sepia photos and b.m.d. certificates aren't enough to flesh out these long gone people. That can only come via someone who knew them, who can tell you about their personalities, what they enjoyed or hated, the day to day intimate details that you have to be there to know about, even their colouring, which we can only guess at now from the black and white or sepia photographs of the time.
My grandmother could have told me whether she knew about her grandfather's second secret family (between the legitimate and the secret families, JBG fathered enough children for a couple of football teams - plus referees! A rogue and a villain, but successful with it!)
I could go on about the genes that give us clues as they pass down through the generations to the present time. Facial and other physical features, talents - I have identical eyes to two uncles, a great uncle and my great grandfather. I'm an artist and writer, my two daughters are musicians. But it would be wonderful to know more.
I'm currently working on a large (30" x 30") painting of my great aunt Bessie Bird with her father Sydney Bird and one of his partners, whose name I don't know). I'm using two photographs, Bessie from around 1900, and Sydney from an old daguerrotype which must have been taken sometime in the 1860s. They could never have performed together like this, but I'm employing a bit of artist's licence - and also showing them in full colour. Of course I can only guess at the colour of their costumes, or even Bessie's hair, and it's quite a spooky feeling as I try to bring them back to life in this way.

When I've finished, I plan to run another MEMOIRS WORKSHOP for writers and non-writers - a chance to record their own and their family's lives before it's too late. More news later.