Good Deeds; Choosing Family

I have bundled together weeks 50 and 51 of the #52Ancestors Challenge, partly because it is currently 5:30pm on NYE, and partly because the best fit for both these stories it just one; that of my paternal grandparents, my grandmother's sister and her husband, and their daughter.

My grandmother, Edith Charlton, and grandfather, Joseph Holding, married on 23rd December 1935. They enjoyed a double wedding, as at the very same time Edith's sister Kathleen Charlton married her beau, Alfred Moseley, who was Joe's friend and comrade. They were both soldiers in the Kings Own Royal Regiment, and were serving prior to WWII, so you might call them career soldiers.

The two brides are in the centre; Edith (left) and Kathleen (right).

Their two grooms are beside them; Joseph (left of Edith) and Alfred (right of Kathleen).

The other couples are their witnesses; Kenyon Holding (Joe's brother) and Gertrude Charlton (Edith and Kathleen's sister) on the far left, and John Tyler and Lily Mitchell (relationship as yet unknown).

The first of the two couples to welcome a baby into the world were my grandparents, when their first child was born in September 1937, followed swiftly behind by Kathleen and Alfred, whose daughter was born the following month. My father was born in May 1938, but Arthur and Kathleen did not have any further children. Both Joseph and Alfred were sent with their regiment to serve in Palestine, during the British Mandate. 

In October 1938, whilst serving in with the British army in Gaza,  Alfred was tragically killed in action, leaving Kathleen a single mum to her baby daughter. To add to that tragedy, before 6 months had passed Kathleen took sick and died, in Lancaster, effectively leaving her 18 month old daughter an orphan.

My grandparents adopted Kathleen and Arthur's daughter, and raised her as their own daughter. My grandmother had three children to care for, all under the age of 2 years. 

I always knew Kathleen's daughter as my aunty, and her children have always been, and will always be my cousins, but our family tree on Ancestry does not show this close connection, which always makes me feel a little sad. Without stories like this, such family ties are lost, as the generations fall away.

#Holding

#Charlton