63 Liney Road,
Westonzoyland
Somerset
TA7 0EU
21/3/19


Dear Tim,

Thank you so much for sending your address - I am afraid that, as my grandchildren say, I don't do technology! We do not have a computer and my children have only just persuaded me to get a modern phone, hence the gmail add, but I can't do much and leave most things to the others! I am much happier with pen and paper so will send to you this way, but if you need anything in another form then I will get one of the others to sort it.

Yes, we share the same great grandparents, Benedict and Mary Vaughan, but the only thing I know about Benedict is that he died young and was an uphiolsterer. Of all the children I only knew your grandmother Edie and I remember my mother talking about staying with an aunt in the Isle of Wight and another one on the south coast? But I don't know their names.

She also talked about your mother Betty and Pauline. I have a kettle stand that I believe was made by your grandfather at his works, and that's about all I know.

So, one of Benedict and Mary's daughters, my grandmother Agnes was born 14/8/1888 at 166, Cornwall Road, Kensington, and on her birth certificate Benedict was then a journeyman/plasterer. On 2/8/1913 she married Frederick Leonard White at Saint Helens Church Kensington and they lived with Mary in Saint Helens Gardens. On Nov 20th 1914 my mother Gladys Mary was born. Len was a chauffeur until 1916 when he went into the army/air force where he drove a major around the airfields in France. After the war he was a taxi driver until 1928 when he went into training greyhounds with his uncle in Norfolk. They lived in Norfolk for two years, then moved around the Greyhound tracks in Birmingham and Gloucester. In 1938 Len and Annie as she was always now took on the running of the Fleece Hotel in Cinderford, Glos. Annie died 18/9/66.

Gladys moved around with them and in 1942 she married Roy Meredith, and architect, living with his parents in Cinderford.

Robert was born in 1946 and I followed in 1948. Gladys died 10/9/2009.

Robert went to live in Sydney in 1981, he had two failed marriages and no children. I am at Roger Field in 1965, moving to Somerset. As he was in the Police Force we lived in several places in Somerset, for finally settling in the village of Westonzoyland – it was in this village that Barry did his national service in the RAF at the airfield just up the road from where we live!

We have two daughters, both are married and living in the village – Elizabeth, the oldest has two boys aged 24 & 21, both still at home and the younger Katie has a boy 22 and a daughter 26 - Elliott is still at home but Naomi has stayed in Cardiff after going to university there.

So that's all our histories – and I can't think that I know much more. Annie I believe was a milliner before her marriage, Mary Vaughan’s maiden name was Ruston and it seems her family at some point were chainmakers in Dudley.

As always you don't start asking questions about family history until it's too late.

Hope some of this is useful to you, and we hope we can get to visit Barry during the summer.

With Best wishes,
Angela.