What Have I Learned About My Granpop's Side of the Family?

It had been difficult finding out about my grandfather's side of the family. Despite being raised by my grandparents until I was about 4, and spending school holidays with them until I was 11 or 12, I didn't recall seeing any of them except Tilly and Lilly, his sisters Matilda and Lillian, and that was only on a few occasions. I actually remember his brother Bill from my granpop's funeral in 1978 but don't recall if any of the other siblings were there at all.

So with nobody close to talk to or ask questions of, I was left with just a paper trail as a means of finding out. The only problem was that, for the first 10 years or so, I could not find the place to start. I couldn't even get his birth certificate as I didn't know where he'd been born nor the names of his parents. And when I searched for an Edward Lewis with brothers William and John, and sisters Matilda and Lillian, in the early part of the twentieth century, in London, I had hundreds of thousands of results. It seems they were the popular names of every almost every Lewis born in those years.

At that point, I thought my granpop was the youngest in the family but later, I found there was another brother, born in 1916, George.

When the breakthrough finally came, it opened up the floodgates. I think it was his death certificate that provided the registration district where he was born, and from there, census and electoral rolls provided more. Some addresses I knew from my childhood memories, others were an "oh wow, we used to walk within yards of that one, and never knew" moment. Gradually, I began to pull together all of the info and, through other research pertaining to the areas and periods, and come up with a fairly decent insight into the lives of those who went before.

That, for me, is part of the journey. I don't just want names and dates, I want to get to know who these people were.

Unfortunately, for many of my health problems, his family's cardiovascular genetics have been passed on to me.

He died of an aortic aneurysm.

His mother, Matilda Eliza Lewis (nee Burton) died of Auricular Fibrillation (A-Fib as it is known now, and which I have).

Her father, George Burton, died at the young age of only 35, from Cerebral Congestion (which further research has led to deciphering as high blood pressure probably resulting in a stroke).

I also found out that Matilda was born and grew up in the Old Nichol area of Bethnal Green (a notorious slum at the time) and that her mother's side of the family lived there, for a couple of generations prior to that (which is as far as I've got so far).

I still have a lot of finding out to do, but I am proud of his mother and father for what they achieved.

In 1913, when my granpop was born, they were living in Columbia Square, Bethnal Green, and he made the 5th child. This, at a time when the people that the Columbia Market housing had been built to house, could not afford the rents. My granpop's father, John, worked as a piano fitter/furniture maker and his wife, Matilda, is listed on the census as a box-maker. This was a common home-based work option that many women did, often involving the whole family, as it was piecework, and quotas were expected to be met.

So, with 5 children to feed and clothe, they lived in decent accommodation with a shared indoor bathroom on each level.