A LITTLE over 12 months ago, in Bugle 1009, Joyce Gough of Cheslyn Hay shared with us the story of her attempts to track down details of her great-uncle, Albert Peter Morgan, a soldier of the Boer War who was killed at Driefontein on 10th March, 1900. Joyce continued her research into her Morgan family tree and through contacts with relatives she has unearthed further pictures of her ancestors.
Joyce writes, “Some time ago I wrote regarding a photograph I was researching, thinking it was my grandmother Laura Hancox, nee Morgan’s, elder brother Albert who had been killed in The Boer War. A poem had been written for Albert by the Portobello poet Thomas Bratt.
“While researching my photograph my local history society found a beautiful photograph of another of my grandmother Laura’s siblings, Lawrence Luke Morgan alongside his wife and children. This photograph led me to getting in touch with Lawrence Luke’s granddaughter Barbara Hazeldine, nee Morgan, and her partner Bill. Bill has been doing a great deal of research into the Morgan family.
“Barbara and Bill are not only in touch with some of our American relations, (most of our grandparents’ siblings emigrated to America and Canada), but they have entertained the Americans by putting them up in a hotel in Stoke-on-Trent and hiring a bus to take their visitors on a tour of the Potteries and then a trip to Willenhall to see where the family originated.
“Last Summer I was invited with my husband and granddaughter to a family reunion at another relative’s house in Stafford, where we were able to meet members of my grandmother Laura’s family. Some I had visited as a young child with my Nan, as she sought to catch up with relatives after she retired.
“It was so nice to see these relatives and find out what they had done with their lives. Our granddaughter enjoyed her day and has since spent time with Barbara’s grandsons when we visited Barbara and Bill at their own house.
“At the reunion one of my third cousins had a photograph of my parents’ wedding and I was able to tell her who they were. She also had photos of my grandmother Laura alongside my father George and his brother Frank which must have been taken the year before my grandfather Will passed away, as written on the back were the words ‘From Laura, Will and the boys’.
“I had never seen a photograph of my grandmother in her younger days, except for the photograph I sent to the Bugle of Laura when she was a young girl standing next to her father Peter Morgan.
“I was also given photographs of a young Elsie Morgan, another of my grandmother’s siblings, who I had only met when she was near to retiring age.
“It was so nice to discover these photographs, I was able to supply the family with photographs of family which they did not already have.
“Since our first meeting Barbara has written some articles to the Bugle and now reads the Bugle every week, as I do.
“Barbara and I discovered that we both worked at companies not far from each other in our youth, doing similar accounting work.
“Barbara is also an accomplished dressmaker, as was my grandmother Laura, and Barbara taught this subject at Wombourne Evening Institute and Bilston Technical College, as well as her office job.
“Attached is a picture of Barbara’s grandparents’ family, which includes Barbara’s father Harold.
“Their names are as follows: children at the back, Albert, Phyllis Wallace and Laura; their parents Lawrence Luke and Martha Patience; children at the front, Elsie, Sidney, Eric and Harold (Barbara’s Father).
“I hope this will be of interest to any Morgan family members in their search of the family tree.”
