General Chat

A while ago, my dad's cousin told him that one of our ancestors was Mayor of Lowden which is now a part of Chippenham. But our second cousin had a contact in the records office and said as far as they knew from their records there had never been a mayor in lowden.

However, last night while I was looking at the chippenham maps I decided to google lowden and found an article about it's church. In it the author mentioned that due to the isolated nature of the community Lowden had a mayor and that the regalia was held at the Chippenham Museum and Heritage Centre. So, I emailed them at 4am this morning lol.

I just had a reply from their administrator, who described the regalia to me and a photograph of a man in the regalia, on the reverse is the name [my surname], although there's no evidence that it's the person in the picture. The post was unadopted and therefore unofficial. But she is sending a copy in the post as we speak. She also says that there are newspaper articles relating to the festivities that were relocated to the New History Centre that opened last year.

I'm so thrilled, it looks like something that had been dismissed as a family myth was actually true. At last, someone of interest in my tree lol.

How exciting for you.
I do hope that it turns out to be your rellie.
Gotta belong to someone hasn't he?
Mine are all just plain peeps.... nothing exciting about my lot.
Deanna X

Oh wow, that's brilliant! How exciting for you. Pleased to hear that the staff are so helpful too.

Mandy :)

She was wonderful. Even rushing to the library before it closed. I didn't expect to hear back so soon. I hope she makes the post intime for me to get it tomorrow.

I don't know if it's worth emailing the new history centre or just waiting until we get down there which will no doubt be much later in the year.

How lovely for you.
i was excited when i found out my family owned a big shop in liverpool but sadly it was knocked down in 1940 but i did manage to get a photo of it with my great granfather stood out side
claire xx

Deanna, he does indeed have to belong to someone. If it's who I think it is then he's my 2 x great grandfather.

Claire, isn't it wonderful to have a photo to relate to. I have been fortunate in that some contacts I made on here were able to send pics of some ancestors. It's like a connection is made.

nudge for purple diamond if she's around tonight

Hi Liz, that's wonderful, hope she did catch the post!
I have seen some photos of my great grandparents but they are stuck in an album so my cousin hasn't managed to copy any, I want to visit her again in Sussex and see if we can photograph the photos if you know what I mean. My son used my camera when we were in Malta and took pics of his Nanna's wedding photos and a pic of his dad at his confirmation etc, and they were under glass but came out ok, so I am sure if we get up closer to the pics in the scrapbook my Gran had I can get some copies. It is great to have pictures so you can look for family likeness etc.
When I thought I was visiting another cousin in Buckingham last year, I made contact with a big old Hall that I have been told my great grandfather worked on, he was a stonemason. I mailed the place and two of the ladies who work there mailed me back and said they had looked through all the lists and couldn't find his name but that maybe he worked under a contractor. They said if I went there and asked for them, they would get books of photos of the workers and let me look to see if I recognised him, so I will have to ask my coz to send me a pic of him first. I will be going this year for certain, would be lovely to find him but am certain he did work there as remember my dad saying something about it.
Lizx

I think I was too late with my email. The pic didn't come today so I'm hoping it will come tomorrow. Can't wait. The males in my dad's line all look quite a like, so it'll be interesting to see.

Still no picture, mind you I think our postie has taken the day off... can't say I blame him with this wind. lol.

I'm fairly sure I posted an update on here *looks confused.

Anyway, the pic came and it looks very much like our family line. The woman emailed me and said she'd found another pic of a different older chap in the regalia. It arrived this morning. I think it is either actually the same man or possibly his father. They have the same eyes and the pose is almost exactly the same. I sort of am more towards father based on the fact the pic looks older than the other one (as in, taken before it). However, that could just be that it hasn't been as well looked after. So I'm now waiting for a pic from my cousin of the man who is meant to have been the mayor in our family to compare the two.

All very exciting.

How lovely. Hope the other pic comes soon.
Lizx