The 1838 certificate, from which the extract below was taken, was among the earliest of its sort, coming only months after the formation of the General Register Office for England and Wales in 1837. This certificate celebrates the marriage of Peter Simon Myers, from Poland, to Londoner, Charlotte Isaacs, on the 12th of March that year. Peter and Charlotte are my great-great-great grandparents.

This happy event almost didn't happen, though. Only seven months earlier Charlotte had attempted suicide ('self-destruction' being the phrase used in those very early Victorian days), as described in the London Morning Post on the right:

It certainly wasn't something I expected to learn when looking for newspaper references to our family, and at first I wondered if it really was our Charlotte, but her reported residence exactly matches her address on the marriage certificate above, whch removed any doubt. On a positive note, Charlotte is described in the report as a "most beautiful girl".

Although Charlotte refused to give her reasons for her sadness, a bit more newspaper research turned up something rather shocking, which appears to explain a possible reason why Charlotte and her siblings might have had a particularly tough upbringing. In the article below, from September 1823, her mother, Maria, was reported for the cruel treatment of her baby, which was almost certainly Charlotte's younger sister, Caroline, born in 1822-23.

The 1841 census below shows that Peter and Charlotte had already begun their family, and now had a son, Joseph. Fortunately, no newspaper reports have been located indicating any further untoward behaviour in Charlotte's family. Peter's trade throughout his life was in shoe making, but by the time of the 1881 census he was recorded as "employer".

Their daughter, Rose, born in June 1847, was the fourth of ten children, and was my great-great grandmother. Peter and Charlotte appeared to have spent most of their lives living in Leeds, Yorkshire, where the first eight of their children were born - but lived for a brief spell in London where they had their last two children, Edward and Emily.

A few years later and it's Rose's turn to get married to a Polish gentleman - a general dealer named Hart Abrahams, in 1865. As can be seen from Rose's birth certificate above, she should have been recorded as being 18 years of age when married, but has incorrectly been recorded as 17.

Hart's age is also a difficult thing to be certain of. His age on their wedding day is written as 20 years old, suggesting a birth of around 1845. His death certificate records his age at 48 in February 1895, suggesting that he might have been born around 1846 (assuming that he would've been 49 later in 1895). However, his age in the 1871 census is marked as 38, and in 1881 is clearly 49, suggesting he was born around 1831-32! The mystery remains currently unsolved.

Hart and Rose also had a large family (nine children) and their third child, Miriam (1871), was my great grandmother.
Below is an extract from Miriam's birth certificate. Note how Miriam's name has been misspelled "Mariam"? Because of this mistake, this particular certificate took a bit of finding, including purchasing the wrong one for another "Miriam Abrahams"!

Miriam appears in her first census in 1881 (below) as a nine year old, having just missed out appearing in the 1871 census.... she was born just ten days after that census was taken! In keeping with many families traditions of favouring certain names, some years later Miriam and Hyman named four of their children Rose, Lily, Hart and Minnie....

Now in 1891, we can see Miriam as a young lady married to Hyman, and about to begin their own family - this time a more modest five children. Miriam, like her mother and grandmother before her, also married a man from Poland.

An extract from Hart's death certificate showing him to be only 48 in 1895.

Here is Miriam with her family in 1902:

The children at the back are Rosie, Hart and Lily.
Seated are the parents Miriam and Hyman.
On Miriam's lap is Minnie, and on Hyman's lap is my grandmother, Esther, known
to most people throughout her long life as "Hetty". She was my mum's mum.

All of Hyman and Miriam's children were given the last name of "Abrahams" on their birth certificates but at the same time, rather confusingly, the family officially went by the surname of Miller. (See the 1901 census extract below.) The name was almost certainly anglicised to help the family run business - Hyman was a master tailor.

At the time that this census was taken (31st March 1901) Miriam would have been three months pregnant with their last child, Minnie. Also, their second daughter, Leah, was known throughout her life as Lily.

The certificate above records the birth of "Hetty" (Esther) who would one day become my "Nanna"....

The first photo shows Hetty (known affectionately by my brother and me, as "Nanna Martin") as a thirty year old in July 1929. As you can see from the lower-left photo, my grandmother was still a lovely looking lady in her mid 70s.

On the right is Hetty's husband Arthur Martin. (Born - Arthur Nunes Martinez.) Unfortunately, I was only ten months old when he died in February 1966 and so I never got to know my grandfather and have no memories of him. My memories of Nanna Martin though, are plentiful and all happy ones. Hetty was the warmest and most generous and loving grandma that one could wish to have. Arthur's brother, Baron, also changed his name to Martin and coincidentally married Hetty's sister, Minnie.