Sunday 13 May 2018

Week 19 - Mother's Day

This week's #52ancestors theme is 'Mother's Day' as the USA and Canada celebrate it this weekend.  So I am going to write about an amazing mother who raised a family of nine children by herself; my great-grandmother Emma Elizabeth Garfoot.  



Emma was born on the 6 August 1874 in Bow, Middlesex to John and Ann (nee Harding) Garfoot.  She grew up in Bow although in the 1881 census she was staying with her aunt Elizabeth Watts (nee Garfoot - John's sister) in Wymering, Hampshire.  At some point in the 1880s, the family moved to Peterborough where John continued his job as a railway guard.  Sadly in 1889, John died and Emma and her sister Mary Ann (known as Polly) were left with their mother Ann.  

On 1 February 1899, Emma married John George Braybrook (see Week 2 for details of the wedding).  They had nine children:

  • Hilda Elizabeth Annie - born 2 June 1900
  • Minnie Victoria (known as Tweet) - born 6 December 1901
  • Florence Margaret - born 2 June 1904
  • Lucy Mary - born 29 January 1906
  • Bertha Helen - born 30 December 1907
  • John George Robert Garfoot (known as Jack) - born 29 November 1909
  • Evelyn Ruth - born 18 March 1912
  • Muriel Nellie (my grandmother) - born 17 January 1915
  • Benjamin Victor - born 7 October 1917

This was captured in a Family Record that had probably been removed from a bible and was given to me by Auntie Tweet.


Sadly John Braybrook never knew his youngest son as John died on 20 March 1917 leaving Emma to bring up a family of nine up by herself.  I grew up knowing a number of my great aunts and uncles and have to say Emma must have done an excellent job to bring up a group of independent and kind people.

The photo below was taken on the same day as the one at the start of this article with the children lined up in age order (youngest at the front).


 Ben, Mu, Evelyn, Jack, Bertha, Lucy, Gar, Tweet, Hilda