Tuesday 3 February 2009

Physical descriptions

Paternal grandfather Ivor James MANSELL

A second cousin in Stockton, Betty Wherly, wrote to me in 1998 & passed on a description of grandad Mansell and his sister Eliza (Betty's grandma) as given to her by her mother, another Eliza Ann. According to Eliza her Uncle Ivor was very tall and slim, well groomed and quietly spoken. In contrast her mother Eliza Ann was slim, small and dark-haired - "very Welsh in fact".

It would seem that Ivor and Eliza were very close and Eliza was "very proud" of her older brother. In fact Eliza named one of her daughters Ivy after her brother Ivor. When their parents George and Eliza Mansell had both passed away, Ivor and Eliza Ann looked after their younger siblings and in fact on the 1901 census we see Betty's 23 year-old gran Eliza as the head of the household with siblings Rhoda (21), George (19), Tom (17) and Annie Maud (9) living with her. Newly married Ivor was probably with his wife although so far I have not found him on the 1901 census at all.



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