Having got what I thought were the hard parts of my search over I began to trace my Grandmother and her family.
What a hope. My mother had been a "Dreamweaver" but my Grandmother was even more of a spinner of tales.
I knew that my Grandmother had been married to someone she had told us was Donald Richard Alexander Miekle. Don't you believe it. He was actually called James Alexander Miekle. He was a ships steward and they met in Toxteth, Liverpool, in 1913 when my Grandmother was a "Clippie" on the trams.
In 1918 they got married, on the 2nd of May. In September the same year they recorded the birth of a son but called him Charles C.W. Pockett. Two other children followed, both female. One is Marjorie Miekle and the other Jean Miekle, both of them my aunts. All I can find of them is their birth records. A strange element creeps in here for there was a photograph of my aunts with their "Brother" Edward. There are no records of this brother at all. Who was this mystery man, is he my father, it certainly seems possible.
The details that I now had excluded my mother and so I sent off to the General records Office in London for my mothers "Birth Certificate". Lo and Behold, she was born in The Institution, Old Hereford Road, Monmouth. I believe that this was a workhouse in 1913, the year my mother was born. She was also illegitimate and she had the name of Vera Josephine Pockett.
I was now left wondering, who was the Pockett that she had been named after ?
More time in the Library led to the discovery that my Grandmother had married James Pockett of Coleford, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire in 1905, when she was 18. The records show that there was no child until 1907 when they had a son, William John Pockett. Once again odd things showed up. From what I had been told by my mother, just prior to her death, my Grandmother had a son who she told everyone had died and that his name was William. Also she had stated that her husband had died. The records show no deaths of either William John or his father, James Pockett.
Where did they go. I am led to the conclusion that my Grandmother divorced her husband. If this is true, and seems most likely, it follows that she would not have been able to keep the child, William John Pockett. As there was no official adoption policy in this country at that time the most probably and common way out was for children to be given over to other members of the woman's family to be raised as their own. This would have led to William John Pockett being raised as William John Brown, which was my Grandmothers maiden name.
The saddest part of this is that I do not know if he ever got to see his Paternal Grandparents who lived in Coleford. I would Like to think that he did, but, knowing what I do, I doubt it and so Thomas Pockett, the Green Grocer in Coleford would have missed out on the growing up of his Grandchild.
This story now throws up a new twist. Who was my mothers father ?
From statements made to my mother, by my Grandmother, it would appear that the father was a well to do person, probably from a large house or hall in the district of West Dean. The statement made by my Grandmother was< "Your father was the First Squire of Monmouth". What, I wonder, does that really mean. I am also puzzled as to where and how my Grandmother raised the finances to leave the Forest of Dean and get to Liverpool and from there to London. Most youngsters see their Grandparents as kindly, gentle and loving people. Not me, my Grandmother "Cut my mother off" from the family in 1948 and I have never seen any member of the family since although I was led to believe that they moved to, and lived in, Chingford in Essex.
Can you face the next steps in my search. The steps that lead only as far as two people whom I never knew or met, but people I really wish I had known. If so, go on to the next page.