Welcome to the family

I have not had a good long session on my family history for quite a while, but I have been pottering and every now and then I get lucky.
One such occasion was an e-mail from a fellow researcher, who was looking into her mother's family in the Market Harborough area. She had rubbed up against my tree and she thought that I'd like to see some research she'd done a little while ago. She had thought that Margaret's grandfather Tye's family were related to her, but hadn't been able to discover a definite connection.
That was a shame, but her research did confirm that William Tye (Margaret's grandfather) had a sister and a brother. I had suspected as much from a workhouse record, but his brother had been listed there as 17 instead of seven.
I also have also discovered his parents names - William Tye and Abigail Wilson. William was a labourer, the son of a labourer, and Abigail's father, who came from Northamptonshire, was also a labourer. William married at 27 and Abigail was 20 (and five months pregnant - unless her first child was born at 16 weeks, and lived). It seems William may have died aged around 34 (or gone away) because the children were all in Market Harborough Union Workhouse at 7, 5 and 3. Abigail had another child later, although no marriage has been discovered and there is no father on the birth certificate.
It's interesting stuff and you get a flavour of how hard and different their lives would have been. Hard manual work, little money, no consumer demands except perhaps some new clothes from time to time. Their pleasures would have been more simple - sex (certainly, judging by the prolific number of children), alcohol, family, a sunset, flowers, a good meal.

William Tye - chin, brow and mouth
are seen in the family to this day

I have a couple of pictures of William and he interests me because he has a brow and mouth that is prominent in Margaret's family. Tom shares some of his features and Margaret's brother Graham does too. Family names are held in remembrance throughout the tree, and an example is William's sister Eleanor (also spelled Elinor in some documents) who died aged 18. William called his first child Eleanor (Margaret's Aunt Nellie and a favourite sister of her mother). Margaret's mum also has a sister Elizabeth, who died in 1946, and Margaret would have been called Elizabeth if she hadn't been born in Coronation year (her mother didn't want people to think she was being called after the new Queen). The honour went instead to her youngest sister.
Another few branches and twigs complete. It's amazing how much more we know than we did this time last year when Margaret could not name her grandparents. We've discovered Dilkes, Wilkes, Robinsons, Wilsons; a half-brother she didn't know she had, mine disasters and many sad stories. There's a lot more to do - yet another project for retirement.