Scrolling Back

Scrolling Back - Family History

The story goes that my Grandmother, Ethel Minnie Blaker - known as Min - was on the train on her way to begin training as a nurse, when my Grandfather Fred went to see her off.

Now, I don't know what Fred said or did, but Min never went off to learn nursing.  She got off the train, Fred took her luggage, and in 1902 they were married in Shimla.  Ethel (Aunty Madge) was born in 1903,  Cyril (Uncle Buck) in 1904 and thirteen years later my father arrived.

Min was twelfth of sixteen children, ten of whom survived infancy.  Her Grandfather, Henry Blaker, had gone out to India in 1846 with his wife and two small sons.  Her father, Richard, was a Captain in the Indian Service Medical Department.






Fred's Grandfather had also gone to India in the 1840's - he was a Sergeant with the 9th Lancers of Cawnpore at the time of his marriage in 1845.

I'm guessing that the two families must have known each other well, as Fred's oldest sister married Min's oldest brother!

There seems to be Buckner/Blaker family history all over India - and this time next week we will have arrived in Calcutta to start tracing a few footsteps.  I can't quite believe it.