At 13 Socrates Place, Shorditch in 1890.
In 1911, family was living at 5 Shrublan Rd, Dalton, in 5 room house.

Had other children with another woman.

Baptised 1871-12-10.
At 11 Little York Street at birth.
At 42 Church St., Shorditch in 1890.
Died at 41 Angela St., Bethnal Green, London, England.

Comment I made in email to family members 2009-02-08:

I knew that my grandfather William Flinn (1874 - 1958) was from Bethnal Green in the east end of London: notorious slums, one of the Cockney areas, and probably one of the backdrops for some of Charles Dickens writings. It, and neighbouring slum Whitechapel, was also the operating area of infamous Jack the Ripper who carried out his killings in 1888 when grandpa was living there at the age of 14.

In my early genealogical research days, I interviewed Grandpa Flinn in 1957 -- the year before he died. Even though he had his mental facilities until his death, he was vague about the area he was from, and couldn't even remember the exact birthdays of some of his siblings. In fact, I got the feeling he preferred NOT to talk much about his birth place of Bethnal Green. He kept regular contact with only one sibling late in life: Maria, his sister who was two and a half years older (Grandpa was born in 1874; his sister, Aunt Maria, in 1871). He told me stories about her: one I recall - that during World War II when Bethnal Green got more than it's fair share of bombings, she got fed up going to air raid shelters almost every night when the sirens went off, so placed a mattress under the kitchen table, figuring that would protect them if the place was hit.

I was fascinated. Grandpa had Aunt Maria's address, so I decided to write her for more details. We exchange a few letters between 1957 and 1960, and I was the one to inform her of Grandpa Flinn's death (her brother) in 1958. Unfortunately, her replies did not give more information -- it seemed at the time she thought it would be meaningless, as her response was "they are all dead now" and I assumed only she and my grandfather were still alive out of 11 children in the family. I still do not have death dates for 6 of them. From her letters, I got the feeling she was unhappy, could never get out, and wasn't being treated well by family. I stopped writing to Aunt Maria and it was only later I learned she died in 1963 at the age of 91, and had no current address of her children. I lost track of that branch of the family.

Having my genealogy online paid off when Aunt Maria's great-grandson (Jack Alexander-Reece) found it and contacted me a couple of years ago. I scanned the letters I kept from Aunt Maria and he was pleased to receive them. He was only three when his great grandmother Maria died. However, he heard a lot from his grandmother Florence Cawley, daughter of Thomas (Tom) Cawley and Maria. He confirmed the story of sleeping under the kitchen table during World War II. He also said what I suspected, that the marriage was not very happy, and told the story that she took a razor to bed each night "in case he tried to sow his oats." He also said that his great grandfather Tom apparently had other children with several women who were not his wife.

They had 7 children -- or so I thought. This is where ignorance is bliss when it comes to the 1911 census. One of the questions asked was number of children born alive, the number still living and the number who have died. She listed 10 children born 7 alive, and 3 dead. I had the 7 children, as they were named in the census. Normally, I would not then find the names of the 3 dead children -- EXCEPT they listed them! The names were then scratched out and marked "dead" apparently by the enumerator. Naughty, naughty, they were probably told. But the "damage" was done and now I had their names. I then checked the index of births and deaths and found all three who died in the same years they were born. I'm not paying the high fee to get extracts that would give exact dates and other details. However, I could tell that it included one set of twins who both died.

I contacted second cousin once removed Jack Alexander Reece, and he passed on additional information, which I include below. One thing that he heard from his grandmother doesn't match exactly what I found: I found only one set of twins, not three. I suspect the story he heard was misquoted down the line.

Family history is more than collecting names and dates. These were real living people who had interesting, exciting, and often difficult lives, Their personalities developed out of their living experiences. They pass down some of their experiences to their descendants. This detective story leads us to better understand our relatives of the past and how we develop today and can even explain our little sayings. "What the Dickens..."

- Jim


From Jack Alexander-Reece:

>I think I can explain the three dead children.

I was told that Great Grandma ( Maria Flinn / Cawley) actually gave birth to 3 sets of twins. Always one died and always the twins were opposite sex. Indeed Grandma ( Florence Cawley/Fidgett) definitely had a twin who died- she used to tell me about him) She used to use his name but I can't remember it. They used to include the three deceased children as "part of the family" and particularly remember them on birthdays etc. I guess it was easy to do this as all had their sibling twin living. That probably explains why G.Grandad wrote them on the census.
The story also goes that the three dead children were left on the window sill in a shoe box until a penny could be afforded for the burial. Very sad in many ways but reflecting the times that were.
I always picked up that however hard life was, however strained the marriage was between Thomas and Maria and however poor the kids were - and they really were - there was still great love there within the family.

My Grandma (Florence Cawley) would never go back to London after she moved to the countryside with her husband - my Grandad Fidgett. I was 14 when she died- a really lovely, loving, classic Edwardian lady- they don;t make them like my Grandma any more! It was really difficult to get her to talk about her childhood or East End days. She became quite traumatised by speaking about it. She wanted to forget it.

These are words and things I remember her saying:

" My Brother Tom became a city gent"
"My sister Kit is not very nice"
"We had no shoes on our feet til we went to school"
"we were often sent home covered in green slime from the smog"
" I played a violin"
"My father was no good"
"My poor mother's life was hell on earth"
" We used to go to the docks and watch boats come in from all over the Empire- we would spend all day there and see every exotic commodity imaginable, dead and alive"
"We used to sleep all in one bed"
"For Christmas we would get an orange and an apple and some nuts"

I believe that these slums were something else. And they weren't poor compared to some others like Whitechapel.

I often tell my students when they go on about the British Colonialism and its unfairness to people of different coloured skin. I remind them that it was nothing to do with the colour of skin but your status in life. The British people of UK were some of the worst hit during Imperial times- especially those of the slums of our big cities, London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Cardiff and Belfast. It's what Dickens wrote about in his novels. In fact one of Grandma's favourite expressions was " What the Dicken's is going on?"<