Category: Old Postcard

Some background information

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The collection starts with a card sent to George H Barber in 1906.

A quick look at the online census collections  has enabled me to find out a little of the family background to the story told by these postcards, and to begin to be able to understand  the lives of these people who have been so familiar to me (through their postcards)  for over 50 years.

George Henry Charles Barber was born in 1871 in Bethnal Green, London. His father, also named George Barber, was a draper’s assistant who was originally from Foulsham in Norfolk.

George Henry Charles Barber married Annie Crerar on October 2nd 1900 at the parish church in Hornsey, London.  Annie, born in 1870,  was the daughter of  Alexander Crerar, a printer originally from Perth in Scotland.

At the time of their marriage George gave his occupation as  “clerk” and Annie was a milliner.  According to the 1901 census George and Annie  began their married life at 76 Lausanne Road, Hornsey, not far from Annie’s parents who lived in Hornsey Park Road.

A daughter, Winifred Emily, was born in 1902.   By 1906, when the first postcard in the collection dropped through their letter box, the family were living at 1 Moffat Road, Palmers Green.

The story of their postcards begins….

 

 

The box of postcards

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Sometime in 1967 or 1968 I was sitting quietly at my grandparents’ house in Muswell Hill  while the adults chatted about people and places.  After a while my  grandmother disappeared upstairs, returning a few minutes later with a box containing about 200 old postcards.  She said that she thought I might like to look through them while I was at her house.  By the end of my visit I must have been so engrossed that she decided to let me take them home with me.  And somehow, despite leaving home for university, and several house moves since then,  I still own that box of fading, dusty cards – they have survived and are as fascinating to me now as they were over 50 years ago.

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Some of the postcards from the box found in a house in Winchmore Hill

I would love to be able to announce that they all relate to my family history, but sadly that’s not the case.  Apparently they had been found by my uncle when he was helping someone to move into a house in Winchmore Hill, London N21.   About half  the cards have been postally used, and over the years I have occasionally looked through the box and wondered about the stories behind the messages.  When I first began to research my own family tree  I tried a few times to identify the family to whom these cards belonged but I didn’t have time for any detailed research.

I’ve now sorted the postcards into chronological order and, thanks to the wealth of  online resources and my own retirement from full time work,  I am ready to delve into the stories behind these cards which were the beginning of my interest in the stories told by old postcards.