The details all came from my cousin Belinda who is a descendant of Elizabeth. Belinda sent me a couple of photos of three of Elizabeth's great grandchildren who are (left to right) - Doris Steward (who became Doris Durrant), Elsie Steward (who became Elsie Shailer) and Marjorie Steward (who became Marjorie Fraser).
Interestingly one of the photos is in sepia and the other has been colour enhanced. It is thought it was taken in the early 1930s.
Below that is a photograph of Doris taken much later in life.
Doris' life is a fascinating story. She was born and grew up in Norwich and was married in the city to Cyril Durrant. They had a daughter Christine who was born in Norwich. When Christine was just one year old the family emigrated to the USA. They had already become practising members of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (better known as Mormons).
They settled in Utah where their family and the number of descendants grew and grew and spread to other parts of America and today numbers into the hundreds. A few years ago I travelled to Utah to meet many of my "American Family". Doris Durrant was my first cousin. A lovely lady she still had vivid memories of growing up in Norwich.
Doris lived into her 90s and, when we returned to the UK, phoned me up on a number of occasions and described in great details areas of Norwich she played in as a girl and her walks through the city.
Before she died, Doris spoke about her life and I have a transcript of that interview which I have reproduced in full on my website but below is a little taster about her early days as a Mormon.
"When we were very little girls, my two little sisters and I started Sunday School at the Methodist Church close by our home. It was held in the afternoon. We also attended evening services. At this time, my grandfather, Frederick Tuttle, was superintendent of the Sunday School of the little Branch in Norwich, of the LDS Church. As soon as my sisters and I were big enough to walk there, a lady who lived close by and who was a Latter-Day Saint, started to take us to Sunday School. It must have been two or three miles each way and a very long way for us to walk. We called the lady Auntie Mabel, and I recall that every few minutes we would say, "Are we half way there yet, Auntie Mabel?" As I have mentioned, my grandfather was Sunday school superintendent, and I was very proud of him and enjoyed immensely attending Sunday school, (there in the morning and Methodist Sunday School in the afternoon). As I grew older, I began to realise there was a great difference in the two Sunday Schools I was attending. After much thought, study and prayer, I became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints."
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I just caught the tail-end of an interview on the local television news last night with former footballer Chris Sutton. I didn't catch much of it but I believe he was talking about his dad Mike who has contracted Covid 19.
I have a slightly unusual memory of Mike Sutton who had a football career playing for Norwich, Chester and a few others. Being brought up in Hellesdon just outside Norwich, I spent much of my childhood playing on Hellesdon Recreation Ground - known simply as The Rec. Football, cricket, tennis, cycle speedway, I didn't really care what the sport was as long as I could do it.
One day, no idea when it was or how it came about, myself and a few friends had a kick around for a short while with this man who seemed to know what he was doing. It turned out to be Mike Sutton and I went home glowing that I had played football with a Norwich City player. In those days that kind of thing left quite a mark and I remember it to this day.
Mind you we had other tenuous connections with the Sutton family. England international footballer Chris Sutton was also a very competent local cricketer. I believe he played for Horsford and one day they were playing Hethersett in a big cup match. My son was in the Hethersett side and dropped Chris Sutton when he was in single figures. Sutton went on to score a century and help his team to victory and my Matt got a certificate at the annual awards evening for "cock-up" of the season.
Chris' brother and Mike's other son John was also a good footballer and has had an illustrious career in Scotland. He attended junior school at Horsford and obviously played as striker for the school football team. At the time I ran the Hethersett Middle School team. We had a good side with some outstanding footballers but in our first match at Horsford we were overrun. John Sutton scored four goals and I think the final score was around 8-0.
For the return match at Hethersett I put three players to mark John Sutton. If he beat one he would be met by a second and if he beat the second he would be met by a third. The plan worked. John Sutton didn't score and into the last minute we were leading 4-3. Unfortunately being young boys they didn't understand the concept of holding what you have and went forward on another all out attack only to be caught on the break with Horsford equalising seconds from the end. Nevertheless we looked upon a draw as a very successful result but more importantly we stopped John Sutton from scoring.
I will have much more on my sporting endeavours and memories in coming blogs.
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I see that Black Friday is coming up again - or should that now be Black Two Weeks or Black Month. It's all been expanded and the offers are no better than the offers at any other part of the year.
These wonderful Black Friday offers are no better than what we are offered throughout the year.
I remember when a sale was a sale. Shops had one once a year and there were genuine reductions. I remember the joy of going to HMV to get a bargain from the record or CD sale bins with people jostling to get in.
Now we have a sale every day, you never have to pay full price for anything - although nobody really knows what full price is anymore. I love these TV adverts that boom out "But Hurry. Our biggest ever sale must end on Monday." I want to scream at the screen "It will just be superceded by an even bigger sale in a couple of weeks' time
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Shock horror news. More people pick up Covid at a supermarket than anywhere else. Well of course they do. During lockdown it's about the only indoor place we are allowed to go.
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Also pictured here are a couple of cuttings from this week's Wymondham Mercury newspaper about lighting up Hethersett for Christmas. I hope my articles help to encourage people to brighten up the village this Christmas.
You will probably have noticed that Christmas songs, adverts and lights are going out and up earlier this year and we really do need something to cheer us up.
I am compiling a list of places that have told me they are lighting up for Christmas and will be doing a Steward Stroll round-up of them before the end of the month. So if you see a strange man pointing a camera at your lights don't be alarmed.