I put my mother’s family photos back inside the box and reach for the next item. It is a recorded conversation on an old cassette tape. I insert it in the cassette player and press the play button. This time, it is about my father’s side of the family.
Today is Sunday, 14th of October in 2007. I am at 6 Fitzjohn Close, Merrow Park, Guildford, Surrey, England. I’m going to have a short interview with my mother about my father’s side of the family. His name is Alexander Harkness.
Ian: So mum, why didn’t dad keep in contact with his relatives?
Mum: Thare is not an awfy lot tae say. Whin his maw Georgina died, ah think his relatives didnae lik’ it that he wasted th’ inheritance money oan buying a motorbike18.
Ian: How old was he when he was orphaned?
Mum: His faither, Alexander Whitecross Harkness, died in 1928, whin he wis 12, ‘n’ his maw in 1934. Sae he wis ainlie 18 whin he wis orphaned, ‘n’ inherited from his mother1920.
Ian: So, a motorbike. That couldn’t have cost a lot?
Mum: Weel, in they days ’twas a lot o’ money. Bit he also inherited his parents’ hoose. Sae afore ye wur born, we hud a two-bedroomed hoose in Chesser Loan in Edinburgh, ‘n’ whin we sold that hoose we cuid afford tae buy anither hoose later21.
Ian: Did your father keep any photos of his family?
Mum: Aye ‘ere they’re in th’ photie album – bit thare ur nae many.
My Grandparents
My mum showed me the photos of my grandparents. Alexander Whitecross, my grandfather on my father’s side also had a moustache like my other grandfather!22 His wife Georgina was certainly a very elegant lady.
The tape stops playing and I put it back in the box. I guess that’s all we can learn from that side of our family for the time being. But the fact that my father inherited the property in Chesser Loan may have been an important factor in our family life, and it may explain why we were able to afford purchasing houses later.
18 There is an awful lot to say. When his mother Georgina died, I think his relatives did not like it that he wasted the inheritance money on buying a motorbike.
19 I seem to remember my mother saying that he was orphaned at the age of 15, but this does not agree with the official records. In other words, my mother didn’t remember correctly, or perhaps more likely, my father had given her the wrong information – as mentioned elsewhere here, for one reason or another my father didn’t talk about his family.
20 His father, Alexander Whitecross Harkness, died in 1928, when he was 12, and his mother in 1934. So he was only 18 when he was orphaned, and inherited from his mother.
21 Well, in those days it was a lot of money. But he also inherited his parents’ house. So before you were born, we had a two-bedroomed house in Chesser Loan in Edinburgh, and when we sold that house we could afford to buy another house later on.
22The 1920s is when the moustache really came into fashion. It was considered ‘manly’.
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