I was reading yesterday about Charles Dickens' "Secret Affair".  It seems that Mr. Dickens had a "lady friend" who was an actress.  I could not find a link to Lincolnshire in the article, but it reminded me that on this list we have discussed such issues as "common law marriages", wife selling, divorce, bigamy and perhaps a few other issues about human pairing that fall outside of boundaries of the straight and narrow path. One thing the article mentioned is that, apparently, the couple burned all letters and documents tracing their relationship.  I thought that was a terrible loss.  My wife still has the letters and tapes I sent her from my service in Vietnam and she treasures them.  I would hope that none of us worries so much over what people will think of us when we are passed that we should burn or destroy any record of our lives.  But people do.  The same people who will gossip about Aunt Bessie and her "man friend" will toss out all her records when she dies.  Please don't.  I'm sorry if you are ashamed for her, but it is part of who she was.  We have little enough of her as it is. So if you have your grandmother's old letters in a box, why not transcribe them, put them on a CD-ROM and save them.  You can even put them on a web page if they don't make you cringe.  Did she have a boyfriend or future husband serving in France during the Great War?  Tell their story.  Was Uncle Bert in love with that young woman he met in the market square?  What did she tell him?  Did she fall for him?  If you like, you can share with us.  Who was kissing who in Spilsby in 1895? Now, if you were kissing someone in 1895, well!  Congratulations on living so long.  Now, dig out that box.     Lou (list admin.)

I have two collections of old letters, they are written by a brother and sister between about 1910 and 1916. Joseph William and Dorothy SMITH were born in Lincolnshire. Joe was born in February 1896 at Hainton, Lincs and Dorothy in 1898 in Beniworth, Lincs. They were the children of William Lee SMITH and his wife Mary Ann nee ROSSINGTON. who were my maternal Grandparents. Annie Myra (b 1905) and Edith Josephine (b 1917) were two more daughters of William and Mary, they never married, living most of their lives at home with their widowed mother.  After Mary Ann's death, they continued to live together, my husband and I started to make round trips of about 60 miles at least once a month to help them with shopping, gardening, appointments etc; On our way home after visiting, my husband took a little red book from his top pocket. he had been in the woodshed chopping logs and kindling, and noticed an old wicker wash basket full of books.  He found the little red book, it was religious texts, and between the pages was a printed card, from a local church, signed by the Vicar, saying my Grandfather had signed the pledge.  I had heard a family story years ago that my Grandfather had liked a drink, but as a country labourer, and seven children, money would have been in short supply, and certainly nothing left for drink, but there was obviously some substance in the story. On previous visits we had  noticed a Gladstone Bag hanging from a nail in the woodshed, this had always intrigued me. One particular visit my Aunt's were both in a good mood,  I plucked up the courage to ask Edith if I could have the Gladstone Bag, she agreed, but wrapped the bag in paper, and put it by the door for me to pick up on my way out, saying "Dont tell Annie". The Gladstone bag contained over 40 letters written by Dorothy, who had been a Teacher in Glentham School, she apparently had an American Pen Friend, who she had contacted after an article in a Teachers Magazine.  They must have hit it off through correspondence, and Dorothy left England for the Rocky Mountains to marry Walter Wood, a bachelor farmer.  The letters are a real social document, it was the time of prohibition, family funerals, terrible weather when the chickens frozen to death, each letter tells interesting stories. In my Aunt's sideboard was another packet of around 30 letters, I was allowed to take a few out now and then, but was carefully watched by my Aunt's to make sure they were replaced where I had found them. These letters were written by Joe, starting just before the outbreak of WW1, until his death in 1916. Again these are wonderful letters to his devoted mother, telling of his enlistment and life in the Royal Navy, his training, uniform, girl friends, sleeping in a hammock, and stories of life on the ship, until it came to when the letters became censored, then they were very short. After the death of my Aunt's I became the owner of all the letters, and quite by chance I undertook a new experience, I was asked to give a talk about the letters from USA, that started a 10 year career as a Speaker to both female and male groups, which I really enjoyed. Lou, if you think these letters will be of interest to Lincsgen, I am very happy to type them out in serial form.  Joe's letters often mention people back home in Lincolnshire, the family were living in Osgodby, Lincs during this time.  Dorothy was such a brave girl, setting off to USA on her own, to meet her Pen Friend, marry, and raise a family, but she wrote to her mother and told her every detail of her life in USA. These letters are written from Wellington, nr Cheyanne in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, a Lincolnshire lass far from home. I am sure my Grandmother treasured and cared for all these letters for a purpose.  The Gladstone Bag turned out to be treasure trove, containing my Grandfathers diaries, indelible pencil, work records and pay slips, household bills, dozens of them, from the village store, his wallet, tobacco pouch, two flimsy bits of paper, one was to do with his entry into Canada, where he landed and the date, I had no idea he had been to Canada. There were over 100 items in the bag.  My Aunt's could have put the bag on the bonfire at any time, I once caught Edith tearing up family photographs. I will wait to hear from you Lou Pat in Lincolnshire