I know very little about my father's family. He was born, Thomas Jonah "Jack" Allsop, in March 1890 at Sneyd House, Bloxwich, Staffordshire. The house came with his father's job as Canal Inspector.
I know my father had a brother, Verdi, usually known as "Birdy", the trumpet player; and three sisters: Millie the eldest; Winnie; and Annie, who was reputed to be an excellent violinist.
I know his father remarried - that's the second wife in the photograph (7), but I don't know who the children of the second marriage were.
My grandfather's great passion was music - why else should he christen a son Verdi? - and I believe he converted to Roman Catholicism in order to be able to lead the church band or orchestra or choir, but that might be a canard. The only one of this clan that I ever met was Millie, a large-boned woman with a dimunutive husband called Isaac ("Ike"), who wasn't a bow-legged jockey, but could have been..
Given that my father ran away from home - according to him - when he was about 16, it's not surprising that I know so little of his family. There is an air of sadness as well as mystery about this clan. Funny things, families. Still, it's nice to have this photograph, taken around 1906, when my father was sixteen and ready to do a runner from - according to him - a hateful stepmother, an indifferent father, a terrible job (apprenticed to a stonemason) and a stifling religion.
Funny things, families.
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