I grew up hearing stories from my dad about his childhood on Wearside. His mother had died years before I was born but I loved our visits to my grandad in Sunderland. He too died when I was 7 but my dad's stories kept his family alive for me.
We have an unusual surname and a family tree researched by someone else was floating around in my childhood. I was told that there was a book about the family, although no-one seemed to have a copy. Long out of print and out of copyright, it was digitised by the Internet Archive in 2018 and I have finally read The Boutflower book: the complete story of a family of the middle class connected with the north of England (1303-1930) by Douglas Samuel Boutflower.
DSB characterises the family by their occupations: landowners, clergy, army surgeons, merchants, and seafarers. My part of the family falls into the latter category, counting among it mariners, ship carvers and joiners, and marine engineers.
The Boutflowers are, of course, just one part of my family story. I had the good luck to have four grandparents with unusual surnames and I plan to follow all their trails, hoping for some mystery and intrigue along the way.
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