Brush Families of the British Isles

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Previous: Chapter 17.A: A single Irish source?

Section 98
A tribute to my parents work

Most of the work assembling the BFBI one name study was undertaken by my parents. I had a role in starting the process in the mid 1970s but after I left home in 1978 and married in 1979 they continued the work. Once Dad had retired, in 198?, it became the centre of their activity.

Dad learnt to type when he was in the Army (1943-1947) and most of his correspondence was typewritten. At some point, in the 1980s I bought them an Word Processor (as a Christmas present I think) and eventually an early PC but Dad was pretty wedded to the typewriter. And a good job too. A lot of the letters he received from other enthusiasts were hand written but it is a blessing that Dad's were not.

He was very formal. I have been working through an extended correspondence he had with Rebecca Anne McDaniel in the period 1993 to 2003, which forms the basis of Chapter 08.E about one of the Herfordshire families. Some of whom moved to Canada and then to Ohio.

408 S. Wayne Street Box 133 FT Recovery OH 45846 USA 1-419-375-4611) She worked at a school until her retirement in 1994. announces this in a letter of 14 July 1994. ;A few years later, in 2003, Anne was enquiring "do you have e-mail". FWB was ahead of her. As early as 1991 he was annotating correspondence as "reply on disc". T

This letter comes at least two years into their correspondence. Anne was sending chatty handwritten messages on greetings cards. Fred signs off "With all good wishes for your researches". To pick just a couple of sentences: 'As with Ronald I cannot "investigate" people still alive - it might well be regarded as an invasion of privacy' and 'I'm afraid I cannot recommend a researcher. My own experience of paid researchers (admittedly not very extensive) is rather unsatisfactory, costing quite a lot for no useful information'. British understatement. He had no time for them. From another correspondence: "And for goodness sake don't answer any advertisments offering to do the job, complete with coat of arms, in six weeks ! Such offers are pure confidence tricks".

He was prolific and tended to assume that others were as interested in the Brush genealogy as he was. A trait I fear I have inherited. This example from 1990 demonstrates this - and also shows his deplorable and unreadable handwriting at the bottom. His correspondent Mrs Jackson was in Tring - which is where I ended up living in the period 2009 to 2021. I did not know until digging these letters out in 2023 that there was anyone else interested in the name just round the corner. Though not as interested as Dad was! How she fits in to the Brush tree I'm not yet sure.

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On 12 May 1993 FWB says "we are off tomorrow to see [Pippa] in ... Calgary"

Back in the Anne McDaniel's correspondence, Dad discovered a first marriage and half brother that Anne knew nothing of. This letter shows his scruples as he confides in Mrs Probert.

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