Christopher T. George: chat and pics

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi all

My father preceded my mother and I in coming to the United States and attached is his immigration passenger arrival list. My father sailed from Southampton in September 1954 aboard the Queen Elizabeth. He went to a place called CRI in Reisterstown, northwest of Baltimore, Maryland, where, as a physiotherapist, he went to work with cerebal palsy children. My mother, Yoria C. George, and I (age seven) sailed from Liverpool in January 1955 aboard the Saxonia. I can remember that my mom's cousins who had a greengrocers and produce company supplying the ships with meat, filled the cabin with carnations. After a bad passage during which my mother was ill most of the time, we arrived in cold but blue-skied New York City, and my father was there to meet us.

I can remember being taken up the Empire State Building and places such as an automat, where you were served sandwiches in little windows-- it seemed the latest in luxury and modern conveniences. Also after arrival, it was a miracle to find that supermarkets had doors that opened for you.

We traveled by train to Baltimore and stayed with Miss Flavin, who worked with my father, at her row house (terraced house) on Guilford Avenue, which is the address that is shown on the immigration document for my mother and myself. Although we lived in Wallingford, Connecticut, for a year until the hospital where Dad worked declared bankruptcy, and I also came back to Liverpool to go to school (Rose Lane and Quarry Bank) we lived most of the time in the Baltimore, Maryland area, where I still live, close to the Johns Hopkins University campus.

My father died in 1979 of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. My mother, age 86, is still alive and living in a senior citizen high rise in downtown Baltimore about fifteen minutes away by car. Baltimore, by the way, used to be known as the "Liverpool of the East Coast of America" and there are similarities -- both seaports with a big working class population, row houses here, terraced houses in Liverpool, and the people have a nice sense of humor similar to Scousers.

The first graphic below represents one of Baltimore's finest moments, when Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbor withstood the British naval bombardment of 1814, prompting Georgetown lawyer Francis Scott Key to write the poem, "The Star-Spangled Banner" the words of which became the lyrics of the U.S. national anthem in 1932, to the music of an eighteenth century British drinking song, to "Anacraeon in Heaven." Also shown is a recent view of Baltimore's popular Inner Harbor.

Chris



Fort McHenry, Baltimore, September 1814, by Dale Gallon. The painting represents the moment the large Star-Spangled Banner was raised on the morning of September 15, 1814 when it was realised that the British were withdrawing. A ropewalk near Fells Point in the city of Baltimore is seen burning to the northeast at top right of the picture. The American garrison is seen cheering on the ramparts. Image courtesy of the Patriots of Fort McHenry.



Baltimore's Inner Harbor today, courtesy of http://www.hellobaltimore.com/

[ChrisGeorge]

This shows the condominium apartment building at 3800 Canterbury Road, Baltimore where my wife Donna and I have lived for the past 13 years. Our apartment is the one with the balcony on the right (3rd floor).



A side view of our condominium apartment building at 3800 Canterbury Road, Baltimore. Looking south up the road toward the Johns Hopkins University stadium in the disance. You see how our smaller building is dwarfed by some of the neighboring apartment buildings!



Scatter of holly berries on the snow opposite the Broadview Apartments. There has been a sharp, frigid wind since the snowfall on Tuesday and Wednesday. However the local robins have been attacking the hollies and ivy to get berries so it could have been their doing as well that so many berries are scattered on the ground. The poor things must be ravenous in this freeze.

See "Berry Beak" by poet and photographer Leslie F. Miller. See my blog for more on the difference between the small European robin and the bigger American robin.

Chris

[Brenda]

Very nice indeed Chris, its always nice to see where others live.

[Kev]

Chris, I had a section ages ago for this sort of thing way be before we were Yo! Maybe we could resurrect it if members will use it.

[Max]

I remember the expats thread on Scouseology, there was people posting from Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

[ChrisGeorge]

Thanks, Brenda, Max, and Kev. Shytalk mentioned last night that we might start an expats thread. Kev, I really don't mind if you want to merge this thread with the old one or just restart from here. I think such a thread gives us expats somewhere to express ourselves and also to provide useful information and guidance to anyone who is considering emigrating or coming on a tourist visa to our respective farflung lands.

Chris

[Kev]

Give me some help as to which forum I should put the sub forum in... 'People, Culture and Communities'?

[ChrisGeorge]

Give me some help as to which forum I should put the sub forum in... 'People, Culture and Communities'?

That sounds fine, Kev, although since our communities are overseas communities, would that work? Maybe a whole new area as you did with the creative expression area? By the way, I think merging with your old thread might be good if you can do it as I would like to meet more of the expats as I am sure others would as well.

Chris

[Kev]

That sounds fine, Kev, although since our communities are overseas communities, would that work? Maybe a whole new area as you did with the creative expression area? By the way, I think merging with your old thread might be good if you can do it as I would like to meet more of the expats as I am sure others would as well.

Chris

Chris, the 'old thread' existed as part of scouseology.com and was lost when we had the 'hacking' incident.

I'll have a think about this one. I'll deffo add it, just where, hmmm.....

[ChrisGeorge]

Chris, the 'old thread' existed as part of scouseology.com and was lost when we had the 'hacking' incident.

I'll have a think about this one. I'll deffo add it, just where, hmmm.....

Hi Kev

I personally don't mind if you keep the thread right here in the lounge, but whatever you decide, I think there should be such a thread.

Chris

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi all

I have been learning some fascinating details about my father's side of the family. Some of you may recall that in an article that appeared in Ripperologist about Southwest Lancashire coroner Sir Samuel Brighouse, who oversaw the inquests on the body of James Maybrick (May 1889) and the wife and children of Frederick Deeming (March 1892), I mentioned that Brighouse also was in charge of the inquest on my father's brother Edward Pointon George, who was killed at age 24 when his motorcycle collided with a motorized wagon in Warrington, Lancashire, in January 1933. Brighouse was one of the longest-serving English coroners of all time, appointed 1884 and serving until his death at age 90 years on January 15, 1940.

Now, having received a CD with much more family history on it compiled by my cousin Rex and sent to me through the kindness of another cousin, Haydn, I now know that my great great grandfather Edward Leech George lived on Turner Street, Mile End Old Town, Stepney, London, in the 1830's and 1840's. Turner Street runs alongside the west side of London Hospital and thus is just a short walk from Buck's Row (now Winthrop Street) where Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols was killed in the early morning hours of August 31, 1888. Edward Leech George was born in Caister-on-Sea, Norfolk, in 1810. He would become a "tidewaiter" (curious term!) while he and his wife Sarah and family lived in London, and thereafter he was employed as a tidal surveyor in Plymouth and Liverpool, working for the Customs Service (vide Robert D'Onston Stephenson).

My great grandfather Edward George, born in London in 1838, was a secretary to a hospital and later assistant overseer of the township of Toxteth Park, Liverpool. In the later nineteenth century, he his wife and family would live in Admiral Street, Dingle, Liverpool, close to where Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey) would later grow up. Edward George died at 20 Admiral Street, Dingle, on August 17, 1888.

My paternal grandfather, Albert Edward George, a bank clerk, born December 22, 1876, would marry my grandmother, Birtles Pointon (born Douglas, Isle of Man, on August 26, 1876), at St. Silas Church, High Park Street, Dingle, Liverpool, on September 16, 1907. This church was located near the Empress Pub where the below photograph of Donna and my friend Gerard Fleming was taken. I was unaware of all this information when I took the photo in May 2007. This is the pub on the cover of Ringo's 1970 album, "Sentimental Journal." The church was damaged in an air raid during World War II and demolished in the 1950's. A granddaughter of Edward George had the wonderfully delicious name of Lulu L'Strange!

All the best

Chris

[Kev]

Cheers Chris

[ChrisGeorge]

Speaks for itself. One of the things I did during the recent whirlwind trip that Donna and I made to the England and Northern Ireland.

When I am not doing Jack the Ripper or writing poetry. . . .



The website mentioned is at http://www.themanwhocapturedwashington.com/

[pablo42]

Nice one Chris, fascinating.

[ChrisGeorge]

Thanks, Pablo. After I gave the talk referred to in St. Bronagh's Social Hall in Rostrevor, the BBC Northern Ireland guy on hand asked myself and two Ross descendants to go back to the monument for interviews. It was absolutely blowing a gale but not raining. In the end though the tapes did not get used and they used about a minute and a half of my friend Dr McCavitt talking about the White House scorch marks!

Chris