My Grandfather, could he have been Autistic too?

One of my great passions, when I get the time, is researching my family tree. So this post is a tribute to my Grandfather, or Grandad as I called him. He died when I was 7, so dont have many memories of him and had to rely on what other people told me, including my amazing Gran who I spoke about here Memories of a Special Lady.


My Grandfather, Thomas Flucker (Tommy to his friends), was born in 1904 in a fishing village called Newhaven, which is now part of Edinburgh. This was a very close knit community and they rarely married outside of their own. I have traced the Flucker's (yes , it is a real name :))back to the 1600's and they were mainly fishermen. My grandfather left this trade and worked as a joiner in the shipyards right up till his death in 1971. 


I remember him as a very quiet man and can still picture him sitting in his chair, wearing one of the many jumpers my gran used to knit for him. My gran loved him dearly and said he was the first and last love of her life, I know she missed him terribly after his death.


While doing my research a man got in contact with me, asking if I was Tommy's grandaughter, turns out he worked in the shipyards with him and he sent me a lovely email with his memories of him..it brought him to life for me. He describes him as eccentric and now wonder if he could possibly have had the same form of autism as my son, I guess in those days it wasn't recognised like it is today. Here is part of the email he sent me, let me know what you think.



Thanks for your prompt reply, I'm delighted to hear that you are indeed
the grandaughter of Tommy, and you've confirmed and awakened many
youthful memories.
As I said, I worked as an apprentice joiner in Robb's from 1948 to 1955,
then, like everyone else was called up for National Service in the
army.  I returned to Robb's for a short while after serving three years
with the Royal Engineers, then my life took a different turn, and I
moved on.
I was a rather " Favoured" apprentice, and worked on the top floor of
the joiner's shop, I was on the bench next to Tommy.  His job at that
time was to "Break out" all the wooden mouldings for the ships under
construction, and prepare them for the French polishers.  Tommy was very
precise in everything he did, and was always on top of his job.  He was
much respected as a tradesman in a shop of over 200 joiners, who, in my
opinion, were the best tradesmen in the country.  He was known as a man
of great general knowledge, and I suspect, thought of as slightly
eccentric.  He had a very fiery temper, and could be "Wound up," if
people voiced opinions contrary to his firmly held views on everything,
particularly on the subject of his beloved Hearts.  I was on of the
"Infidels," being a Hibs supporter, but Tommy obviously made allowances
for this aberration, and took me under his wing.  At lunch times, having
our "pieces" together, and our drum (old jam tins) of Tea, Tommy would
teach me many things beyond the everyday world of a daft young laddie.
As I've said he taught me Chess, which I've enjoyed ever since.  He
could, you know, "Talk" a game of Chess, and did so with his brother in
law, (I think) without a board or pieces,, and they'd both continue the
game entirely in their heads !  He knew all about steam locomotives,
politics, and a wide range of subjects, that filled out my then empty
head.  Cycling was of course one of his great loves, touring mainly, not
racing, and it was very popular at that time, everyone had bikes and
enjoyed it.  He was so kind to me, that once he offered to cycle with me
to Ibrox in Glasgow to see Hibs play Rangers in a League decider, we
went on his Tandem, I had to bring my own saddle he said, otherwise I'd
have a sore bum ! I can remember that day vividly, Hibs won !

As a member of the Royal Astronomical Society, Tommy would work mainly
on time transits of the stars, at the old Royal Observatory on the
Calton hill.  I remember him making a "Black box" to measure these
transits, and claiming that the time accuracy was six hundredths of a
second.
Tommy was very proud of his "Bow Tow," heritage, claiming that the
Fluckers came over with the Huguenots to escape persecution, and was
very well versed in history generally.  He was a good man, very handsome
in a clean cut way, and proud and protective of his daughters.  I lived
then in Newhaven Road, but my cousins the Jeffrey's, lived in 10
Hawthornvale, my uncle Peter Jeffrey was a riveter in Robbs, so as a lad
I was down the Vale regularly.
In those days (the 50's) the workers in the Yard were very highly
politicised, rationing was still in force, but we'd made advancements in
obtaining a free health service, we then got a weeks holiday in the
Summer, with pay, the working week was to be reduced from 48 hours, and
it looked to Socialists as if the workers were going to influence
politics for the good.  We were all Socialists (at least) many of us
Communists, and we sympathised with the experiments in Socialism started
in Russia and China. Tommy actually taught me the words of "The Red
Flag," the old Old Independent Labour Party anthem, including the bawdy
parody ! Relations with the shipyard management were never good, indeed
constantly fraught with tension, and fear of losing jobs, they all
remembered the Depression years vividly.  We weren't even allowed
teabreaks, (but we had them illegally!) you could be dismissed for
drinking tea, other than at dinner time, the tea urns were kept
padlocked until the hooter sounded.  Even going to the toilet was under
surveillance, you had to drop your works check at a turnstile at the
entrance to a very smelly and basic lavatory, and if you were over 7
minutes there, you were docked a quarter of an hour of pay. As an
apprentice, your time record was kept for the five years, and any late
time or absences were made up at the end of the five years, at
apprentice's pay, not Tradesman's pay.
Something else has just come to mind, I think Tommy was one of the First
of the Fluckers NOT to have gone to sea and the fishing, that must have
been a big decision in Newhaven in those days.


I still remember the "log" books of my grandfather's cycle rides that my gran had kept, he wrote down EVERY cycle ride he ever did, and when I sent this email to my aunty, she told me she still had them and sent me the page of the cycle ride mentioned above!

Page out my grandfather book logging his cycle ride

Am still in awe of how he could play a game of chess in his head!!


Thank you for taking the time to read, and still miss and love you lots grandad xx

Memories of a special lady...my grandmother

I have been interested in history from a young age, but it was the death of my grandmother (gran to me) that sparked my interest in my own family history. She used to tell me bits about her past and how she met my grandfather, often saying it would be nice to know more about our ancestors and if the same characteristics and interests carried on from one generation to the next. I was very close to my gran and still miss her a lot, and it was during one of these times of remembering the special times we had together that I decided to start doing my family tree....I didn't realise at the time how addicting it would become...It is now 11 years later, 2,800 ancestors later and being referred to by my children as " the one who collects dead people"....so thought I would share a bit about the special lady who was the inspiration behind doing it...my grandmother :)

Helen Dixon, was born 11th December 1908 in a small town in England called Barrow-in-Furness. She was the youngest of 3 children and her parents had moved there as children so their father's could find work in the shipyards that opened. Her own father was a boilermaker in the Vicker's shipyard, her brothers going on to follow in his footsteps.

Steamer Street, where Helen was born.

 Her family were not well off but she had a happy childhood, and had fond memories of accompanying her grandmother to sell her herbal beer at the shipyard gates. ( her grandmother had been widowed at a young age and made herbal brew at home to make a living). She recalled playing in the street, tagging along with her older brothers, Thomas and John (known as Jack) who did always want their little sister in tow...but she said they were happy times. Tragedy then struck the family when Helen was 24, her brother, Jack, died from Meningitis in 1932 at the age of 29 and she recalled this as being a very unhappy time in all her family's lives, with things "never quite being the same again"

Helen with her brothers, Thomas and Jack abt 1911

Helen's life was to change forever in 1938, when a Scottish man, called Thomas Flucker, arrived in Barrow to work for a few months in the shipyards. He became good friends with Helen's brother and became a frequent visitor to their house...and Helen and Thomas fell in love and became engaged to get married. Thomas came from a little fishing village called Newhaven, which is now part of Edinburgh. It was a very close knit community and it was very unusual for men to marry someone from without the village, never mind from across the border! In July 1938, they became married in Helen's home town  and then they set off for their life in Scotland. Thomas always loved cycling, and my gran used to make me laugh telling me that her honeymoon was a cycling holiday in Scotland and that there was a tandem waiting for them at the station.

Newhaven , Edinburgh, as it is today

When Helen arrived in Newhaven, she found it very hard to settle in and to become accepted, but Thomas's sister took her under her wing and they led a very happy life together, having three daughter's, including my mother. When I was 7, my grandfather died after an accident at work. He was a carpenter in the ship yards, and fell off a ladder, suffering a brain hemorrhage, never regaining consciousness. The whole family took it hard, but Helen had her strong christian beliefs and always said they would meet again one day in a better life. She stayed independent and busy, knitting, making wedding dresses, visiting the elderly for the church ( she was 80 at the time and a lot older than some of the people she visited!) and even went for swimming lessons when she was 82, successfully learning to swim.

During her last few years she lost her sight, which hit her very hard, but she insisted on being independent...firing the home-help my mother had employed to help her around the house and refusing to use her white stick...however at the age of 92 she became unable to look after herself, refusing to move into my mother's ( " I don't want to be a burden") and moved into an old people's home near my parents. Her character and personality totally changed with the move, it was like she had just given up, something she was never known for and a year later she passed away peacefully in her sleep after a bad chest infection.

So thank you gran for all the memories and for being such a special mother, grandmother and great grandmother....you are sadly missed and always will be xx

Well here we go!

Well here we go, my first post in my new blog. This is a place where I can write down my thoughts and feelings about everyday life, which for me mainly means family life, genealogy and all the usual highs and lows of life.

I am also hoping to include some of my discoveries from doing my family tree. I have always been interested in family history but it was when my grandmother died that I got into it seriously, I realised I had missed out on the chance to ask her more about her life and what she could remember about her family, so the journey began. I have not found anyone famous, or discovered a lost family fortune, but I have found out a lot about my ancestors lives and how they lived, along with a few skeletons in the cupboard (my favourite part!)

Along with all the family research, or as my kids call it "collecting dead people"..most of my time is spent with family...my youngest child ( well he is a teenager now, not allowed to call him a child lol), has high functioning autism/aspergers syndrome and it has been a long , sometimes hard, journey...but he is an amazing person who has made us all very proud and we wouldnt have him any other way. I also have a 2 year old grandson, J, who is just adorable, he lives with my daughter a few hours away, so dont get to see him as often as I would like, but my daughter either comes here or I go there for a few days most months.

My grandmother  (age 4), Helen Dixon, who started my interest in family history.

Well thats all for now, off to design my blog layout etc and hopefully make it look I have some idea of what I am doing.