Be it birthday or Christmas, what’s on your wish list? As genie-friends I’m sure you’d love a DNA kit, or an Ancestry or Findmypast subscription and a box of chocolates or two … but let’s get down to it … here’s what we REALLY want!

Note: I was inspired to create this after seeing a similar (but US-orientated) one that Ancestry created an put up on Instagram, which you can view here.

So what are you REALLY after this Christmas?

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For my Christmas-related post this year, I decided to go trawling through New Jersey’s old newspapers. In particular The Iron Age. This is a small town newspaper for the area of Dover, in Morris County. Lucky for me these have been digitised and put online (for free), so I have spent a couple of days browsing through them looking for adverts of my 4x great grandma’s candy shop. And what fun I have had!!!

Over a period of 25 years (1872-1897), I have found 16 adverts! I won’t put them ALL here, but rather I’ll just choose a few to share with you.

But first let me tell you a little about my 4x great grandma.

Charlotte Phillips was born in Redruth, Cornwall, England in 1822, and married Samuel Trewartha in 1847. He had tough life as a miner, while according to census records Charlotte was a ‘confectioner’, no doubt to supplement the family income.

In 1867 the family made the life changing move to New Jersey, USA where they set up a candy store in Dover, Morris County, New Jersey.

She ran this for years with husband Samuel, though after his death in 1885, her youngest son Richard helped out.

While I’ve never seen any photographs of the shop, I am picturing from the adverts that it was a popular place. For one thing it was there for YEARS! And Samuel (also known as “Candy Sam”) was famous not only for his Black Rock Candy, but also his cough drops.

Enjoy the vintage adverts from 4x great grandma Charlotte’s shop.

And for more on Charlotte herself, you can read an earlier article I wrote about her here.

The Iron Era, 13 December 1879

The Iron Era, 2 December 1882

The Iron Era, 12 December 1885

The Iron Era, 15 December 1888

The Iron Era, 13 December 1889 (**see below)

The Iron Era, 12 December 1890

** As the advert from 1889 is rather hard to read, it is worth transcribing here so you don’t miss the bit about drugs and poison! Yes, truly!!

————————-

Christmas Opening
at
Trewartha & Sons
Dover, N.J.
Toys, Dolls, Games
and articles in general, suitable for Holiday Presents,
Playful, useful and ornamental. Presents for the baby,
for the lady, for the fondest mother, for the sternest teacher,
for the dearest —, for anybody. We also have the largest
stock of CANDIES, FRUITS, NUTS, ORANGES, LEMONS,
GRAPES, BANANAS, FIGS, DATES, to be found in Dover.
We wish to state to the people of Dover and vicinity that we
make all of our own Candies, which we will warrant to be
made of the best sugars, and not from drugs. Buy of us
and save your children from being poisoned.
Parties, churches, socials, furnished with pure Candies,
our own make, at wholesale prices. We also sell a 5 lb box
of Christmas or Mixed Candies for 65c. Come and sam-
ple our candies.
MRS TREWARTHA & SON
Sussex St., Dover, N.J.
[The Iron Era, 13 December 1889]
————————-

Don’t those adverts make you want to see Charlotte’s shop? Well, it does me anyway. Maybe one day I’ll find a photo of it. But at least I have the adverts, and that’s a bonus.

I want to wish all my readers a Happy Christmas. I do hope you have a wonderful time spending it with family and/or friends.

It’s that time of year again, when we get out box of Christmas cards and our address book, and start writing cards to those on our Christmas card list this year. There is no doubt that this has become a Christmas tradition right around the world.

But when did this tradition actually start?

Well … way back on 9 December 1843 actually (although some dispute that, and say May 1843). Either way, it is a LONG time ago!

A description online tells us that …

Sir Henry Cole, Director of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, found that writing numerous Christmas greetings to friends and colleagues was becoming a time-consuming task. He asked his artist friend, John Calcott Horsley, to design a card which could be used by Cole and also sold to the public. The first Christmas cards were created in England on 9 December 1843. Horsley produced 1,000 lithographed and hand-coloured cards. More like postcards, they sold for a shilling, which was the equivalent of a day’s wages for a labourer. It was another twenty years before Christmas cards became commercially viable for the common man, following the invention of cheaper colour lithography.

The image at the top is one of the “first ever” Christmas card, according to Wikipedia.

And as the cards became affordable, the stationery companies found it profitable, and they certainly haven’t stopped making them since!

While I don’t have any Christmas cards in my family’s heirlooms that date back to 1843, I do have some old, vintage ones that I have scanned and are pictured below (click on each for a larger image). Most of these would be from the late 1800s to the early 1900s, with at least some of them being written by my great grandmother, Ella Alice Randell (nee Sinkinson).

Also as you’ll see, today’s cards don’t match the style of those 100+ years ago. They were so classy back then. Lots of flowers, lots of embossing, and not Christmas tree or Father Christmas in sight.

Christmas card 1 – front

Christmas card 1 – inside

Christmas card 1 – back

Christmas card 2 – front

Christmas card 2 – inside

Christmas card 2 – back

Christmas card 3 – front

Christmas card 3 – inside

Christmas card 3 – back

Christmas card 4 – front

Christmas card 4 – inside

Christmas card 4 – back

Christmas card 5 – front

Christmas card 5 – inside

Christmas card 5 – back

Christmas card 6 – front

Christmas card 6 – inside

Christmas card 6 – back

Christmas is coming quickly and fellow Aussie geneablogger Sharn White has created the “So This is Christmas and What Have You Done?” Geneameme. which is making us reminisce.

This very thought-provoking geneameme, has stretched my memory back, here’s what I’ve come up with …