Using census returns and the wonderfully rich North Isles Family History website, Ann and Ian were able to trace George Taylor Harrison\u2019s birth and family. He was the son of crofter and fisherman Henry Harrison and his second wife Helen Taylor.\u00a0<\/p> In 1901, the family lived in Sandsting and Aithsting. George had two older half-brothers, James and Arthur, and three half-sisters, Elizabeth, Andrina and Willamina (known as Willa).\u00a0<\/p> By 1911, all of the brothers had left the croft, presumably to find employment aboard ships. \u201cMany Shetland seafarers travelled to Liverpool or South Shields for work,\u201d Ann says. \u201cAll three Harrison brothers served in the Merchant Navy<\/a> during the First World War.<\/a>\u201d<\/p> Dorothy believed that George had no contact with his family after leaving Shetland. However, information from the 1915 Crew List Project website suggested that the brothers were in fact close. \u201cWe found George, Arthur and James all living in South Shields in 1915 and working as crew on the same ships,\u201d Ian explains.\u00a0<\/p> George married Dorothy Brannen in South Shields in 1915, and Ian and Ann were pleased to see on the marriage certificate<\/a> that George\u2019s half-brother James was one of the witnesses. However, the celebration was followed by tragedy, as Ian explains: \u201cJames\u2019 next job was aboard the SS Beeswing<\/em>, a steamer carrying coal from South Shields to Dieppe. Beeswing was due to sail on the day of the wedding, and it\u2019s my belief that George and Dorothy got married in the morning so that James could attend the wedding then join his ship.\u201d<\/p> The family never saw him again. The SS Beeswing<\/em> was reported missing the day after she sailed, and is believed to have been sunk by a mine or a torpedo from a German submarine. All of her crew were lost.<\/p> \u201cI feel strongly that if George hadn\u2019t got married that day, he would have sailed on the Beeswing<\/em> with James. Our mother, Ann and I would never have existed,\u201d Ian observes.\u00a0<\/p> Perhaps as a result of James\u2019 death, George Harrison joined the Royal Navy<\/a> Reserve in 1915 and served as a gunner on motor launches. These were designed for harbour defence, submarine pursuit and high-speed sea rescue.\u00a0<\/p> The war was to bring further tragedy in 1917 when Arthur was serving on the SS Teviotdale<\/em>. This merchant vessel was on its way back from Havana with a cargo of sugar when it was torpedoed in the Atlantic. Arthur was the sole fatality on the ship.<\/p> Both James and Arthur are commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission memorial at Tower Hill, London, and on a plaque at their local church at Aith in Shetland. \u201cThe brothers were only 29 years old when they died,\u201d Ann explains. \u201cIan and I get quite emotional thinking of their sacrifice, and the family\u2019s loss.\u201d<\/p> “Ian and I get quite emotional thinking of their sacrifice, and the family\u2019s loss\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote> After discovering the tragedies, Ian wrote an article for the journal of the Shetland Family History Society. \u201cShetland family historian Graham Johnston got in touch after it was published,\u201d Ian explains. \u201cHe kindly gave us notes about the ships that the brothers served on, and deciphered hard-to-read naval records.\u201d<\/p> George Taylor Harrison survived the war, and returned to South Shields. Ann and Ian\u2019s mother, also named Dorothy, was born in 1919. She had two siblings, George and Helen.\u00a0<\/p> George\u2019s wife Dorothy Brannen died at the age of 32 in 1923, leaving the three young children to be brought up by their sailor father. Ann and Ian\u2019s mother Dorothy and her sister Helen were admitted to the Sailors\u2019 Orphan Girls\u2019 Home in Hampstead, North London. Their brother George followed in their father\u2019s footsteps and went to sea.<\/p> \u201cMother told us many tales of her life in the orphanage<\/a>,\u201d says Ann. \u201cShe remembered a visit by Queen Mary, the wife of George V, who brought a radio for the girls\u2019 use.\u201d Dorothy later worked as a cook, and married Alfred Elliott in 1947. The couple settled in South Shields where they had Ann and Ian.<\/p> After a long career as an able seaman, George Taylor Harrison died in Southampton in 1939 from heart disease, aged 44.\u00a0<\/p> Ann and Ian were keen to explore George\u2019s background on Shetland, and online records revealed a rich social history. \u201cThe Harrisons can be traced back centuries on the islands, where the men worked as crofters and fishermen, and the women as knitters,\u201d Ann says.<\/p> \u201cOur mam told us that George\u2019s half-sisters on Shetland were spinsters, so we didn\u2019t expect to find any living descendants. However, as the family tree grew on Ancestry<\/a> we began to see a glimmer of hope.\u201d<\/p> George\u2019s half-sisters Elizabeth, Andrina and Willamina weren\u2019t spinsters after all. They married and spent their entire lives on the Shetland Islands. \u201cThere was a possibility that one of Willamina\u2019s daughters, Mattie, was still living,\u201d says Ann. \u201cShe would be our mother\u2019s first cousin<\/a>.\u201d<\/p> In 2015, a friend of Ann\u2019s husband John mentioned that he had family on Shetland and was planning a visit: \u201cDavid asked if we would like to join him, and we jumped at the opportunity.\u201d<\/p> \u201cIan had created a family tree, so John and I took that with us. We stayed with David\u2019s cousin Catherine, who is very knowledgeable about the islands. We showed her the tree, and Catherine thought that she \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it. By teatime, we were on the phone to Irene, who was the daughter of Mattie, our mother\u2019s first cousin.\u00a0<\/p>![\"Black](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2024\/05\/South-Shields.jpg\")
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