Diana Mary Jackson (1958) ~ Alderney

How the island of Alderney Stole my Heart

This is my final post on our family history, showing how Alderney has been indelibly imprinted upon my soul.

Since I have no children I am the end of the line on this part of our family tree, which is one reason why, even though married, I chose to write under my maiden name Jackson.

Born in 1958, my memories of family holidays growing up are delightful, either going west to Devon or Cornwall or over to the Channel Islands, first to Guernsey (once too early in my life to remember) then to Sark when I was ten and then three wonderful breaks on Alderney, three weeks at a time over Alderney Week when I was in my teens.

And so, here’s my life in photos, focussing mainly, but not exclusively, on trips to Alderney:

Diana and Mum (Patricia Jackson) 1958

Diana (10yrs), Dad (Arthur Jackson) and sister Christine 1968

Family rock-pooling on Alderney, Diana aged 13

Mum, Diana (aged 15 yrs) Christine and Grandma Green on Braye Beach Alderney

Diana (16yrs) and Christine

Diana celebrating her 50th at the Braye Beach Hotel Alderney (2008)

Diana with husband Roger celebrating the launch of her debut novel Riduna at the Braye Beach 2009

Corblets Bay, Alderney 2009

Mum and Dad at Arch Bay in 2010 when they joined us on their final trip to Alderney

Diana Jackson 2013 with the launch of MURDER, Now and Then

First holiday of freedom from Covid lock-down in the Greek island of Tinos in May 2022

We did return to Alderney in the autumn of 2022, hopefully one of many visits to come. I feel emotionally drawn to the island; I have a connection through time and family for nearly 200 years and the Alderney will always remain in my heart.

Exciting New Evidence (1844 to 1943) re Harriet Jackson and Thomas Jackson

I have just received an email from my cousin Lyn with some exciting new documents which she has uncovered in her loft.

The first is the confirmation certificate of Harriet Jane Hopkins (she was often called Jane) on Alderney on 10th August 1884:

The second is the actual marriage certificate of Harriet and Thomas Jackson. Up until now we only had a copy of the church records (note Harriet is Jane Harriet here):

For me these are quite poignant, when Thomas returned to Guernsey in WW2 and the family were concerned that they had not heard from him:

… and finally the news the family dreaded that Thomas Jackson’s had passed away on 26th August 1943 :

It looks like the family had to wait 8 months to hear this news.

The missing piece of the puzzle is still verification of Harriet Jane’s mother, but, since many records were lost or destroyed on Alderney during the evacuation of WW2, it is very unlikely anything will come to light now. Common sense is that her mother’s name was Jane, but we have no proof of that.

Harriet is the protagonist of my first novel Riduna.

How our Family History was Researched

A comment on my last post from my niece prompted me describe how our family history search was carried out, predominantly by our parents.

Firstly it was started in the days before internet searches.

Research on Alderney

Dad wrote down all he knew of his Grandmother Harriet Jane, alongside lots of questions and we headed on a family holiday to Alderney and then on to Guernsey. Here are a couple of key questions:

Who were Harriet’s parents? (my Great Grandmother)

Where did she live?

What happened to them? Dad knew that they had died but how?

There were three ways we could find out information:

• Visiting a dear lady on Alderney who was in her 80’s, but worked with families who were researching their family trees. All she asked was a donation for the museum and for us to send her any information we gleaned.
• Visiting the museum where the potter Peter Arnold (and curator I believe) allowed us to search all the old acetates of any records the island possessed on a machine where you carefully turned the handle and looked into a viewer.
• Looking around the graveyard for possible relatives.

As I have said in a previous post, records on Alderney are not complete due to the evacuation and occupation in WW2.

Most which are available, of course, can now be accessed on-line.

(Meanwhile I researched life on Alderney in the Victorian Age for my novel)

Research on Guernsey

Here there is a Records Office and the Priaulx Library, both mines of information, not to mention Trinity Church where my Great Grandmother Harriet was married. Our parents went back to work on their searches. Family History is absorbing but time consuming.

After our trip together

Subsequently …

A few days was not enough, although we had an enjoyable time together. After that Mum and Dad made another trip to both islands on their own and I too visited Guernsey on my own for my research, which was now diverging from the truth into fiction. I travelled to Guernsey, in the opposite of the journey made by Harriet and her young family, on the slow ferry from Portsmouth, when you are still passing The Isle of Wight after an hour at sea!

As Mum and Dad went on to do more detailed research, uncovering much of what I have described in the previous few posts, they also went on to access records on the internet too, as soon as it was available.

It was a wonderful topic of discussion when we met and they distributed much of it to all the family, although it was poignant but also a delight to find all the original documentation and notes in their things when they had passed away.

Next post …

The Family in Wooston