S10EP03 - 'The Kindly' with DearMYRTLE

In today's 3rd episode of Season Ten, host Andrew Martin is joined by tech nerd, un-retiree, and YouTube and Facebook live-streaming genealogist, who is perhaps better known by her award-winning blogging nom-de-plume - it's the wonderful DearMYRTLE!

THE LIFE STORY - MYRTLE ELIZA WEISER
Myrt has chosen to tell the life story of her much beloved, and namesake, grandmother who was born Myrtle Eliza Weiser in May 1895, in Salt Lake City in Utah, USA.

Grandmother Myrtle heads to a strict nursing school. She then gets a job for US $1 a week as a postpartum nurse - involving caring for infants and doing laundry.

After marrying in 1917, Myrtle gives birth to her first child amidst the Great Influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 (often called 'Spanish Flu'). DearMyrtle reflects on the experiences that her grandmother must have had as young mother and trained nurse during that flu epidemic, and relates it to her own experience during the Covid-19 pandemic that swept the world in 2020.

Moving to Seattle, her kindly ways emerge again - serving as a nurse during World War Two, giving inoculations to servicemen on the waterfront and would bring an occasional young recruit home to have dinner with the family. She also campaigned for children to have shoes.

Myrt's fond memories of her beloved grandmother beam from this episode, and has clearly shaped her own life.

THE BRICK WALL - HANNAH HUDSON
It's a brick wall in Bisham, Berkshire, UK that has Myrt asking for help. Hannah Hudson and her husband Benjamin Sanders take their daughter Zillah for baptism in 1788, but prior to that, remains a mystery.

Myrt has searched for Hannah's origins - checking the parish registers for marriages and baptisms, but she can't find Hannah Hudson's parents, nor her marriage to Benjamin Sanders.

A record on FamilySearch gives a baptism of a Hannah Hudson of John and Anne Hudson elsewhere in Berkshire, but there's not enough evidence yet to connect her Hudsons to them.

• Who are Hannah Hudson's parents?
• When/where was she born?

If you think that you can help Myrt with a research idea or clue, then you can message her via her Substack page. Alternatively, you can send us a message and we'll pass it on to her.

In the meantime, Myrt is enthusiastic about Andrew's offer of help, but maybe she knows more than he does... 

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Episode Credits

• Andrew Martin - Host and Producer
• DearMYRTLE - Guest
• John Spike - Sándor Petofi

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:55 The Interview - DearMYRTLE
• 22:10 The Life Story - Myrtle Eliza Weiser
• 38:46 The Brick Wall - Hannah Hudson
• 45:05 The Departure