Your Family Stories

I was very excited when I received a letter from a distant cousin in England (yes, a real AIRMAIL letter, delivered by the postman). It contained a family story that had been passed down through the generations. The story relates to my paternal line – the Lucas family, who I have traced back to the early 1700s in Liverpool (which is where I was born in the 1960s).

The central character in the story is my 2x great grandfather, Joseph Lucas (1856-1946), and it is set in the early 1900s in Liverpool. On the 1901 Census the family was living at 75 Rathbone Street, Liverpool (Sub district: Mount Pleasant).

Joseph operated a horse and wagon. His occupation was a “carter”. One day he came home in a very excitable state and began telling his wife Emma (nee Paisley, 1862 – 1908) about an exhibition he had attended at St George’s Hall.

“I’ve seen the future Emma!” he said. “There are not going to be horses anymore. There are going to be motor cars with engines in them.”

To which Emma said, “Sit down man, you must be drunk.” But Joseph couldn’t stop talking about this new incredible invention.

“If there are going to be all these motor cars with engines, what on earth will they do with all the horses?” Asked Emma, who in her mind had won the argument.

It got me thinking about innovation, technology and change, and the pace of change in today’s world. I wonder what Joseph and Emma would say if they came back to life today?

[Note: This article was also published in the Liverpool Family Historian – Liverpool and South West Lancashire Family History Society – June 2025]