SIFTING THROUGH THE PAST
Researching his family’s history has been fascinating and moving in equal measure, says Alex Levitt (Year 12)
The editorship of this Alleynian has been shared by four Year 12 students, each of them having written for the publication for many years. Here, they present their thoughts about the experience, and about the magazine itself EDITORS’ INTRODUCTION left to right: Staff editor Jo Akrill; Daniel Kamaluddin; Francis McCabe; Alexander Poli; Zaki Kabir
O ver the past year, I have devoted considerable time to researching my family history. Prompted by the death of my great-aunt and the clearing out of her house, my research has primarily focused on the family of my maternal grandfather, her brother. It has involved both online research and a study of the photo- graphs and documents which we found in my great-aunt’s house. Family research is a hugely rewarding activity and one I would recommend to all. Here, I hope to provide some advice to other students on how to proceed, as well as recounting some details of what I have found. The help of older relations, some of whom may have done their own research – the fruits of which they may be able to impart to you – is invaluable. It is definitely worth asking for information, adding to what you know already. As students at Dulwich College, we have the advantage of access to the website Ancestry, which many of us will already have used during the Year 9 Great War Project. It is accessible through the Libraries section of MyDulwich. You must log in first at school, although after that, the website can be accessed from anywhere. One thing it can help you with is finding the addresses of ancestors: for example, you could start by searching for a great-grand- parent. The search results may include census records, and by clicking on one of these, you can find an address quickly. Then, you can do a wider online search for this address and, if you are in luck, past (or present) sales par- ticulars and photographs should be within reach. It can be interesting to compare these with old family photographs, if you have access to these. While investigating the houses in which one set of my great-grandparents lived, I found many interesting things. I discovered one house – for sale at present – fairly easily.
A After such an overwhelming three years, during which time social isolation was an often unwelcome feature of our lives, we were delighted when Ms Akrill appointed us last September as editors of this year’s Alleynian . While each of us was eager to influence the publication in our own way, any fears we might have had about internal disagreements proved unfounded. Indeed, thanks to our individual yet complementary approaches, I believe the publication has become a truly special work. Much as the tributaries of a river wend their individual ways across a limestone plateau, we all drew the best out of both the Alleynian and our- selves, and are overjoyed to share this celebration of what we, as a school, can create. We hope that you see a little of yourselves reflected in this year’s magazine. Alexander Poli We have developed our articles with the theme of reflec- tions in mind, considering how the myriad meanings of that word might feed not just into school life, but also into the turbulences of the socio-political landscape of the year 2022–23. Starting with reflections on family history, we pro- ceed with articles on communities and on issues of interest both within the school and outside: we consider movements built from the ground up to protect the interests of workers; we look at issues which affect young people and those in the world of work; and we even reflect on national attitudes towards the most royal of families. As this year’s editors, we have aimed to capture a glimpse of how events have affected us and our peers, and to share with our readership the ways in which we have reflected on them. Zaki Kabir W
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On an individual level, each one of us lives in a world of reflections. Every morning we see ourselves, bleary-eyed, cast in glass before us. We go to school and work, and meet people, and encounter ideas that in some way corre- spond to our inner lives. Our digital lives and our percep- tions of others online are defined by recorded reflections of our past selves. But reflections show not just the physical outer life; we reflect on ourselves, the people around us and our values. In reflecting, we probe beyond the surface level. Reflections are a two-dimensional glimpse into our terrifyingly complex three-dimensional world. And they al- low us, like no other tool, to understand the world around us, or as the Bard put it, to hold up a ‘mirror to nature’. Daniel Kamaluddin The Alleynian strives to strike a balance between serving as a chronicle of our College and maintaining a critical outlook on the political, social, economic and personal environ- ments around us. At its best, it enables us both to recount the events of the previous years, in all their disastrous brevity, and to reflect upon our inner selves, which were perhaps most affected by being locked down during the pandemic. As the lasting effects of lockdown continue to dissolve, we emerge with transformed, explorative prac- tices, into a new period of history, altering our behaviours with one another, whilst still discovering fresh complexities within ourselves. Francis McCabe
However, there were some difficulties in tracing the other houses they lived in. The first two houses they owned have been demolished. To find the first, I looked at the 1901 census and the National Library of Scotland’s histor- ic maps database (which covers the whole of the UK), and eventually I found an old photograph of it online. For the second and fourth houses, however, the human tendency to rename made things more difficult. The road on which the second one was situated turned out to have been renamed, although I found it using the National Library of Scotland resource. The fourth house, which still exists, was particularly complicated to find as my great-grand- parents, who had owned it as a second home for some years before moving there permanently, somewhat bi- zarrely changed its name to the name of their main home. Since then, however, its name has reverted to what it was previously. I must stress that this activity was not simple; my discoveries were the result of thoughts and research in spare moments over a period of several months.
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THE ALLEYNIAN 711
OPINION, INTERVIEWS & FEATURES
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