FOREWORD

April 2001

Back home where I was born in Lymington, in the county of Hampshire, England, the bottom drawer of Dad's bureau was full up with very old photographs, some going back to the early days of photography. As a schoolboy, my natural curiosity led me to discover this, no mention ever being made of these archival treasures. I would sneak into the drawing room when nobody was about and stealthily pull open the heavy drawer, fascinated. An irrational fear of being caught red-handed meant that I never got very far but my interest was aroused from that time.

Prior to this, the seeds of this interest were sown as small children, when there stood in the nursery a relic of earlier generations. This took the form of an old brown, folding, calico-reinforced tar-paper, room divider screen, stuck all over with faded photographs of parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and Edwardian friends and relations of a bygone age.

Many years later, after our dear brother Bill had stored all the family archives in inaccessible but safe custody, he passed them into my hands, as by this time I had secure storage space for them. Years later again, when the old family home was finally sold up I found that old screen, long since given up for burnt, still stored above the beams of the dusty old ware room of the family music business. I cut all the sepias out and sorted them, the known from the unrecognised, the unrecognised from the dim remaining images, in the hope and belief that some day in the technology of the future it may be possible to recover and restore those images, to knit them into the long family story. That day may now be fast upon us.

With all this collection now in my custody there followed an orgy of revelation as I sifted through it all and which after twenty years still has great potential in research. Given the time, the need for analysis of all this data and the preparation of a genealogical tree for family circulation was obvious. My first attempt to compile this was made in 1986, on an old drawing board up in the loft, printing out by hand on tiny tablets all over an A1 drawing sheet, the names and dates of every Klitz of whom I had solid evidence. After about three weeks this was printed off and circulated to all living generation members whose addresses I had traced. Few, if any, were missed. It was a most agreeable exercise. A number of revisions followed and were sent to key members but since then only sporadic further work has been done.

So now fate and technology have closed the loop and opened up the opportunity to pursue the task again and place it all on permanent record - A History of the Klitz Family. For this, I wish to extend my grateful thanks to dear cousin Ann for coming forward so willingly, with skilful expertise, to analyse and organise all the archives, photographs, scraps and scribblings I have collected, into this talented presentation.

We trust readers will enjoy the same degree of fulfilment and intrigue that we have in its collection and compilation and that some may feel inspired to explore the unlimited further research which may be undertaken, through Public Records offices, Parish Records, museums, libraries etc., where much may lie awaiting someone with the time and curiosity to enquire and investigate.

Much family sadness because dear Bob died in August 2013.
2015: I am delighted to say that Simon, Bob's son has agreed to continue with the family archives and the website pages, whenever I am no longer able to do so. Simon has all the records that were in Bob's possession, although I have some that Bob gave me in order to compile these pages, and some more I have since been given. All those will also be passed on to Simon in due course.
You can contact me from the link at the top of most pages. Ann Perrett neé Klitz

Robert Eede Klitz

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