Reg Gadd

This photo was sent to me by Bert in 2001. There was a similar one of Bert, and it made me think that they had had their portraits done at the same time.

I got an email from Reg's son, Robert Charles Gadd this week. He wrote. "My father was Reg as shown on the photograph of the family he passed away in July 2004 aged 92, his wife Grace predeceased him in 1986. Father was also a professional golfer before the Second World War and as far as I know worked as assistant to Charles at Brancpeth Castle for a short time before joining the Market Harborough Golf Club."

Golf Collectibles

Last year I purchased a George Gadd golf club from a shop in England. I bought it on EBay. It says Roehampton on it, which is one of the golf courses where he was pro. It is a "Mashie" and has his signature on it. I will post a picture of it soon.

I also bought a George Gadd Churchman's Cigarette card. They seem to show up on EBay from time to time.



A man wrote to me recently who had purchased a Charles Gadd club in England. He wanted to find out more about Charles Gadd who was my grandfather. I was happy to refer him to the online book. Unfortunately he didn't want to sell the club.

Has anyone else acquired any interesting Gadd memorabilia? These are photos of George that I purchased online from a company that would print them on mugs and t-shirts.

A Recent Review

To the Brink of Fame, by Gadd
The Life and Times of Bert Gadd, Professional Golfer
by Bert Gadd

Bert Gadd came from one of those golfing families that grew up, often in humble circumstances, in the late Victorian/Edwardian era, around some of the early English courses: the Whitcombes of Came Down; the Mitchells of Ashdown Forest; Brews of Minchinhampton. The Golfing Gadds grew up near the Worcester Golf Club at Malvern; five of the brothers became professionals.

Charles, George, and Bert, the youngest were successful tournament pros between the wars. This is a much-neglected period in golfing literature, so Bert Gadd's reminiscences of the fledgling PGA tour are a useful addition to our knowledge. There were no great triumphs; no elevation to the Ryder Cup team - though Bert did manage a couple of national championships - the French in 1931 and the Irish in 1938 to add to innumerable county and regional titles. For a number of years Bert was safely in the top dozen English Professionals and had the distinction of appearing in the John Player and Sons series of instructional cigarette cards - Bert's featured specialty being the two iron. He also represented England on six occasions.

Evidently a modest man, he goes into no great detail of the successes, but reminisces about his fellow professionals, and social events and conditions of the 1930's. The book is published on the Internet, the great news being that it comes at BGCS's most popular price, though downloaders are encouraged to make a donation to charity. Access it on http://www.golfinggadds.com/. A hard-copy version of 50 copies was printed but must be long gone now, largely, I suspect to the extensive Gadd diaspora. Nevertheless, you may be lucky.
Review by John Pearson

Figuring Out Family Relationships

From http://www.genealogy.com/16_cousn.html
Figuring Out Family Relationships

At Genealogy.com, we get asked about how to determine relationships all the time. Here, you'll learn how to figure out the relationships between family members using a simple chart. If someone walked up to you and said "Howdy, I'm your third cousin, twice removed," would you have any idea what they meant? Most people have a good understanding of basic relationship words such as "mother," "father," "aunt," "uncle," "brother," and "sister." But what about the relationship terms that we don't use in everyday speech? Terms like "second cousin" and "first cousin, once removed"? We don't tend to speak about our relationships in such exact terms ("cousin" seems good enough when you are introducing one person to another), so most of us aren't familiar with what these words mean.

Relationship Terms
Sometimes, especially when working on your family history, it's handy to know how to describe your family relationships more exactly. The definitions below should help you out.

Cousin (a.k.a "first cousin") Your first cousins are the people in your family who have two of the same grandparents as you. In other words, they are the children of your aunts and uncles.

Second Cousin Your second cousins are the people in your family who have the same great-grandparents as you., but not the same grandparents.

Third, Fourth, and Fifth Cousins Your third cousins have the same great-great-grandparents, fourth cousins have the same great-great-great-grandparents, and so on.

Removed
When the word "removed" is used to describe a relationship, it indicates that the two people are from different generations. You and your first cousins are in the same generation (two generations younger than your grandparents), so the word "removed" is not used to describe your relationship. The words "once removed" mean that there is a difference of one generation. For example, your mother's first cousin is your first cousin, once removed. This is because your mother's first cousin is one generation younger than your grandparents and you are two generations younger than your grandparents. This one-generation difference equals "once removed." Twice removed means that there is a two-generation difference. You are two generations younger than a first cousin of your grandmother, so you and your grandmother's first cousin are first cousins, twice removed.

Relationship Charts Simplify Everything
Now that you have an idea of what these different words mean, take a look at the chart above. It's called a relationship chart, and it can help you figure out how different people in your family are related. It's much simpler than it looks, just follow the instructions. Instructions for Using a Relationship Chart Pick two people in your family and figure out which ancestor they have in common. For example, if you chose yourself and a cousin, you would have a grandparent in common. Look at the top row of the chart and find the first person's relationship to the common ancestor. Look at the far left column of the chart and find the second person's relationship to the common ancestor. Determine where the row and column containing those two relationships meet.