top Norfolk reunion
Jackie O'Callaghan writes:
Typical British summer weather (pouring rain) and an untypical British family (guess who), combined to make memorable Saturday afternoon on 6th July, as we gathered in the depths of rural East Anglia for the British Reunion of 1996. Our hosts, Ralph and Della, did us proud with wonderful food, a marquee on the lawn and ample parking. The swimming pool lay sparkling but unsullied (although a few brave, nay, meshugeneh, souls did indulge), and people wished they'd brought coats, but the warmth generated by sixty-plus Saltiels defied the mercury as we met even more new cousins and greeted old ones.
We converged on the lovely old farmhouse from all corners of Britain and beyond. I drove up from Sussex with cousin Vibeke, who had been staying with me for a few days, together with her gorgeous Yusef, of the dark good looks and oodles of cheim - at all of eight months old. We were delighted to see Andy, a representative of the elusive "Yomtob Line" recently discovered by chance via a magazine article, and very pleased we were to meet him.
As usual with the British Saltiels, almost all the identifying badges bore the name Abraham - he of the thirteen surviving children and countless descendants. My own "Raphael Line" (Abraham's brother) was sparse to say the least, but I was thrilled to meet the Maureen Firmin, daughter of my father's cousin, whose mother lives only ten miles from me. The Arundells turned out to be a friendly crowd and we all mixed in with puzzled exchanges as to which cousins how many times removed we actually were. (Nobody is yet quite sure, and does it really matter...) Animated conversations and gesticulating arms made it clear that this was no ordinary family. Ralph reminded us of the Saltiels' reputation as "the mad Portuguese". Indeed, I thought, it's a relief to be part of a gathering where one isn't the only one who's slightly crackers...
Inside the house, beautifully produced family trees had been produced by Betty Saltiel and were on display, showing where we all fit in the complex pattern. Paul Best brought a bundle of old photos and a handwritten note of what may have been my great-grandfather's death, though it could be another Raphael - we aren't sure. Maureen Firmin told me that my Raphael had married again in the U.S. but had no further children. Another piece in the jigsaw.
Evening approached and a barbecue was announced. Tell me why it is that ordinary food seems implicitly the province of women, yet as soon as a barbecue appears, the men gather round it with esoteric glee like a secret society, coaxing it alight and deftly flipping burgers as if to the manner born. Caveman instinct, obviously! As the party ebbed and the children played in the evening light, there was time for reflection. My badge held my married name but I suddenly realised - with, of course, the greatest respect to others - that I was not there because, say, my uncle's cousin's grandmother had married a Saltiel, but because I was born a Saltiel - an original! I proudly biro'd in the name and felt I belonged.
Miles Saltiel adds:We ended up with sixty-three Saltiels from thirty households in my parent's front garden. The summer has been wet, which meant lush hedgerows and wildflowers, but also intermittent showers against which we had to hire and erect a marquee at the last minute. A fax from New Zealand on the morning was bracketed by a couple of calls that morning from my brother, Jake, in India.
While I was picking up Lorna O'Connell from Diss station; my brother Adam responded to an emergency call from Maureen Firmin who had got off the same train twenty miles on in Norwich. Paul and Margot Best turned up first with a hoard of photos and other memorabilia, much of which we were shortly able to get identified by ninety year old Aunt Sadie. Most there were from my more or less immediate family - the "Abraham line" - the descendants of his thirteen children easily outnumbered the descendants of his brothers - the "Raphael" and "Emmanuel" lines. We also had Vibeke from Amsterdam, with her new baby, Yusef, and Andy Saltiel, a descendant of the "Yomtob line" which has been in England continuously for nearly four hundred years.
There were showers, but also enough sun for the kids to swim in the pool, which my father had heated to tropical temperatures. I met several dozen relatives I have never seen before, as did many others; several older people met who had not seen each other for decades. During the course of the afternoon, many came over to tell me that they are up for the Salonika reunion next year. After a lavish lunch and tea we ended up barbecuing for twenty into the long - if slightly chilly - evening.
The comic highlight of the occasion was the arrival of a forty foot trailer truck who mistakenly drove up the half mile dirt track to my parents house and then took three hours to get a tractor to tow him out. Thank heaven all guests but one had arrived by then, but some would be early leavers must have felt a tad imprisoned, till the trucker got clear, supervised by Ray Saltiel, who runs a trucking operation. I gather this was not the only automotive mishap. I have been sent photos of one family - I will spare their blushes - having to push start their car, after letting the battery run flat!
After the event I circulated a set of genealogies and a commentary. Many from the family sent in responses - one even came to see me - as a result of which I have learned much about the family which I did not previously know.