Searching the Past

Well what a day we've had. We have, like many others, been researching the family history on both John's side and mine. Today we visited 4 houses in which his Great Grandfather John lived. The first, he lived with his mother in 1871, but unfortunately this one has been knocked down, but the Common Green area is still there where no doubt he ran around playing as a boy.
The second house he lived with his new bride Emily Mary in 1891 in the north of Gosport. We couldn't identify the exact house, but found the probable group, one of which would have been theirs.
The third was a direct hit, where he lived with Emily and 5 of their 8 children in 1901. This was in the nicer area of Alverstoke just around the corner from the Common. We cheekily took a couple of photos, then a woman stuck her head out of the window and asked why we were taking photos of her house. We apologized and she said it was quite ok, she was just being nosey. Funny.
The fourth was back on the north side where they added another 2 children. Small houses, lots of kids, that's how they did it back then.
It has been fascinating, and certainly the third house, John and I had walked past many many times, not knowing it was there and the association it held.