When I was a child my mother used to talk about her grandfather, who had worked on some sort of telecommunications on Rathlin Island. She actually used the word 'telephonics'. Until I started to work on my family tree 50 years later it hadn't dawned on me that each succeeding generation of my family was associated with telecommunications. My great grandfather, Frederick Stelges was indeed a 'telegraph mechanic' in Belfast. He came there in the late 1860's from London. His father, first listed as a watchmaker later became a maker of telegraph instruments as did one of his uncles. At least one of his sons followed him into the trade. That son's death certificate listed his profession as 'post office wireman'. His grandmother, my mother married Dan Fitzpatrick who after service in the Royal Navy during WW2, became a telephone operator in Telephone House Belfast. My sister Gerry also worked there in the late sixties/early seventies and I myself worked in the Telephone Manager's Office, at Churchill House, Belfast. My eldest son Hugh went through Aston University as a BT sponsored student of electronic systems engineering and worked for several years as such. I wonder if any of my grandchildren will continue the tradition.
Date: Pre 1870-1990's
Sent by: Mrs Bridie Murphy
Category: Advertising, demonstration, promotion and items with personal associations
