A Brief, Partial History
of
Engineering Genes
Originating on the Paternal Side
of
My Family

My Great Grandfather JB Bean (who didn't just spring into the world fully-formed although for the purposes of this post I will pretend he did) was a blacksmith by trade, I think, but his smithificationisationing took the form of inventing things, and he devised and built a line of bicycles.

He had 7 sons and a daughter. Seven engineer sons.

His daughter was my grandmother.

My father had a story about the taking of this photograph in 1923. His mother told the children there was an aeroplane in the sky so they would look where she pointed. My father (aeronautical engineer) is the youngest. Betty, in the middle, married an engineer and gave birth to an engineer. My Uncle Sydney was an artist (phew).

Then a lot of the children married engineers and gave birth to engineers and became engineers - however I couldn't begin to sort that out. Besides, I never see anyone as I'm antisocial. *scratches head* And some of the in-laws are also engineers.






One of the 7 engineer sons was my father's favorite uncle, Uncle Laurie (dark jacket).