This is the first time this year I have been stumped about what I would write about for this month’s memoir.
Early in the year when I read the topics for each month, I was sure I had a story ready and waiting to be written.
Right here, right now, this current life I am living is so full on, so busy.
The thing is, I don’t regret a minute of it. In the last 12 months, since hearing about U3A when I attended the Benalla Festival, my life has been nonstop.
My story started with attending the ‘Family Research—Beginners’ class. It was great learning about my ancestry. I found, and still find, it fascinating,
I came across a newspaper story from March 1928, where a lady had committed suicide by cutting her own throat with a razor blade. The lady was my Great Grandmother.
Early in the year when I read the topics for each month, I was sure I had a story ready and waiting to be written.
Right here, right now, this current life I am living is so full on, so busy.
The thing is, I don’t regret a minute of it. In the last 12 months, since hearing about U3A when I attended the Benalla Festival, my life has been nonstop.
My story started with attending the ‘Family Research—Beginners’ class. It was great learning about my ancestry. I found, and still find, it fascinating,
I came across a newspaper story from March 1928, where a lady had committed suicide by cutting her own throat with a razor blade. The lady was my Great Grandmother.
I also did a DNA test with Ancestry. Once I got the results back, it was great, they told me where I had come from, parts of the UK, and parts of Europe.
Then I got a list of hundreds of people all around the world that my DNA was matched with by Ancestry. They came from everywhere, especially the UK, around Europe, America, Australia, Canada. There was only one person I was matched with that I knew, a niece living in Melbourne. There were second and third cousins, through to about eighth cousins.
This is where it starts getting exciting. I received an email one day from a man in Warwickshire, England, which is where I came from. He claimed he was a second or third cousin and that we had the same Great Grandparents on my mother’s side. He told me he was sorry to see that my mother had passed away recently, and she had. He knew a lot about my mum, her family, her husband and how many kids they had, but not their names.
Over the course of a few emails to each other, he told me about another person who was in his eighties, who he thought might be a distant cousin too. We got in touch through my late cousin’s daughter who knew of him by name, because he visits her grandmother, who is also my Mum’s sister and my Aunt. This man’s son emailed some information from my Mum’s side. It was a 111-page document which he asked his son to send me. Certificates, stories, photos. One particular photo showed my Mum as a two-year-old flower girl at a wedding. Wow!
Then I got a list of hundreds of people all around the world that my DNA was matched with by Ancestry. They came from everywhere, especially the UK, around Europe, America, Australia, Canada. There was only one person I was matched with that I knew, a niece living in Melbourne. There were second and third cousins, through to about eighth cousins.
This is where it starts getting exciting. I received an email one day from a man in Warwickshire, England, which is where I came from. He claimed he was a second or third cousin and that we had the same Great Grandparents on my mother’s side. He told me he was sorry to see that my mother had passed away recently, and she had. He knew a lot about my mum, her family, her husband and how many kids they had, but not their names.
Over the course of a few emails to each other, he told me about another person who was in his eighties, who he thought might be a distant cousin too. We got in touch through my late cousin’s daughter who knew of him by name, because he visits her grandmother, who is also my Mum’s sister and my Aunt. This man’s son emailed some information from my Mum’s side. It was a 111-page document which he asked his son to send me. Certificates, stories, photos. One particular photo showed my Mum as a two-year-old flower girl at a wedding. Wow!
I also enrolled in another U3A course. “As Time Goes By” Memoir Writing.
Both Family Research and Memoirs are consuming my current life, my past life and to a degree, my future life.
What I have learnt and continue to learn about my predecessors through Family Research and by reflecting on my earlier life through my Memoirs, is certainly keeping me very busy ‘Right Here, Right Now!
Tom Barnaby
October 2023
Both Family Research and Memoirs are consuming my current life, my past life and to a degree, my future life.
What I have learnt and continue to learn about my predecessors through Family Research and by reflecting on my earlier life through my Memoirs, is certainly keeping me very busy ‘Right Here, Right Now!
Tom Barnaby
October 2023