Gaps
When I started, I really just wanted to put a picture in my mind of how names like Jack, Ted, Kate and Anges connected. How we we related to the Summerfields, Pobjies and Rosses? Who were "The Cousins"? I knew dad knew this, but I'd never be able to make sense of it all.
My father always talked a lot about his family, but I was often confused by the gaps in it, often creating a distorted family history that became too hard to comprehend over time so I stopped trying to add it up .. or I added it up all wrong!
It seems I come from a long line of immoral women! Unwed mothers, convicts and adultresses! These are the stories I never really heard about until I started to trace the family names.
My father was an only child, of an only child. There were plenty of aunts and uncles, but very few of them went on to add branches to the family tree. Perhaps the "secrets" weren't secrets at all, but just things you didn't share with a little boy.
Yet, there were other stories I think Dad almost took to the grave, like the name of his maternal Grandfather. I didn't even realise Dad knew who this was, but he recorded a story of what he knew about him only a few days before he passed away. It didn't take more than half an hour to check the name and details Dad had left as a legacy. There he was, my Great Grandfather a gap I thought I'd never fill in the tree ... staring out at me from the electrol roll. The few details that I had all confirmed.
My Father was a wonderful man. He was the Keeper of the Tree and I thank him very much for passing so much onto me. I only wish that I'd started my search before my father passed. I know he would have been facinated with so much of what I learnt ... and maybe even a little cross at some of the family secrets I now know!
My father always talked a lot about his family, but I was often confused by the gaps in it, often creating a distorted family history that became too hard to comprehend over time so I stopped trying to add it up .. or I added it up all wrong!
It seems I come from a long line of immoral women! Unwed mothers, convicts and adultresses! These are the stories I never really heard about until I started to trace the family names.
My father was an only child, of an only child. There were plenty of aunts and uncles, but very few of them went on to add branches to the family tree. Perhaps the "secrets" weren't secrets at all, but just things you didn't share with a little boy.
Yet, there were other stories I think Dad almost took to the grave, like the name of his maternal Grandfather. I didn't even realise Dad knew who this was, but he recorded a story of what he knew about him only a few days before he passed away. It didn't take more than half an hour to check the name and details Dad had left as a legacy. There he was, my Great Grandfather a gap I thought I'd never fill in the tree ... staring out at me from the electrol roll. The few details that I had all confirmed.
My Father was a wonderful man. He was the Keeper of the Tree and I thank him very much for passing so much onto me. I only wish that I'd started my search before my father passed. I know he would have been facinated with so much of what I learnt ... and maybe even a little cross at some of the family secrets I now know!
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