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My father was one of fourteen children. My mother was one of ten. I am one of five. I have a lot of relatives I have never met, & probably lots I am unaware of.
My father never really said much about his family, I knew a few of my uncles & aunts, but I knew nothing about my grandparents. My aunt Phyillis was more talkative. She told me my grandmother was Anna Ellis, my grandfather was Walter Whipps, & my great grandmother was a Romany gypsy called Anna Lock. She also told me other surnames connected to the family were Wiseman, & Seabrook. I wanted to know more.
Years passed, & my curiosity about my family was put on hold whilst I brought up my own children. Then we bought the P.C, & discovered the internet. My husband found a website called Genes Reunited & I added my immediate family as a tree. My sister told me that my cousin Heather had done a bit of research years ago when she used to work near a records office, & had traced our ancestors on my father's side back quite a way. She had passed the information on to my sister, who passed it on to me. I added this to the tree, but thought it was a bit one-sided. I needed to find out about my mother's family. So, I did a search on Genes Reunited for a Daniel Baker, born around 1900, in East Sussex, where I knew my mother had been brought up. The search gave me the name of another member who had a Daniel Baker, born 1902, in Eastbourne, East Sussex. I contacted her through the site, & within two days I had found not only my grandfather's family, but also received photographs of him, & some of my great grandparents, & my own mother. This new information was added to the tree, & I had found a cousin, Donna.
My mother told me she didn't know much about her father. She said that her parents divorced when she was little, that she was put in a children's home, & that her father took her from there to his parents, where she was brought up by them. She also said that she hardly ever saw her father, & when she did it was only a quick peck on the cheek, & a bag of sweets, before he rushed out the door. Her mother, she said, had remarried, & that she had two brothers & seven half-brothers & sisters. Her mother was Cissy Jane Rotherham, & her father was Daniel Baker. I met my grandmother once, she stayed at our house & she gave me ten shillings (which my mother promptly made me return). She seemed like a nice lady. I never knew my grandfather.
Since then the family tree has grown quite considerably, & at the moment contains over 2000 names. I found another website called Ancestry.co.uk which I have found extremely useful for census returns, & B.M.D's. I have found lots of relatives, from as far away as Australia & New Zealand, & others from all over the UK, who have given me information & have sent photographs, (for which I am really grateful) & the tree is still growing...
