General Chat

Suemaid

Where in England did you visit, it must have seemed so small over here, I couldn't get over the fact that Australia is so big but everyone is just so friendly and helpful, I was in Western Australia and I'm going back later this year.

**ann** what do you mean. from here in the outer hebrides to where i was born on the south coast of england is about 900 miles, so still quite a distance even if its all in the uk!!

let it be said it certainly isnt "tame " up here, only when the wind stops blowing lol

florence

I did find it quite odd that I needed to go to Australia to find out what happened to my Grandmother and Grandfather, my Grandmother came from Northumberland and Grandfather came from Yorkshire. But I am very glad I went there.

Hi When we moved to West Yorkshire 25 years ago .that was it all my family were down south. At the end of last year i found a family member living in the next village to me which is great Sandy

Wow Ann.

That's amazing.... What a meeting!

Gwyn

My husband & I went to South Africa to meet my sister who I had not seen or heard of for 50 yrs.also met nieces and their children who I did not know about.All thanks to G/R

When we went to New Zealand, we looked for and found the graves of many of my mother's distant relatives. A brother of her grandfather had travelled there about 1859. We found his grave and many of his descendants. We did try to find present day family, but were unlucky, as we didn't know much about them.
After returning from holiday, we researched more and if / when we travel there again, I hope we can meet living family. I would especially like to learn about their Maori connections, as I know they feature quite strongly.

Gwyn

I found my grandmothers cousin, I did not have to go miles, I contacted her through GR and she told me she lived in Snettisham Norfolk, which is where my holiday caravan is, I could not believe I had had a caravan up the road to her for years at not known, and she had loads of interesting photo's, what was funny though was that my grandmother who is alot older than her cousin always told me that her cousin had married an American, so when i met him and he spoke broad Norfolk, I said "you lost your American accent" and he looked at me very strangly, turned out he came from Sutton Bridge, I do not know where my grandmother got that story from.

Sorry!!

Sue

I suppose the Outer Hebrides seems rather lame now...tut!

I've done the opposite Susan - I've travelled from Australia to the UK to find and meet relatives and to walk in my ancestors footsteps.

Sue

I'm very lucky in that I unintentionally moved near to where my ancestors came from before they moved to London ...so really not very far at all..but that was more by luck than judgement.

Every year around my birthday,my friend takes me for lunch in Offord Darcy where my lot lived for generations and we lay flowers on the graves that are still readable....would have been about a 2 hr journey from where I used to live...40 mins max these days..x

To find relatives and did you find them or their graves and what would you consider "the icing on the cake."
For me it was finding my uncle and him giving me a photo of my grandmother (his Mother) whom I never knew, and in doing that I was able to tell him that an unknown child in a photo was his half sister (my mum) AND for all that to happen I traveled to Australia on my own, never having been there before or traveled alone.
All of the I did at the tender age of 57.