Fascinating exercise in living history

I used to love listening to my dads stories of the Home Guard, Dads Army, during the second world war. He was born in 1909 an my eldest daughter learned more about history from him than she would ever have learned at school. Sadly, he never wrote anything down so lots of it is lost to my grandchildren. When someone can tell you about the first radio they had, it was called a 'catswhiker radio' and other things, it really brings history to life. Maybe you could research the cousin and see if he made it to the states.

That's great! I am getting goose bumps as I read through your post. It must have been an interesting process. History relived through the translation. I remember the time I found out that I am related to a very important figure in Indian history. My mom never told me and we happened to trace it back through family tree!

Now I'd definitely have to research the cousin. I love family history and am very fortunate in that mine is a relatively easy family to trace back to about 1790. Before that it gets a little hazy. My Great Great Grandfather inherited a large fortune from his father, who had in turn inherited from his uncle. I'd love to know how he spent it all. I do mean ALL too! Grrrrr. LOL.

hiya dawn

That's interesting and made me think of if our emails or snail mail will be looked at and translated one day and if they will sympathise with today's recession? I reckon most of that generation have more interesting stories to tell, I often listen to my mother talk of old times. We went on a day trip to Dalkeith country park on Saturday and while we walked through Dalkeith we saw the local church which had been partially bombed during the war and my mother told me of several more.
My father was a treefeller who came over to the UK from Hondurous to fell trees for the war effort, he loved the country so much he applied for UK citizenship.

Alice

GOOD MORNING DAWN, No, i don't, wish i did . I think u are very fortunate to have some family history like that. I really know very little about my family, guess i need to do some research & see what i can find. I guess it was something my family never talked about or if they did i wasn't paying attention as a child. Have a great day.

Hi dawnald,


Wow!! that is interesting, please tell us some more about your great-grandfather, what a wonderful thing to have, a letter written all these years ago, sadley I haven't got letters like that.


Tamara

You know Dawn, I really wish I did have some family history like that. My grandfather Dalton -- my dad's father -- came over from Ireland. I would like to know more about his life, but he is such a skeleton in the closet that my father took his stepfather's name. So although I'm a Dalton by blood, that's not my maiden name lol. Grandpa Dalton took off with another woman, broke my Nana's heart and although she was happy in a maarriage after that, nobody forgave Dalton and my dad still wants nothing to do with talking about him. He was a little boy at the time and I'm sure he felt totally betrayed. I just bet the Dalton history would be an interesting one.

My father served through the whole of WW2, First with the British Expeditionary Force in France, and then for the rest of the war he was part of the Malta garrison. My mother kept all of the letters that he wrote home during those six years that he was away on active service, and since she died in 2001, they have passed into my keeping. I never read them while my mother was alive, but since then, I have read some of them, and they provide a facinating view into family history which I've found to be very valuable in my research into the family history.

My grandfather was a freedom fighter working in a sugar mill in Bhopal,India.So one day he got rid of 4-5 brats irritating him.Later on he went on with Mahatma Gandhi,for the non co operation movement, in a young age of 19.this was my family history

I don't have any documentation as you do, that is so very fascinating!

My step grandfather was an Austrian Jew...was here on business (he was a jeweler) when Hitler invaded Austria. He went back after the war and could not find his family. He returned and married my Irish Catholic grandmother...said a priest in Austria helped him try to find his family and he from then on contributed to the church. He had a daughter and a wife and siblings lost in the Holocaust. He raised my mom and aunt as his own and they loved him as their own too.

My father's family's story is interesting too. His father immigrated from Germany as a child. He worked for the government out west...in Minnesota. He was on one of the reservations and met my grandmother's family (Ojibwe) There was a measles epidemic and my grandmother was 14...her parents asked my grandfather who was in his late 20's to marry her and keep her from the epidemic. They had 16 children...eight single births and four sets of twins!

Every family has a story...I encourage all to find out who they came from. It is so enlightening and interesting.