NEVER BE ASHAMED OF YOUR PAST

As you all know my passion amongst loads is Ancestry. I love finding out about my past and going back as far as I can. Nothing shocks me. The good, the bad and the really bad. I’m not in line to the Throne and believe me I wouldn’t want to be. It seems I am related to the Royals going back and back via my Grandmother on my Father’s side, but then I’m sure thousands of people who have done a DNA test are. Is it true? I’ve no idea but after all they did dig up the bones of someone Royal blood or so they tell us, so who am I to argue.

I am surprised though at the amount of Family I’ve got in Australia. I know my Great Grand Mother threw one of her sons out onto the street and he went there by passage to make a new life but it seems he had no children. Then there was Old Mary as we call her. She landed in Canada Bless her heart. One of my Grand Mothers something of other removed. Long Dress, dainty head covering, carried a Bible. Must have forgotten to tell the Authorities she had just come out of prison had old Mary!!!

Now I’ve had a look in Ancestry as I’m doing this. Nicola Adams the Boxer has 26 percent in common with me for fitness! Excuse me here. Nicola is a Boxer and young. I’m 71 years old, with a back problem. Think maybe they might have got this wrong somewhere????

I have found some family though so I’m not really complaining. A Cousin in Hawaii. Family in the U.S. and so many Family in Australia and New Zealand.

But back to the past. My Dad had one Sister. My Auntie Emily. She was – I don’t know. A good time girl of her day? She had two children, by a man she never named. My Dad was so ashamed of her. Two children out of wedlock in those days and the Father disappeard to – well – anywhere. Am I ashamed of my Auntie Em? No. Why should I be? One lived until she was eighty years old and was my Cousin Elizabeth. She had five children and there are some older than me now and we still keep in touch.

Admiral Richard Hawkins is my DNA match and Mary Bushe was in Hobart Womens Prison is also a DNA match.

One of the strangest things ever happened to me recently. My son and I love to go Horse Racing. We were sitting at our usual table in Sandown Park’s Members Room having a cup of tea and chatting to one of the Security Guards about when we were much younger and it turned out that we had known each other when we were children because our families had lived a few streets away from each other. How about that for co-incidence???

So take my advice and never be ashamed of your past!!!!