I’m sure none of my ancestors ever gave a thought to the
fact that one day one of their descendants would spend hours of time piecing
the facts of their lives together and speculating about the way they lived.
They would never have guessed that the wonder of the
internet would one day allow me to correspond with relatives all over the
world.
One of the pleasures of the #52 Ancestors Challenge this
year was the number of cousins – both mine and Paul’s – who we have connected
with. We now know more about my great-grandmother
Mary Crummy, through meeting some of the family of her brother Thomas. I have spent a morning with Lyn McLean, who
shares Robert White with me as our great grandfather. Descendants of Robert’s brother John have
also been in touch via email. We have connected
with Dennis and Lorna Johnson – Dennis is Paul’s second cousin and his wife
Lorna is a serious family historian who has written a great deal about the Johnsons. I found Brian, another cousin of Paul’s when
I recognised one of the stories in the Challenge as being about a common
ancestor. From Ireland, Laura Price of
Shannonbridge has provided hitherto unknown information about the Kilroe family.
In 2020 I hope for more happy surprises like these.
And none of those ancestors would never have guessed that I could
take a DNA test to find out more about my place in the world and who I am. I am eagerly awaiting the results. I expect lots of Celtic and English in my
background and I hope it leads me to conversations with other distant relatives
researching the same heritage.
And perhaps it might also reveal the mysterious 2% Polynesian
that a distant cousin has found in his DNA, which could solidify our belief
that Edward George Morgan, my New Zealand – born 2 x great grandfather was the child
of the seafarer John Morgan and an unknown Maori woman.
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