War came and we had sheep on the golf course

I've been working on family history matters for a couple of years now - but my focus has been the internet (my beloved internet!) as the main sources of information are naturally in the north east of England. Mam and Dad are the keepers for family lore, and have boxes of information I would love to get my hands on.

Finally Mam decided she could trust the postal service with some of these precious documents and sent my grandmothers memoirs recorded delivery! They came last week, and I had to take a photo so you could see what I have to work with!
The best part is the fifteen closely written A6 pages of notes you see on the right! Its taken a bit of deciphering but I've finally got a first draft of her life story, helped in that she seems to have written two versions, and I can move from one to the other if somethings not clear.

I took the title of this blog from what I think is the best line in the whole story!

I'm looking forward to moving it forward into a more readable whole, she had such a long and very interesting life; what I feel comes through in her writing most strongly is her simple description of her development from childhood to maturity.

It never rains but it pours as they say, and having the family tree published on the internet means that I get contact from long lost relatives with the strangest pieces of information. The last weeks I have been sent not one, not two, but ten, pictures of gravestones from various family plots scattered around Northumberland; the last resting place of ancestors from both sides of the family. This impressive memorial was sent by Dylane Symm, a relative from dad's side. Dylane added the daffodils as a mark of love and respect! Thanks Dylane!

I've also had loads of information in the last days about my mothers family, Its really hard not to get all caught up in this and work non stop to get everything recorded; when you think about it, some events happened nearly 200 years ago, whether I write about it today or next year, its not going to change history!