My interest in genealogy stems from stories told by my mother, who born in 1912 in Tyneside, about her life as the eldest of 8 children. It was not so much ‘Once Upon A Time’ as ‘Once Upon Another Time’ and it fascinated me as a child and still does so today.
My father’s life however was a closed book as he never discussed his childhood or family. It wasn’t until he died aged only 57yrs that I realised how little I knew about him. My mother knew his immediate family and little else. As my parents had moved south to the Midlands, I had only met my paternal grandfather once and my grandmother had died before I was born.
However life intervened and it wasn’t until my younger daughter went to University in the North East that I realised her accommodation was located in the parish where my father was born. With little idea how to approach the task, together we began to explore my father’s family history in a world of fiche and film readers, parish registers and archives.
His paternal family proved to be quite unremarkable moving around the Durham coalfields without any change in family fortunes.
However his mother’s ‘Norwood’ family came as a surprise as her family were Yorkshire born & bred. This research brought me straight back almost to my own doorstep in the Yorkshire market town where my family were then living! I had come full circle!
I discovered that my great grand father, Alfred Barker Norwood born 1850, was illegitimate. His birth wasn’t registered though he was baptised at a later date.. Neither of his Christian names have appeared anywhere in the extended family tree before that birth so my guess is that he was named him after his father. For 30 years I have tried to prize Alfred Barker snr. out of hiding and have recently tested my DNA hoping to obtain some clues to his existence. I have been unsuccessful to date. Perhaps one of you may be my long lost distant cousin?
My father’s life however was a closed book as he never discussed his childhood or family. It wasn’t until he died aged only 57yrs that I realised how little I knew about him. My mother knew his immediate family and little else. As my parents had moved south to the Midlands, I had only met my paternal grandfather once and my grandmother had died before I was born.
However life intervened and it wasn’t until my younger daughter went to University in the North East that I realised her accommodation was located in the parish where my father was born. With little idea how to approach the task, together we began to explore my father’s family history in a world of fiche and film readers, parish registers and archives.
His paternal family proved to be quite unremarkable moving around the Durham coalfields without any change in family fortunes.
However his mother’s ‘Norwood’ family came as a surprise as her family were Yorkshire born & bred. This research brought me straight back almost to my own doorstep in the Yorkshire market town where my family were then living! I had come full circle!
I discovered that my great grand father, Alfred Barker Norwood born 1850, was illegitimate. His birth wasn’t registered though he was baptised at a later date.. Neither of his Christian names have appeared anywhere in the extended family tree before that birth so my guess is that he was named him after his father. For 30 years I have tried to prize Alfred Barker snr. out of hiding and have recently tested my DNA hoping to obtain some clues to his existence. I have been unsuccessful to date. Perhaps one of you may be my long lost distant cousin?
Obviously, there were none in the case of my grandmother.