How did I get started?

The theme for Week 1 in the #52ancestors challenge is “Start”

I can’t remember how old I was when I first got interested in family history and mine in particular. We are a very close knit family – my parents and a younger brother.

Mum’s parents were still alive while I was a child but had died by the time I was 10. I can remember visiting them at their house and having meals there. The main thing I remember is their toilet was outside. Pa England had lots of birds and loved growing fruit trees while Nanna England kept the house tidy and it was always warm and welcoming.

The photo shows my mum, her sister Margaret and her parents Henry and Hannah England. Probably taken in the early 1950s.

Dad’s parents were different. His mum was still alive until the 1980s but his father had left the family when dad was 2 years old. His mum married again, just before I was born, to a Polish repatriated soldier who came here to work on the Hydro dams. For most of his life, though, dad lived with his foster family – the Avery family.

These two photos show dad’s mum and stepfather and his foster mother with her dog Monty.

At high school in the 1960s, as part of the social sciences subject, we had to create a family tree. If I were to look at that same tree now after 40+ years of researching, there would be many errors especially on dad’s side since I have started delving into his DNA.

Readers: How did you get started with your family history research?