The Ancestry Gateway

I OFFER MY EXPERTISE TO HELP YOU UNLOCK YOUR PAST

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WHY GENEALOGY?

I’ve always had a love of history, my imagination was set alight wondering about people from the past, how they lived….how they died.

About 30 years ago my father's cousin began tracing our family line and I became intrigued, wanting to know more of my ancestors, but unsure of how to start. Nevertheless, I began my search, comparing my results with that of my cousin’s. However, our results differed. He believed we were connected to William IV, by one of ten children he had, during a 20 year long affair with a popular stage actress of the time. I believed otherwise.

I cross referenced my results just to ensure I was correct, and I was….. much to my family’s annoyance. Of course I was disappointed, instead of having “blue blood” , I was related to a tea-lady, but I was filled with a sense of achievement and excitement.

I’ve traced back several branches of the my family tree to 1800, and carried out research for numerous friends and colleagues. So the time has come to offer my experience and expertise to you.

ancestrygateway@hotmail.co.uk

My Great Uncle Harry served in World War I in the Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry. Unfortunately he didn’t survive to the end of the war, like so many.

No-one knew what had happened to Harry. Two of his sisters had travelled to France in the hope of finding reference to him on one of the memorials, but they returned fruitless. When did he die? Where? Was he buried somewhere, or was his remains destroyed? It was a mystery to the family for decades.

Through my many searches I discovered that Harry died in the last weeks of the war. A week after his 21st birthday and having just been promoted to Corporal. Both points were facts which the family had never been aware of. Unfortunately, his body was not intact and there was no actual grave to visit, like so many others a bomb had prevented that. From further searches I located the French cemetery where his name was engraved on the Vis-En Artois Memorial in Pas De Calais.

World War I War Memorial