~ THe PReSeNT ~

I guess the easiest way to start off a genealogy blog is not by starting in the past, but infact in the present. At least this way the reasoning behind my search - and this blog – will hopefully be clear.

I belong to a very large family which seems to be welcoming an extra relative every couple of years. Unfortunately however, adding my partner and mine’s own addition is proving more difficult for us then first anticipated.

My immediate tree consists of my parents, who are both in their 40’s and who are still together after 27 years of marriage. My younger brother is in his early twenties. The four of us are very close despite the 150+ mile gap between my parents and my brother while I’m nicely placed in the middle of both of them, in London.

The next generation consists of my four Grandparents, only one of who is still alive today.

My Mum, originally born in North West London in 1963, is one of two children born to my late Grandparents. My Nan, Diane died in her early 50’s of a heat attack, while my Granddad died in his late 40s from Cancer. My Uncle is married with 2 young children of his own and they moved from London down to the South Coast in the early 00’s.

My Dad, originally born in Luton in 1960, is the 2nd oldest of 7 children and has 3 brothers and 3 sisters. My Granddad Raymond who is now in his 70’s still lives in Luton while my Nan Barbara died in her 40’s, from a blood clot in her lungs. My Granddad is also a Great Granddad to 8 Great Grand Children.

Between my Mum and my Dad’s side, there are 22 Grand Children and 4 of these Cousins have their own children, making up my Granddad’s Great Grand Children. Funny enough at 27 years old, I happen to be the oldest of all 22 Grand Children.

I know very little about the next generation on i.e. my Great Grandparents as I only ever remember one of them.

My Great Nan Florence, or Nanny Loll as we called her, died in her 80’s in hospital from pneumonia. She was the Nan to my Mum and even though she had 3 children, only Nanny Diane survived past childhood. I grew up hearing stories of Nanny Loll’s ex-husband but he left the scene shortly after Nanny Diane was born. I grew up not knowing his name nore anything else about him, accept that he was rumoured to be a Romany Gypsy. Nanny Diane never spoke about him and because of that questions were never asked.

He is the reason I started my search.