How wonderfull Maureen, as children in 1931 our cousins and my brothers & sisters were sick of having to listen to our families for ever talking early Australian family history and now we are sorry that we were not interested. Kath I wanted to share with the list an incredible experience I have had. > I have been trying for many years to piece together my mother's family > with > very little information on family from Ireland. I recently connected with > an elderly woman who was the wife of my mother's much younger cousin. He > was stationed in Japan during the Korean War and brought home a Japanese > War > Bride. Funny at 80 her English was still not very good. She told me that > her husband was now dead and her son was teaching in Kuro, Japan. He > contacted me and said he would be in Toronto this past weekend and that we > should meet. > > He brought with him a letter that was written by my mother in 1979 (three > years before she died). The letter was to his father, replying to a > request > for family information. His father was a prisoner of war during WWI. He > came home in very bad health and died 10 yrs. later. He left behind a very > young family who had little memory of him. This man's father was my > mother's favourite uncle and she had lots of stories to tell about him. > Apparently this letter was very special to the family and everyone had a > copy. > > In this letter that my mother wrote, was a complete history of everyone in > the family as well as birth and death dates she remembered and when they > emigrated. She also talked about the personalities of all her uncles, > aunts > and as well as her grandparents and their siblings. I gather my mother and > her parents were the first to emigrate. As the relatives started to come > over to Canada, they would spend a year with them until they found work > and > a could send for their families. > > What is incredible is that she wrote this 16 page epic and did not copy > it. > Now all these years later; I receive the letter from Japan! > > While researching her family I often thought "why didn't I ask her about > her > family"? Well now she has managed to answer those questions all these > years > later. It was a wonderful gift! > > So now I must expand my research to from Belfast to Lisburn. Is Lisburn > Parish part of Antrim or Down? > > Kind Regards, > Maureen > > > > > > > ============================== > Search the US Census Collection. Over 140 million records added in the > last 12 months. Largest online collection in the world. Learn more: > http://www.ancestry.com/s13965/rd.ashx > > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.3.5/302 - Release Date: 5/04/2006 > >