Dear All Yes, there certainly were a lot of replies, which I expected - so can't at this stage reply individually, except to say I'll do my very best for you, but it won't be for a few weeks, as I have to get my December edition of Genetree out of my hair first and a few other "living" things. Funny how we have to live a life outside of genealogy! To those of you who wrote, you gave me some amusing chuckles. Glad to see all of you keeping your sense of humour even in this serious business of family history. And there were some lovely comments re. my email on "Yesterday" etc. I felt rather humbled at that. But it is true, we do need to know more about our elder folks, and the official history of the times will only tell us so much. Lucky are some of us to have photos, cards, and old letters. My little rag "Genetree" has been going now since 1996. When writing articles for it, one must be certain that everything (as far as possible) is relatives needed to know what the elders were like. I commenced with my paternal grandparents who had returned from New Zealand to Australia and walked slap bang into the 1892 depression where the banks closed for months, some never to re-open. You can imagine what happened next. But they survived, even when later on my grandmother died in childbirth they still survived. I was again fortunate to have had up to 1974 an aunt who had all the family knowledge tucked up inside her brain and who loved to talk about it. I made copious notes, of course. She had a great number of old letters - bonanza! My little family saga, which I titled "Nearer am I to Home," was only meant to deal with the life of these grandparents, but it was soon obvious that it had a life of its own. I made sure, however, that readers were aware that even though it was based on the facts and the historical times, this saga was partially fiction. Though I think I have hit close to the bone when describing some of their lives. And still it goes on. I am only up to 1915 at present, where my father was at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli. As an example of how you can become a part of their lives, I wrote of his sister, my aunt, reading an actual letter he had written from Gallipoli, in which he may have been a little naive, because: "I have been here a week now, and am doing all right so far. You asked me in one of your letters who were the boys in the photo I sent you. The tall chap is Sam O'Dell and the other W. Harris. They are both dead. They were fine fellows to have for mates..." and so the letter went on with other things. Imagine the emotions running through my aunt as she read this letter! Which then leads further as the story goes on. The War Graves Commisssion gave me details of these two fellows, my father's mates, so I wove them into the picture earlier on, while they were still in Australia, though I changed their names. There have been times when I have been writing some scenes and I have been in tears, especially when I had to write of the day my grandmother died in childbirth after an unsuccesfull caesarean operation. Aunt gave me all the details. She talked about how her mother had sat up in the bed at the end, how her father (and she the eldest) had shepherded all the children in to hear their mother say good-bye, and how her mother had given good advice to them for the future, and in particular to the two boys, my father, and my uncle. I had to leave the writing of this many times as I could not see the computer screen properly. But, I came back to it, for as far as I was concerned it had to be done - people needed to know about these things. It was not an easy thing to do, but you know, I think deep inside that I am quite proud of that chapter. It certainly did give me great insight into the character of my grandfather and why he never married again, but lived his life in remembrance of a very brave and lovely lady. Bye for now Graham