I do Ancestry.Com. & find it very interesting.

Yahweh is my 123 Great Grandfather.

I get to be related to just about everybit of Royalty that has ever existed. Roman Emperors, Saints, Bishops, Kings, Dukes & Counts by the hat full. Lots of Vikings & even a minor Chinese Warlord.

What you can't find on Ancestry.com you can pick up on the Internet.

I do notice the addage of, An Heir, a Spare, a Bishop & a Magistrate is so true. Anyone in the line after that gets to be Cannon Fodder.

Hey Jayb,

I appreciate your sense of humour.

How about really opening up?

Love to hear your ancestry.

Hmmm, my ancestry is very mundane compared to others.
I am 4th nation generation.
My earliest traceable ancestor was one James who married Sarah in a village near Bath Somerset.
Their son Steven was the cellerman in the local Walcot pub and his
wife Mary had four children one James, my great grandfather migrated to Australia on the
Marquis of Queensbury in 1855.
He went to the gold diggings in the Sofarla/Orange area.
There he took up with Henrietta the abandoned wife of a seafarer.
They went on to have four children.
They did not marry till 1912 when the seafarer was declared dead.
Their son Edward was to become my grandfather who married an Irish
girl, Mary Cunnane they had three children, my father who at a young
age enlisted in the army and ended up on the Western front in Belgium.
My mother’s family the Butchers, came from London and my Grandmother
Elizabeth a twin was born at sea 6 weeks out of Sydney.
My mother’s father had a carrying business with horses and carts.
As a girl she used to go on a delivery trip for the day with her
father all the way to Burwood.

My mother’s brother was also in Belgium near Ypes where he was
killed in the Battle of Polygon wood and on a visit there I saw his
name on the Menin gate.
After the war my father and mother married and I had a sister but she
died of peritonitis just a week before I was born.

After school my father arranged an apprenticeship for me at an
electrical company which led me eventually through electronic
instrumentation to computers and AWA’s first computer and then onto
the famous Leo Computers, descendants of Colossus at Bletchly Park in
the UK.

All that is a very mundane story but probably a very typical
story of the majority of Australians.

Mums Grandmother was born Thurles, Tipperary, Ireland & hated the British. Great Grandfather was Born in Scotland. His name was Dick. He arrived in Australia & had a handful of children & his Passport in his mouth. The Immigration Officer asked him what his name was & he nodded towards his bag. Meaning, “It’s on the Tag." The Immigration Officer looked at the Bag with Bradburn emblazoned on it & not the name on the Tag. He wrote Bradburn in the Immigration Log. & So, he had a name change to Bradburn, from. He was an Engineer at the Townsville Wharf. He had designed an Aeroplane. One night he was working on the Plans for the Aircraft in his Office. Someone came in & Sand Bagged him. The only thing missing were the Plans for the Aeroplane. He suffered Brann damage & spent the rest of his life as a virtual Vegetable.

Mums Father was born in Woodham Walter, Maldon, Essex, England. He served in the Australian Light Horse in WW1, A Machine gunner. He was at the Battle of Bathsheba in a Supporting role. A stray bullet took the heal off boot. I have his two Diaries. I am re-writing as there are some things in one that aren’t mentioned in the other & vice a versa.

Story. He & some mates were going on leave from the Jorden Valley to Jerusalem when they came under fire from a Turkish Machine Gun. They were at the top of a hill but weren’t armed. They borrowed a Donkey cart loaded with Hay & rode it down the hill & over the Machine Gun then killed the Crew. The Captured a German Sergeant who was in command of the Gun Crew. Now they had a dilemma. If they turn him in the Authorities their leave would be restricted. The put him in an Australian Uniform & took him on leave with them. 7 drunken days. On the last day they turned him in & they went back to the Jorden Valley. He committed suicide in 1939.
Cont.

Cont.
On my father’s side. Grand dad was a Gold Miner at Ravenwood but made his money moving all the houses out of Ravenwood by Rail & Bullock Team, when the Gold ran out. It now has one of the Biggest Goldmines in the World there.

Grandma was a Donald, “Not a bloody MacDonald" Short story. when I was about 8 years old I went to see the Picture "Rob Roy" MacGregor. I was running around the house waving a pretend sword when Grandma aske me what I was doing. I told her about the Picture "Rob Roy," with that she grabbed the broom & swung it at me, screaming, "Never to mention that name in this house, ever."

I ran out of the house crying Y went down the road to her brother. Uncle Any would tell me all sorts of interesting things about Scotland & how we were Kicked out, 10-pound Immigrants, of Scotland for, "Poaching Rabbits on the Lairds land." I told him about Grandma & Rob Roy & he physically threw me out of the house &, "never to darken my door again."

Now as an 8-year-old I was thoroughly confused & shaken by this time. I went to see Grandma's sister, Aunt Dolly. I told her what had happened & she hushed me up as there was another uncle sleeping on the Veranda. She gave me some Lemon Butter Sandwiches & said, "Aah laddie, in this family there are some things we don't talk about." & That was the end of that. I never found out what the big problem was. Although, it was a Donald that Rob Roy gave the Money he was loaned to take back to the Laird. He was found drowned in the Loch. She also had a connection to the Massacre at Clen Coe, but they wouldn't talk about that either. She hated the people who lived behind her because their name was Campbell.

Dear Bazz,

Thank You for taking the time to share your ancestry
with us. What a life your ancestors led. Sailing from
England, settling into a new country, digging for gold,
marriages, war, and much much more. You delving into
electronics and then computers. Mundane?
No way!

Dear Jayb.,

It must have been very hard for you as a kid not
having things fully explained. I've heard about the
Irish hating the English. We had an Irish priest who
was a close family friend. He hated the English with a
passion but wouldn't talk about it very much.
The history of Ireland is so sad. As for the Scots?
My first love was a Scotsman and to this day I can still
get weak in the knees when I think back to those times.