Summer experience from Simon Whitehead, Physical Education teacher
I recently disovered through website postings that I had relatives on my Fathers side - a cousin in France - something that I had never known before as my Dad was very secretive about his past.
My Cousin is a distinguished Royal Navy Captain, who fought with Prince Andrew in the Fauklands war and was also captain of the HMS VICTORY (Nelson's Flagship) which still sits in Portsmouth Harbor. He, though Ancestry.com, discovered that my father had a previous marriage and that I had three half siblings, one of which was still alive and kicking living in Canada.
We contacted Anne ( my unknown half-sister)much to her surprise, and arranged to get together. So in August we packed up the Family and visited my sister just north of Toronto. It was a delightful visit which took place on an Island. Many Canadians have cottages on small Islands and use pontoon boats to get back and forth.
She is a lovely lady - 68 and a retired Nurse and we compared photos and exchanged stories etc. Their family, after her parents split, had escpaped from the bombing in England to Kenya during the war returning years later. When she met and married her Husband John. They emigrated to Canada in 1968 and her family pretty much were bitter about this and promptly abandonded her. So she was impressed that someone was actually trying to find her!! It was a great visit and solved many mysteries about my Dad's side of the family.
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