Helen's Genealogy Journeys - Tracing My Ancestors Around the Globe

One of the joys of growing older is connecting with siblings and sharing family memories.  My two sisters and I meet annually to re-connect, have fun creating works of felt art (at least we think that they are works of art 🙂), and talking about memories of our childhood. One of my works of felt art created at our felting get-together In fact, this is an integral part of our 'felting sisters' week together every year.  This is a fairly new tradition but one that I thoroughly enjoy as the designated family genealogist.  I have spent years working on family trees and trying to find out as much as I can about the lives of our ancestors but I never really thought about recording my and my siblings memories.  After all, I think I remember what happened and, besides, who would be interested anyway?  But I am finally following all of the advice given in genealogy magazines, webinars and blogs about collecting family stories from immediate family.  Last ...

Well, I was going to spend this week, the week of the 75th anniversary of D-Day (June 6, 1944), researching what my relatives experienced on and around D-Day.  It was a lofty goal for just a week of research restricted to evenings after work (while putting in a fairly large vegetable garden!).  So, it didn't go quite as I expected - instead, I got pulled into the compelling story of D-Day.  I did some research into established facts about D-day, looked at timelines and picture, getting a more and more detailed picture of what happened and decisions that were made.  These can and have filled books and scholarly papers about just every aspect of D-Day.  Then I read an article in the Globe and Mail that talked about the 5 best books/films about D-Day.  Top of the list was the movie "The Longest Day".  I found that my local library had Blue Ray copies so went out over my lunch break to pick up a copy.  Not only is this a movie about "The Longest D...

June 6th marks the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landing on the beaches of Normandy, France during WW2.  This upcoming 75th anniversary of D-Day got me wondering what my family who experienced the war, either in fighting or supporting roles, or 'on the home front' experienced that day. I will start with a (very) brief background of this event. The war had been raging in Europe for nearly five years, when the Allied forces embarked on an invasion of the continent that would turn the tide of the war.  This event resulted from years of preparation by the Allied nations to breach the Atlantic front in Europe.  Hitler's forces had advanced rapidly across Europe and the allies were at their lowest period. However, the defeat of the Germans by the Russians on the Eastern Front, and the defeat of Mussolini in Italy, gave renewed hope that the fortunes of the allies could turn.  It was recognised, though, that a coordinated and well thought out effort would be needed to...