I am writing this blog from the small seaside community of Oban on the West coast of Scotland. It is here that we are starting our family history research while on vacation in Scotland. My husband, Dave, is researching his dad's time in Oban during WW2 when he served with the RAF Costal Command unit.
I, myself, am planning to spend some time in archives, museums, and libraries in East Lothian, Edinburgh, and the Scottish border. And hopefully collecting family photos and documents that may be stored at my sister's home in East Linton and my aunt's home in Gullane.
One of the interesting parts of this research is the fact that both my dad and my husband's dad trained for the Royal Canadian Air Force through the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan in Canada. And when they were shipped out to Britain in December 1941 they were shipped out on the same troop ship. At this point, their paths diverged and Dave's dad eventually ended up in an RAF Costal Command unit in Oban, and dad in an RAF Training unit in East Fortune. They never remembered meeting on board the ship but, when they met decades later as fathers of the bride and groom a few days before our wedding, they realised that they had been on the same troop ship which sailed from Halifax to Bournemouth, England.
Dave and I still marvel at how the strands of their lives intersected for a short period in 1941/2 and then separated only to draw back together again almost 53 years later when we got married. That connection continued after that as they had a grandchild in common, Michael Ian Anderson Ramsay. In some ways, Mike's name illustrates this linkage - Ian Ramsay was my father-in-law (now deceased) and Charles Anderson is my father.
As one final background note, it was in East Linton, where dad now lives and where we will be going next, that he met my mother, Flora Ainslie. Mum was working as a switchboard operator in East Linton, a short distance from the East Fortune RAF airbase that my dad was posted to.
We are only in Oban 3 days (one full day and 2 travel days) but the research we have done here at the local library and local war museum is giving Dave some good information and, most importantly I think, a feel for what it was like in Oban while his dad was posted here. Just walking along the waterfront and seeing where his dad's Catalina flying boat would have been moored was a great experience.
I, myself, am planning to spend some time in archives, museums, and libraries in East Lothian, Edinburgh, and the Scottish border. And hopefully collecting family photos and documents that may be stored at my sister's home in East Linton and my aunt's home in Gullane.
One of the interesting parts of this research is the fact that both my dad and my husband's dad trained for the Royal Canadian Air Force through the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan in Canada. And when they were shipped out to Britain in December 1941 they were shipped out on the same troop ship. At this point, their paths diverged and Dave's dad eventually ended up in an RAF Costal Command unit in Oban, and dad in an RAF Training unit in East Fortune. They never remembered meeting on board the ship but, when they met decades later as fathers of the bride and groom a few days before our wedding, they realised that they had been on the same troop ship which sailed from Halifax to Bournemouth, England.
Dave and I still marvel at how the strands of their lives intersected for a short period in 1941/2 and then separated only to draw back together again almost 53 years later when we got married. That connection continued after that as they had a grandchild in common, Michael Ian Anderson Ramsay. In some ways, Mike's name illustrates this linkage - Ian Ramsay was my father-in-law (now deceased) and Charles Anderson is my father.
As one final background note, it was in East Linton, where dad now lives and where we will be going next, that he met my mother, Flora Ainslie. Mum was working as a switchboard operator in East Linton, a short distance from the East Fortune RAF airbase that my dad was posted to.
We are only in Oban 3 days (one full day and 2 travel days) but the research we have done here at the local library and local war museum is giving Dave some good information and, most importantly I think, a feel for what it was like in Oban while his dad was posted here. Just walking along the waterfront and seeing where his dad's Catalina flying boat would have been moored was a great experience.
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| Dave with Oban Bay in background where his dad's Catalina plane would have been moored |
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