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

  When my parents (Charles ANDERSON, and Flora AINSLIE) bought their first house they were in their 50s and making plans for their retirement in Scotland.  They bought a detached two-storey house in a new development in Longniddry, Scotland, a small town within walking distance of one of the beaches along the Firth of Forth.  There was great excitement as they chose their new home and made plans for moving to Scotland.  As the house was newly built, the garden was undeveloped and work was needed to put in a lawn, and flower and vegetable beds.  My dad was still working as Regional District Manager for the Royal Bank of Canada in Barbados at the time so they were only able to spend time in their new home in Scotland during their annual vacation.   However, my grandad, James AINSLIE, who lived with my granny Violet CALDER in the nearby village of Gullane, took matters into his own hands to help get some planting going in mum and dad’s quite extensive gard...

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 u...

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...

The average September temperature in Belize is a balmy 29 C with lows dipping to 23 C. Temperatures never varied more than a few degrees during the year.  As her entire war service was in Canada, Nena, for the first time, experienced four distinct seasonal temperatures typical of Canadian weather. She arrived in Toronto in early September to a warm fall, with daytime highs a hot 32 C and lows a refreshing 18 C.  However, by the time she took her oath for the WD-RCAF on October, 20, 1943, fall was well established and the high that day was a cooler 14 C with the nightime low dipping to a chilly 1.7 C.  This trend continued as the season progressed and, by the time she arrived in Paulson, Manitoba, in early December, the temperature never went above freezing with a maximum -2.9 C and minimum -14.8 C that month.  However, Nena reported that she never really felt cold, unlike a friend of hers, also from the Caribbean, who complained of cold hands.  Nena said that ...

Juanita Anderson WD-RCAF Aunt Nena was a firecracker.  She always had an enthusiasm for travel and adventure.  Her full name was Juanita Maria Anderson but we knew her as Aunt Nena. Before the war broke out, she was a teenager attending high school in New Orleans.  She was 15 years old  when she arrived in New Orleans on August 18, 1939 to start the fall term.  When Britain declared war on Germany on September 3rd, 1939, her  mother (my grandmother Henrietta Maria Orio) brought her back to Belize because she did not know if the estate money that she was receiving from England would be able to reach her in Belize due to the war, money that she would need to pay for Nena's education in New Orleans. Henrietta was a widow at that time with 5 children, one of whom was my father,  Charles "Buster" Anderson.  Although Nena continued her high school education in Belize, she never graduated and was eager to join her older brother (my father) in t...