Who do you think you are?

I love the series  "Who do you think you are?", I've watched every episode since it began back in 2004.

Victoria (Mum), Emma (my daughter) & Me

My Mum caught the genealogy bug a number of years ago, and now I am curious and ready to know the yarns she has revealed.  One week in February 2016, my husband, John (oh, she's done his too!) is away with work, so this seems the perfect time to take a day off with Mum to look at her research.

I suggest we start with a story I vaguely recall and my own memory of serving "Sarah Ellen's Beef Steak and Oyster Pie".

Brenda (Granny), Me & Victoria (my Mum)

Back in the day, when our home was a small Country House Hotel, Mum brought all hands on deck to take part in a promotional Maritime Event.  For guests heading towards a land locked farmhouse destination in Lancashire, seafaring links were perhaps not the most obvious.  However, Mum sailed on, armed with a recipe book, including carpetbagger steaks and tales of her Great, Great Grandmother, Sarah Ellen Gray.

Each time a new family 'branch' is discovered (I learn researching family history often detours, on an unusual name, a personal interest...

Beatrice (Great Gran), Joyce (Great Aunt),
Brenda (Granny),
front: Sarah Ellen (Great, Great Gran)

or just a 'hunch'), Mum opens a new file.  The green 'Harrop Fold Country House Hotel' folders are labeled with surnames I've never heard of.  Every file contains a branch of family tree in a fan layout.  Each family member has a plastic wallet containing a record card, name, date of birth, marriage(s) (in the 1800's a marriage certificate determines the quarter a couple are married, not a specific date), date of death along with anecdotal stories/memories, factual or otherwise!

I'm like a celebrity on "Who do you think you are?", I've rolled up with everything set before me and I'm excited, a little emotional even.  There is a lot of information, much of it is the facts of ordinary lives, in different times.  Soon enough, I want to right the wrongs, delve into those tangents and continue to dig a little deeper.

Next: the story of Sarah Ellen Gray (nee Simpson).  I hope that my children, Tom & Emma, my brothers, cousins, nieces and nephews will be able to enjoy dipping in and out of these snippets and along the way, I'd like to think, we might pick up some more flesh to the bones of our story.