52 Ancestors Week 1: Fresh Start(s)

Soon after our children were born, we gave my parents one of those Grandparents books - you probably know the sort of book I mean, containing questions about their lives, as children, growing up, and on into middle age.  After each question, there's a blank space, which they are supposed to fill in with lots of interesting detail about the times that we, as their children, have no experience or recollection of (after all, parents are often 'old', or even deceased, by the time we think of asking such questions.)

I remember my disappointment, after my father passed away, when I discovered that the blank spaces were all still blank (even though he had been a family historian!) 

Fortunately for me, there are records and artefacts that shed light on a few of the things they did.  For example, my Mother recorded all of addresses she'd lived in, in her bible.  My Dad also had made use of the end of a kitbag, in order to record the places he'd been stationed at:

I used the details from the kitbag to plot a couple of maps - first of the European detail:

And then to show further afield as well:

Looking at Mum's bible, I can see that, from the time my brother was born, my family lived in eleven different UK addresses, and two (relatively) permanent addresses in Singapore, as well as four temporary guest houses whilst travelling to and from Singapore.

We probably didn't travel as much as some service families but, even so, that's a lot of "Fresh Starts" that had to be made, with new surroundings, new schools, new friends etc. 

But I wouldn't want to change any of it!