In my hunt for my mysterious MG, my Mystery Great grandfather, I haven’t yet spent a single minute researching this Collman-Weston couple. Perhaps that’s because I have convinced myself that Thomas Collman and Augusta Weston are the right Collman-Weston couple. But what if I’m wrong? What if Charles Collman and Louisa Weston are actually my…
Tag: Edna Willock
Finding my Collman family Part 1 – A Party of Five
Over the past two years I have been on a magical mystery tour trying to work out whose blood is running through my veins. My DNA results have revealed that my grandmother – Edna – was raised by a family that she had no biological connection with. Through my Edna blog series I worked out…
Finding my Collman family Part 2 – Fine Beans
Searching for MG is a slow process of sifting through records and waiting for DNA matches to appear. One day someone will take a DNA test that magically unlocks the mystery. I’m not the type to sit quietly waiting, doing nothing, so while I wait for that magical DNA match I’m running a magnifying glass…
The Willocks, a family divided? Edna, part 13
You guessed it, I’m still waiting for the missing link. New DNA matches come and go, but none of any significance in the hunt for my Mystery Great Grandfather, dear old MG. Not yet. In the meantime I haven’t been resting on my Christmas derriere, no no no, I’ve been working quite hard – in…
Tree lines and bloodlines – Edna, part 6
I have to admit, when I first looked at my DNA results I thought it was a lost cause. I apparently have more than 33,000 matches in the database. How would I ever make sense of the sea of DNA matches with people I have never heard of? So I shut the tool down, opened…
The truths we tell ourselves – Edna, part 5
So this it it, this is the only other picture I’ve ever seen of Edna, my paternal grandmother. Edna is the youngest one, second from the right. How old does she look to you? The dresses look like they belong in the 1940s. She’s not exactly smiling, or it looks a little forced, which makes…
Kincumber Boys Home – Edna, part 4
It is 1940. You are 8. Your brothers are 5 and 3. One morning your mother leaves the house, taking your brothers with her. She comes home without them, and then she leaves again, this time taking your sister with her. She doesn’t come back. Not tomorrow, not next week. She’s gone, and so are…
The Dorneys of Waterloo – Edna, part 3
Before I knew that Edna’s surname was Willock, I was looking for Dorneys in Waterloo or Redfern. There was only one Dorney family living there in 1910. They were William, his wife Lucy, and their four children; Florence Ada, William Vincent, John Francis and Eugene Frederick. Two other Dorney children, Lucy and ‘Bertie’, had not…
Otherwise known as… – Edna, part 2
My dad died in 1997. As the family gathered, his younger brother told me stories about their days growing up in the boy’s home at Kincumber. My uncle talked about times that their dad came to visit and how he took them out for fishing or surfing and how much he treasured those days. He…
KINdling 