Your Family Stories

Sharing stories of those who came before us … (Please scroll down to read the stories if you are viewing this site on a mobile device.)

  • The Chair in the Front Room

    Memories from a Home on Dinas Lane, Liverpool I was born in the front room of my paternal grandparents’ house at 82 Dinas Lane, Huyton. But that isn’t what makes this street so significant in my family history. There were many hellos and goodbyes in this house (yes, I know that I’m sounding like a Beatles song). So many happy times, so many tears. The main characters in this story of the Lucas family are: my Grandad, Stanley Lucas; my Nana, Frances Lucas, nee Foster; my Dad, Keith Stanley Lucas; and my Uncle, Rodney Lucas. There’s a Chair in There,…

  • The Silent Wedding That Filled a Burnley Church

    Image: Hannah Barnes, nee Cunliffe, with daughters Cissy and Gladys, circa 1920. A Victorian Wedding with a Difference On a September morning in 1877, an unusual crowd gathered at St Paul’s Church in Burnley, Lancashire. Some came out of curiosity. Others came because they had heard that something extraordinary was about to take place. Victorian weddings often attracted spectators eager to admire the bride’s dress, inspect the groom’s appearance, or simply enjoy a little local excitement. But on this occasion, the attraction was something entirely different. The bridegroom, Thomas Cunliffe of Oswaldtwistle, and the bride, Mary Kershaw of Burnley, were…

  • The Wedding Photograph and the Letter

    I love old photographs. My aunt has my Nana and Grandad’s family album, and in it I found a beautiful wedding photograph in which my Grandad is the best man. As it is glued in, there is no way to see if anything is written on the back and, apart from Grandad, I didn’t recognise anyone in it. I asked all my older relatives about it, but nobody could shed any light on the bride and groom. My Grandad My maternal grandfather, James Frederick Edwards, was born in Runcorn, Cheshire, England, in 1907 and moved to Western Australia in 1966,…

  • Television, That Deadly Box!

    Introducing Mum: Writer, Poet and Storyteller My mum, Christine Lucas, was a writer. As a child, she filled notebook after notebook with her stories and read them to her six siblings. Her younger sisters used to hang on every word, and mum got frustrated when her own mother would tell her to put her pen and paper away and get on with her chores. I remember mum buying her first portable typewriter when I was in primary school. She regularly set it up on our dining room table, and she’d tap away at the keys for hours. Mum wrote articles,…

  • Motorcycle Tragedies and the Thompson Brothers

    Nobody wants that knock on the door from the police, advising them of the death of a loved one on the roads. Sadly, this happened to the Thompson family in South Australia nearly 100 years ago, not just once, but twice, less than two years apart. Two brothers of my husband’s grandfather, Edward Thompson, died in motorcycle accidents in almost the identical spot. They were Malcolm Ronald Thompson, who died at just 17 years of age in August 1930 and Clifford John Webb Thompson, who died when he was 21 on the 19th of June 1932. These accidents occurred more…

  • Genealogy Gold!

    I love my distant cousins. I didn’t know most of them until I started researching my family tree. Over the years, I have corresponded with and met many cousins, having connected via DNA matches, shared ancestors on family trees, or simply being introduced by another relative who said, “You must speak with so-and-so. They know lots about our family history”. Take, for example, my second cousin once removed – Michael. He is a cousin on my Foster line (my paternal grandmother’s paternal line). Like me, Michael was born in Liverpool, England. Michael’s grandfather, William John Foster (1899-1965) and my great-grandfather,…

  • What Will Happen to the Horses?

    Inset image: Joseph Lucas – photo taken at the 1905 wedding of his daughter Mary Elizabeth (Lizzie) Royal Mail and the family story it brought me I was very excited when I received a letter from a distant cousin in England (yes, a real AIRMAIL letter, delivered by the postman). It contained a family story that had been passed down through the generations. The story relates to my paternal line – the Lucas family, who I have traced back to the early 1700s in Liverpool (which is where I was born in the 1960s). The central character in the story…

  • Ancestral Warnings from Beyond the Grave

    The Surprising Stories Hidden in Family Death Certificates Have you ever visited a doctor who asked about your family’s health history? Questions like: “Is there any heart disease in your family?” “Does anyone have asthma?” or “Have any close relatives died from cancer?” When I first started researching my family history, I expected that death certificates would confirm dates and places. Instead, I discovered that they also tell stories. Hidden amongst the medical terminology are clues about occupations, living conditions, family relationships, accidents and sometimes even personal habits. Much can also be gleaned from the details of the informant. Mary…

  • My Grandad and World War II – Values and Virtues

    Inset Image: Grandad, Stanley Lucas on board one of the many ships he sailed on during his Merchant Navy career If you could sit on this bench and speak with anyone – dead or alive – who would it be?  It’s an often-asked question. For me, the answer is simple. My Grandad, Stanley Lucas. My Grandad When I was a child, Grandad was just Grandad.  He and Nana visited us every Saturday bringing pocket money and lollies. In the school holidays, my siblings and I would go for sleepovers and they’d give us lemonade spiders (lemonade with a big spoonful…

  • Welcome to Your Family Stories

    It seems, the older we get, the more many of us yearn to understand and connect with our past. Where did we come from? Why do we live in a particular part of the world? Why are we the way we are? Whether it’s our height, the colour of our eyes and hair, our artistic talent, our sporting ability or our personality; our parents, grandparents, great grandparents and all those who came before us have contributed to making us who we are today. And, of course, our upbringing and life experiences also help shape us. I love exploring my family…

About

I’ve always had a fascination with history. When I was a child, one of the things I wanted to be when I grew up was an archaeologist. Now thinking about that, it’s really the stories from the past that intrigued me.

In recent years, I’ve been exploring my family history and have connected with newly found cousins around the world. I now know so much more about many of my ancestors and am enjoying telling their stories.

Karen – Perth, Western Australia Email – kaz747.thompson@gmail.com