My maternal grandfather, William Norris, had many brothers and sisters. Most of them, however, do not seem to have kept in touch with each other. My mother, Dorothy, often wondered about the many aunts and uncles that she had occasionally met in her childhood or whom she had only heard of by name. It was, therefore, a great thrill to be able to tell her that I had recently discovered that she had a cousin whom she had never met and whom we would be seeing for the first time the following day!
Shirley Norris is the daughter of Herbert Albert Norris, who was the brother of my mother's father, William. Strangely, Shirley's family only knew their father as Herbert, whilst my mother's family only knew him as Albert; but that they were indeed one and the same person was soon evident from the memories that Shirley and mum were able to share and the respective records that I was able to examine.
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| Shirley (left) with my mum |
Shirley gave us a very warm welcome to her home and it was a joy to see her and mum exchanging memories and also providing each other with information about different members of the family, some of whom had only been known to one or the other of them. Their meeting reminds us, perhaps, that genealogical research is not just about distant ancestors who have died, it is about living relatives as well ...
