[Columbine]

We've traced ours back to the early 1800's, late 1700's. It was kind of a pain in the butt getting that far, mostly because of too many cross-generational common names, and too many people who had rows and went AWOL, or just plain vanished during the wars. We did however discover that the grand family rumor of the Irish gentleman who got a maid pregnant and ran away to England and changed his name was a total farce. He was a postman and lived all his life in London! Still it's pretty interesting. What I want to do though, is get my grandparents and my parents to write some anecdotes about some of the people we do remember though; because I never met them, and I would like something to pass on, more than a name and some dates- a memory is more personal. Anyone's great aunt could be called 'lucy smith', whoop-de-doo, it's kind of special to find you had a great-aunt called Lucy Smith who once threw a rabbit out a window at an RAF officer, or was mad for mexican cucumbers or whatever. Or in our case, a cockney g-g-g grandfather who made up a lot of stories!