My inspiration to get started

I was always intrigued by the fact that members of my family, including my aunt, were born and lived in India. I talked with my grandmother and aunt at the time; just to get some more ideas. My granddad was already dead by this point, so there was no additional information to come from there.

Then there were the photos. Again, these were at my aunt's house and showed people I vaguely recognised. The photo is here on the left. This is my grandmother as a small girl with her mother and father and brother Reginald. This photo was taken in Mauritius. She was born in 1904 so this must be 1907 or 1908. There is another photo, when she is older, with her other siblings. I'm still trying to get a copy of this photo.

There were also cards for the deaths of other members of the family (Memorial cards). These also intrigued me, especially as three of them were for my grandfather's mum, dad and brother and were all within a few days of one another. They all died of cholera in India, and my grandad was a young boy and was sent back to the UK under the ward of a returning family unknown to him. He was adopted by his grandfather and aunt, who brought him up on his return. 

I have been dipping into my family history for a few years, started some collaboration with distant cousins (geographically and biologically) and have now reached a stage where I realise all I have been really doing is collecting ancestors on my family tree.