It was after my mom's death in May 1997 that I became compelled to research my family ancestry.  She had left with me with a lot of information about her family ~ stories I had heard all my life of who they were and where they came from.  Fortunately, I have a lot of this on a cassette from a taped conversation I had with her, as well as a tape she made with her cousin, Bill.  With this as a basis, as well as a partially completed Family book, I was well on my way to finding out more.

I knew my research would be concentrated in both England and Ireland. Not knowing where to start, I just happened to be surfing the internet one day and wondered if there was anything about genealogy online.  Needless to say, the rest is history!

My first break came on the Internet (where else?!).   I was fortunate enough to connect with Jane, who was searching one of my family names - Burwell - and had her surname interests listed online. We exchanged several emails to evenutally determine that her husband's great-great-grandfather, Tom Burwell, and mine were one and the same person.  She had already done an incredible amount of research on this family, going back to 1675!  Needless to say, I was absolutely elated.  Through Jane, I found I had another cousin in Canada, Jackie.  What a pleasure it has been getting to know them both.

On the other hand, I knew very little about my dad's family.  He had several siblings but, in the 20 years since he died, the family lost contact.  I did know his parents names and that they were from Ireland, but beyond that, I knew nothing about them.  However, I contacted one of his remaining two siblings, a sister in Manitoba and, to my delight, she had various documents that had been left to her by her father.  She was generous to forward these to me, which filled in much information about two generations prior to my grandfather.  I was also provided with the name of a distant relative in Ireland, with whom one of the  family had communicated with over many years.  I wrote to him, and he was able to provide much information on my dad's mother's family, determining that he is my dad's cousin.  Most recently, I have communicated with and received mountains of information from a wonderful gentleman from Ireland, who found my names on one of the many Surname Interest pages on the Internet.  Many, many thanks to you, Jim!