Who would YOU invite from your Family Tree to a Dinner Party and why? We can seat 12 people at our table. Who to invite? Who would YOU invite? Try it - it's a bit of fun...
I've given this some thought over the decades and while some names on my dream invitation list change like the weather, others are constants.
My Guest List will include:
- Silva May Hope nee Day (1923-1959) - my mother coz I want to get to know her - who was she? What were her interests? What were her passions? What were her dreams? Her life was cut short at the age of 36 but her father's life was cut short when she was just 3 months old - the stories she could tell of life in the mid-north of SA in such circumstances.
- Albert George Day (1896-1923) - my grandfather - Oh! To meet you! You fought for Australia in WWI. With minimum training, you were sent to Etaples, on the Western Front (northern France), via Egypt. You suffered Mumps within the first 2 weeks on the field and you contracted the deadly flu twice, that swept through that area. You were a survivor. After returning home to Bruce and then Peterborough, you married your beautiful Rachel Williams and had 2 children. But when your youngest was just 3 months aol, you were tragically killed in a train accident at work and your life was cut short. Your death would have been devastating on Rachel and the children. I'd love to have you sit around my Dinne Table to find out who you are? To talk about your times in the War. To hear of your dreams, hope and wishes for your future and for your young family.
- Edgar William Hope (1894-1964) - my paternal grandfather - I think he would have been quite the lad, as a youngster. He was a loving, caring and compassionate person who loved people and loved to have fun. I want to know what was it like to be born in the late 1800s and to live through WWI, the Depression and WWII. He was a country boy - what did life mean to him? What did his faith mean to him?
- Jessie Scotland Giles Hope (1841-1926) - my 2nd great aunt - this lady intrigues me. She is different - even her name suggests that this young baby daughter was set aside as someone very special. She lived in SA, Vic, NSW and Qld in those heady pioneering days. She seems to be a go-getter and definitely the matriarch of a family who loved, adored and respected her. What made her tick? What are some of her stories? Her husband was a very successful farmer, grazier and business man - what a team they must have been in their communities. She was a leader.
- Richmond Armstrong Hope (1844-1924) - my great-grandfather - you came to Australia at age 12. What do you remember of Scotland? What were your impressions of your new country? You mainly lived in the scrub or in bushland - tell me some stories of those days? Tell me about your wife's family - the Edgars.
- Joseph O'Brien (1846-1873) - my 2nd great-grandfather - you left the Highlands of Scotland - why was that? You finally arrived in Australia but en route, you lived in Canada for a while. Why? Why did you leave your homeland? Tell me about your ancestors - from whence did they come? You have a typically Irish name and yet your descendants fiercely claim Scottish ancestry - tell me how come? Tell me stories of your childhood and of your siblings.
- Alice Hope nee Armstrong (1812-1890)- my 2nd great-grandmother - you are one amazing and incredible lady - you were the matriarch of the Hope family - you were a strong, strong lady - a person with a will of iron and yet your children speak in such loving and endearing ways about you - they have such admiration for you - you demonstrated how to live life to the full by your own actions and decisions. You got your 'hands dirty' as a pioneer, forging a new life for your loved ones and in return, they responded out of love to make this new life successful. You are descended from people of vision - your family were leaders in educating not jut the boys but also the girls - you were way ahead of the rest of the population and it paid dividends with your own children. I would just love to sit and listen to you for ages and ages, not just around the table of one Dinner Party.
- Patrick Williams (1801-1872) - my 3rd great-grandfather - You fascinate me! You have such an amazing story to tell. You were born in Ireland (Tipperary) and migrated to London to live in one of the 'worst' areas of that city, at the time. Tell me about your family, your friends, your neighbours back in Ireland. Why did you leave? Tell me about living in Whitechapel at the time - I've done some research and I've read about life there at that time and for decades after - tell me about your life near the East Gate of London and that of your family. Tell me, also, about your family in Ireland - what did they do? Where did they live? What of your parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles - tell me about them. Who were they?
- Thomas Hope (1757-????)- my 4th great-grandfather - tell me about your life as a Game keeper - of living in some of the great homes of Scotland, albeit in the Gamekeeper's Cottages and yet being amongst the people of note - Gamekeeping was a well-respected occupation and you followed in the steps of your father and generations followed in your footsteps. You must have some absolutely amazing stories to tell - share them with me - let me see inside the window of who you were and of life, as you saw it.
- John Armstrong (1725-????) - my 5th great-grandfather - you were born into strength - into the Armstrong Clan - amongst the most fiercest warriors that Scotland ever produced. Tell me the stories of old, that have been passed down through the generations of battles won and lost, of lives lived and died, of living in a time such as yours? They were hard times by anyone's standards and yet your family survived and lived to tell the tales - tell them to me.
- John Edgar (1717-1759) - my 5th great-grandfather - Oh! Wow! To have you at my Dinner Table - what a privilege. You lived in rural Scotland - in the Borders region - tell me firstly about your family - your parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. What did they do? What was life like back then? What was the legacy of the War between England and Scotland for your family of old? You lived in one of the most beautiful Glens in the Borders, near Moffat not far from "Beef Pit', tell me some stories that have been handed down through the generations about life in this area. I've been to Troloss Farm and seen the outside for myself and I want to know more about your life, your dreams, your plans, your hopes and your family in general.