During our trip to England we had hoped to research all three of my family links; the Eades, the Bullock, and that of my stepmother, the Condlyffe. The reality of our three weeks visit was far removed from that plan.
With my paternal and maternal grandparents dead, as well as both my parents, I had nowhere to start. There were no documents immediately available, such as birth or wedding certificates, other than my own, and having been away from England for twenty five years it was difficult, if not impossible, to trace any uncles, aunts, or cousins etc. who might have been able to help.
That meant that my search for ancestors of the Eades and Bullock families would have to start with the records offices, and we had no time on this particular visit.
I had been told by my sister, daughter of my father and Clarice Condlyffe, that one of her cousins would be able to help us with the Condlyffe family. I remembered David as a small boy about ten years younger than myself, his mother Winifred being married to Ivor Condlyffe, Clarice's brother. We telephoned, made an appointment to visit them in Bromsgrove, and found a treasure trove.
Over a period of several years since the death of his father, David had meticulously researched and recorded both sides of his family history back to the middle of the 18th century, which covered five generations. Births, deaths, marriages, residences, children, christenings, family trees, had all been recorded by hand on to over thirty sheets of A4 paper.
There were also photographs, which , together with his "history," I was able to copy at the local library. We then visited the Parish churchyard in nearby Fairfield to record where many of them were buried.
We returned to Turkey, thrilled with the data we had unearthed, but in the knowledge that there was still much more to uncover.
