16 June 2023
My interest in genealogy began in April 2023 after hearing that one of my grandparents came from Ireland. I found out that having that Irish connection would make it easier to apply for Irish citizenship. So I signed up on the Geni website and created a small family tree from my limited knowledge of my ancestry. My father died a few months after I was born, mother died when I was 16, and with both sets of grandparents dead there was nobody I could turn to for any family history information. I'm 71 years old, by the way.
The genealogy company, MyHeritage, owns Geni and is also a family tree building service. The companies are distinctly different though: MyHeritage is focused on users building private family trees whereas the aim of Geni is to help users research their family trees with the aim of contributing to a world tree.
What started as an interest has become a part-time hobby. I switched my attention to MyHeritage and took out a year's subscription to help me accelerate my research. All was going well until I came across what genealogists call 'the wall' - unable to progress with a particular line of enquiry. I can identify my Irish grandfather on my mother's side, but I have two conflicting pieces of evidence. One is his marriage certificate that traces his birth year to 1886, names his father as "Alexander", and gives his father's occupation as a pilot. The second one is his birth register, which gives his birth year as 1884 and confirms his father as a pilot named "Alexander".
Census documents, baptism register and military record all point to his birth year as 1886. The baptism register and census records complicate the story by asserting that his father is named "John". So, I have two sets of possible parents for my grandfather. A conundrum that I hope will be broken shortly as I have sent off a request for a copy of his death certificate. Even this part of the story, though, is touched with drama, for a search on the General Register Office records for his death year draws a blank, even though I have evidence of when and where he died.
The story continues.
In addition to a genealogical interest, I am a self-published author of four fantasy books.
My first book was written over a 2-year period (2005-2007) and involved dragons and an exploration for a new source of magic. The book was called 'Imagica', but it was not until 2018 that I wrote my second book, a novella that features Merlin and King Arthur and focuses on modern-day Glastonbury. That book is called 'Merlin:The Return' and symbolises my return to Glastonbury - the site of many personal magical memories for me - after a 20-year absence. My third book was completed in 2019 and took 9 years to complete from its inception. It's an odyssey of my life, narrated as story and, of course, features a dragon. If you read the book then you will understand the importance of what dragons symbolise for me. My fourth book is a sequel to Merlin's adventures in Glastonbury and is called 'Merlin: The Succession'. You can discover more about my writing and how these books came to be written by looking at my website - https://www.santarigreen.com/author.html.
You will also learn that I'm a transformational coach with a sound knowledge of nutrition.
Many blessings on your journey.
Santari