I always knew it would be an uphill battle finding out and answering my internal question As The Story Hunter asking where do I belong gives me reason to work on it.
I learnt that having an eleven-letter surname that originated from Prussia/Poland/Germany was going to stop me initially. This was because of the ‘Iron Curtain’.
A Physical Iron Curtain Border
Anyone who wanted to do historical searches in this part of Europe was going to come to a dead end. So because of this, I’m sure others would feel the same as me as I always wanted to know, where do I belong.
Think back to a movie, a TV show, or a story about a discovery of hidden treasure. It was never found easily and if it was, how boring would that be? A pirate searching for treasure or us researching our family tree have similar features. The Story Hunter has the same journey as it will always take you through twists and turns and into dead ends before you get to the secret spot.
Then, when a specific location or clue has been discovered, the treasure hunter is then kept extremely busy deciphering the false leads from vital bits of information.
BTW: Have you noticed that the pirates in the movies always seem to look alike? They always seem to have similar features.
Searching for my roots through our Family Tree is a long time passion and I can spend hours and hours researching for the next bit of information. So it seems that The Story Hunter is well suited to me as I scour for Ancestors stories.
I watch every episode of the show where celebrities have their ancestry researched religiously. Even re-runs and this is because I just larv hearing about what our ancestors did whether they’re mine or someone elses.
Now my journey has directed me towards researching and creating ancestors stories and through finding this information I am having so much fun.
The Story Hunter
I am soo excited because being The Story Hunter, I can do this full time!
It all started a few years ago with an old family photo album that was given to me. I was amazed and wondered who were these people so I began the exciting journey.
Within a few months, I’d come across so many ‘pearls’ of information. It’s an absolute treasure trove!!
Life from Australia to WW1 in France. Frederick Fiddes.
Within a short period of time I’ve noticed that my mother’s side of the family tree and history was the opposite to what I expected such as enlisting for WW1 at 44 years of age. He’s gone from life in Australia to WW1 in France.
Frederick Augustus Fiddes
There are some interesting characters which probably fit the Australian description of Larrikan and I can see that some character traits have to be genetic.
Based on this, I was looking forward to researching them with a light-hearted approach as in his case there were 2 main stories. It was like Frederick Fiddes was living 2 different lives.
Having a passion for travel and hearing that the great group of people that I’d just met, go overseas every 2 years I was excited! Especially when an upcoming trip was Europe. My self belief and integrity allowed me to hang on tight to the thought of going as well.
As it turns out most of them are keen travellers so when the Hash House Harriers meet up somewhere around the world, it’s a huge event. It’s an extremely long weekend of fun and socializing and exercise. Brilliant!
The Buster Days. There was a reason why he appreared into my life at that time. He followed me everywhere and so closely that when I stopped he would bump into me. I believe that he had a need to help me.
This 55kg (121lbs) Rottie/Mastiff cross rescue dog was once asked by his Vet. ‘Why does your normally black nose have shades of brown Buster?’
I could be biased but a Travel Agency is one of the happiest places to work. Everyone is in a great mood because one of the most popular and fun activities is being planned. Someone is travelling somewhere. How good is that?!! In this case it’s a story of a young lady travelling to South America.
South Americans larv Colour.
I clearly remember this day because of the emotions that came up for me not to mention the story itself.
Unlike my the dramatic emotions and physical re-action to the fear that I had when I thought about travelling to Bali, this was different because it was emotions that I experienced for her.
Why is it that I still haven’t travelled Bali? Is Bali a ‘no-go’ zone for me? I have a keen interest in for a number of reasons and one is because it’s the closest Asian holiday destination for Australians. Besides, I have a huge passion for travel.
I knew so much about this small and interesting island well before I’d decided on a career change to the Travel industry.
As a new Travel Consultant, one of my co-workers listened to me while I was talking to a client about Bali. Later she asked if I’d already travelled there because I spoke about it like I had. I was a wealth of information even though I hadn’t. Plus, my knowledge made for a very happy traveller.
Interesting how certain moments in time can mould us and how honesty comes from lighting fires.
When I was 8 years old my brother
and I were expected to come home from school and be responsible until my
parents came home from work.
Although some of you might gasp at the thought of an 8 & 7-year-old being at home alone I don’t ever recall being scared about being on my own without parental supervision.
Years later relatives used to say that I had to grow up quickly.
The Camino de Santiago (commonly known as the Camino Trail) or (Way of St James) is a pilgrimage trail that leads to the reported resting place of the apostle Saint James in the Cathedral of Compostela in Galicia, Spain. It’s an individual’s journey so they go at their own pace and there are no designated start or finish times.
People from all over the world Christian or not, opt to take the pilgrimage for multiple reasons and a few of my friends have successfully achieved travelling (walking that is) the whole 800km (approx. 500 miles) journey. As it can take approximately 30 days, some people opt to do sections at a time, year after year.