Introduction.

Growing up, my brother and I were brought up on family tales. Tales of my great grandfather’s triumph in the Second World War, or the stories of my grandmother’s childhood in Hartlepool. My grandparents were heavily invested in telling us about our family and the history behind it all, that may be where my history obsession started. However, no one in my family has ever attempted to do a family tree. My uncle tried on summer when I was 8 or 9 but didn’t really get too far as he found, as did I, that our family has always stayed in the same part of Hartlepool, not moving, not even to another village in the surrounding area.

I would argue that the first person in my family to move out of Hartlepool was my Great Aunt, whom left to travel the world before settling in London, where she currently resides. Younger generations of my family, including myself have moved away from Hartlepool, yet despite a few of us moving, the rest have stayed. I will say, I had no idea the can of worms I was opening up when I started this project. I had no idea my family had secrets that they didn’t really like talking about. Just by talking to my grandmother, I found out a lot of facts which, I know 50 years ago, would have been unspoken and whispered about at family gatherings and so forth. But in the middle of those secrets, there’s also some fantastic stories. Stories which link my family together.