Hi there,
I'm trying to trace my mother's family; unfortunately my parents divorced about ten years ago and I no longer speak to my mother or any of her family, so there's no way of getting any more information from them, which is a shame because I'm having trouble tracking that side of the family and could really do with more information than what I already know
Basically, I know the following:
- My mother was born in 1955, in Leicester, where her family have lived ever since.
- Her mother's (my grandmother's) first two names were Iris Lavinia, and I believe her maiden name was Le Lacheur, because I know that her mother (my great-grandmother) was called Violet Le Lacheur. However, I don't know if that was Violet's maiden name or married name. I believe it was her married name, because she was alive until I was about 10 and I knew her fairly well, and I seem to remember that being her surname then. Also, although she went by the name of Violet, her real first name may have been Elsie, as I have vague recollections of my aunts calling her Elsie sometimes.
- I don't know my grandmother's birthdate, but my mother was her eldest child, and if she was born in 1955 then I'm guessing my grandmother was born around 1935.
- I know very little about my mother's father, but I think his name was Colin Birch. My grandparents moved to Australia with my mother when she was about 5 years old, and I know my aunt was born in Australia. My grandparents got divorced shortly afterwards and my grandmother moved back to England with my mother and aunt. My grandfather stayed in Australia, and due to this I have never met him, nor do I know anything else about him.
I would love to try and fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge about my mother's family; I've been told that my great-grandmother Violet was French, which, considering her surname of Le Lacheur, is very possible. I do know that she brought my grandmother up to speak French and then suddenly changed her mind and insisted my grandmother only started speaking English from the age of about 5 onwards, and as such my grandmother completely forgot French altogether. However, I don't know if Violet herself was French, or if her husband was French. I know my grandmother had a brother named Ivan, and that's about it as far as my knowledge goes.
I have tried searching for them on ancestry but haven't really got very far. I don't want to spend money on birth certificates or anything like that, at least not in the near future, anyway. I'm just curious to see if I could find out anything more than I already know, but it's difficult when I have so little information.
Can anyone help?
