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It 's been a while since my visit to Kew. The unit spent the year training for d-day. Yes they went ashore on d+1 from LCT 725 (subsequently sold to the Phillipines Navy). As I said, they worked with the Canadians whom I assume they supported on the beach landings.

He may well have been in Normandy. My father was badly wounded and eventually evacuated back to Kent and hospital from where he went off to Germany but not as part of his original unit.

You have exhausted my knowledge!!!

The joy (for me) of a full FTM backup of my Ancestry data is that it includes all the images, photographs, etc. that I have added to various people in my tree. Ayes, aGEDOM file preserves the letters and numbers but not the gifs, jpegs, tiffs and other things beyond my pay grade.

As I hope I said, I'm not too bothered about the application software because MacKiev were there when needed them.

My whole system backs up every hour to an Apple "Time Capsule". It's in the house I know, but if that burnt down, frankly my tree is unlikely to be a priority for some time!!

Hello and thank you for your post.

After recovering from his d-day wounds, Dad went off Belgium and Germany to these "Regional Holding Units". I've not researched their function but I'm sure the internet will know.

As part of the d-day force, the unit's role appears to have been as a "smoke company". They were there to lay smoke screens at the front line to offer some cover for the assault troops. They worked up with the Canadians prior to d-day and somewhere in a brown envelope I have a copy of the thank you letter from the Canadian brigadier.

There is plenty of war diary material for the unit at The National Archive at Kew. It was very strange to be turning pages written in the desert and Dad would have been having a crafty fag somewhere round the corner.

If only we'd taken trouble to ask!!!!!

Hello,

Brace yourself: DNA results lead you in a different way of research. With traditional tree-building you are usually asking questions and seeking a specific answer; a census form, a BMD reg. etc. DNA results flips this completely about. You now have answers to questions you may not have realised you were asking. You have been given results - a haystack full of needles you didn't know you were missing and won't recognise when you found them.  Before, you might have been seeking great aunt Gertie but now here is Clarice Millicent Arbuthnot of Kentucky. Gulp? What on earth could you, should you, will you do about her?

Once you have linked your results to your tree, Ancestry does present the matches in descending order of "strength" so you can maintain some sense priority.

Start very slowly. I charged in and regretted it, especially when I had to return and do it all thoroughly for a second time. Take one promising match and take just that one for a spin. I strongly recommend taking the effort to note down everything with dates. Each match has a place for notes.

There are some excellent web pages out there providing  easily-understandable explanations of the most oft-repeated DNAspeak.

As and when you reach out to a DNA match, try not to be disappointed by a lack of a reply. This is more common than not. Remember that others may not test for the same reasons as us.

I have really, really enjoyed my DNA adventures. DNA matches have led me to encounter about ten distant cousins but that has been over the past six years. I have some sixty shared matches with the descendants of Mormon Evan Jones (b1836, Brechfa, Wales). Still can't find a slot for him amongst all my other Jones.

Treat your DNA interests as separate but related to your traditional research.

There was a archaeological series on BBC some years ago entitled "Meet the Ancestors". In one programme some bronze age burials were found when an old garage in Someset was being redeveloped .  DNA was extracted, locals volunteered to be tested and three living descendants were found in and around the village.