Gary's Family Tree

I've been fiddling about with the family history for a while, and Mum's death in 2007 prompted me to get something on-line in order to bring it all together whilst giving access to interested family members. Some years previously, I had cajolled both Mum and Dad into writing down their own stories for prosterity and once these had been done, I transcribed them. As I got further into the task, it dawned on me that Mum had brothers and sisters who never married and had all since died, so I used the material I had gathered over the years to record their stories as well, lest they be consigned to the dustbin of memory. The job got bigger and bigger, and as new information came to light I added and edited. I was also experiencing bursts of over-enthusiasm for the task and added a few extrenal links to compement the content. A change in web hosting service in 2010 meant reloading everything, so this was an opportunity to update and make a few changes to things. .

Mum (Margaret Elizabeth Healey (Betty) nee Gracie) had a heart attack caused by a blood clot on 13 May 2007 - Mothers Day. She was lucid for a while, but gradually slipped into unconsiousness before passing in the early hours of 17 May. The heart attack was a bit of a surprise because she had been on blood-thinning medication for a few years. In the days following her death we found a stockpile of the pills, and it seems that she just stopped taking them. This would have been intentional, because she was as sharp as a tack and had a very good memory, so it's not something she would have forgotten. Over the past few years she had mentioned from time to time what a great idea euthanasia was, so it begs the question; did she make her exit on her own terms? All she had ever asked for was peace and quiet, or P&Q as she called it, but this proved somewhat elusive as time went on and in her twilght years it seemed conspicuously absent, so perhaps she was just ready to go.

Family history has been traced as far as possible on both sides, with Gracie and Crooks families for Mum, and Healey, Hosking and Barriball families for Dad. Every effort has been made to keep the family trees up to date, but in order to do this I need to be advised of arrivals and departures. Sadly, the app I originally use for building the tree would not work with later versions of Windows. I did manage to export file into another app but this ended up crashing and backup files were corrupted in the process. In 2020, I find myself having to start all over again, so updates to stories and trees may be some time away.

Clearly the whole business of genealogy is never-ending story, and this site will be updated as and when time allows. Some parts are still only partly done. Even my own story will find its way here in due course - but don't hold your breath...