Very many thanks for your telephone call of yesterday. As promised, I'm enclosing the letter I received from Oxford Ancestors, a colour copy of the Paternal clans with my y-chromosome signature plus some details of the Oisin clan to which, they tell me I belong!
I am also enclosing an information sheet of "Impressions of Expo 67" which you saw part of on the internet and, in case you're interested, some details of my film and tv career.
I've already sent other information to David and will ask him to pass them on to you. One photograph I want back as I do not have any copies. David will know which one.
As suggested I lay out on another page some of my reactions on discovering I have a few interesting ancestors!
I look forward to a meeting with you and David some time next year. With best wishes, As err. Bill
I was born in Stepney on April 28th 1933, well within the sound of Bow Bells which allows me to call myself a Cockney.
Stepney in those days was very Jewish, many from Germany who had the good sense and means to "get out" before Hitler began to get serious.
:Life in many ways was simple and happy although not easy, but then people didn't seem to expect very much-- they "knew their place", thought that everything British was best and everywhere else was populated by niggers and wogs and other undesirables.
I managed to escape this environment because of the war, when I was evacuated to Windsor with my mother. I was soon swimming across the Thames-- about 80 to 100 feet wide, perhaps, but I was convinced I was swimming, across the Amazon and then there was Windsor forest where one could get lost and play out all sorts of adventures.
After the war we ended up in a rental house in Romford. I left school at 15 and began my first job in August of 1948 as a messenger boy with the BBC at Broadcasting House where I earned the princely sum of £2 per week!
I often thank God (although I'm a non believer) that I worked for the BBC. Why? I immediately met interesting people, occasionally took well known individuals to the radio studio to be interviewed and most important of all, the BBC sent me to school at night and all day on Fridays.
Obviously, I could write dozens more pages but hopefully from this, one can get "a feel" of where one came from.
And so, how did I feel when I heard I had ancestors like Captain Brind and according to David, other British military types?
First of all I guess I was somewhat surprised as all of my relatives did very ordinary jobs, never owned property until much later on in life if at all, and no one seemed to know or even care about ancestors. To be able to survive relatively in tact was perhaps sufficient.
I Married an Italian girl from a very different background to myself. Both our children have degrees and professional jobs, and I, through luck, ambition, and moving from one country to another, have done reasonably well.
After getting over my surprise, which happened finally when I received from Oxford Ancestors confirmation of my relationship to David, I became intrigued and fascinated. Not in any snobbish sense but intrigued and still somewhat surprised, that a few ancestors of mine have achieved and had public recognition of their achievements. I only wish my father were alive so that he, too, could enjoy and perhaps even been amazed and incredulous at the lives led by some of his forebears.
I do hope, Jonathan, that these few sentences might give you some idea of my reactions. When we meet next year we can and will discuss further.
