Auntie Angie

After LEGO camp for the boys then gymnastics, last night we visited my Auntie Angie who eloped to Canada in the 1950s, then onto Los Angeles. I recently found her shipping records on Ancestry.com. Auntie Angie is one 4 girls born in Glasgow, my mum Mary, Bernadette and Catherine her siblings. Auntie Angie's home has always been a treasure trove for me and I could and do spend hours pouring through her beautifully preserved photographs. She offered the photos of my grandparents but I felt that I wanted to absolutely know the right way to look after them before she passed them to me. They're board mounted and have been in her care for so long. I would say I bear a strong resemblance to my grandfather, though my sisters resemble my grandmother. I'd recently traced the shipping records for her voyage on June 27th 1956 from Glasgow to New York when she eloped. I must bring these to her on my next visit. Her sacrifice leaving her family in Glasgow for a life in the USA was a great one. Simply put, she was a Catholic marrying a Protestant. Seeing how well her own grandchildren, my cousins, are now in their lives as the second generation Americans, Cameron with a staggering musical career at such a young age as lead vocalist for Colorblind, Cory living the dream as a sports coach and Kyle having just graduated from Holy Cross in politics and Russian, just completed a senate internship in Washington and about to embark on a teaching post in Kyrgyzstan, it goes to show that travel and high ambitions were always in our blood. It feels very natural that I should write Auntie Angie's story. Yes, there are many Catherines in my tree. To date, I've counted at least 6 generations of Catherine on maternal and/or paternal sides.