2025 Week 9: Family secret #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

My husband Martin has already published a book about his father's life before he came to Scotland in 1946 (Jan Stepek: Gulag to Glasgow ).He is now writing a sequel to that book detailing his life in Scotland as a well known businessman and father to ten children.

Martin was therefore fortunate in that he had his many siblings to ask for memories and information about his dad. Lots of conversations took place that filled gaps in the story of his dad's life as the siblings each recalled personal and shared memories of a father who had been through so much.

Martin's eldest brother John was living in Portugal and so their 'conversations' took place over e-mail. John was also the one with the most knowledge about their father for two reasons. One, he was the eldest and two, he was the successor to his father as managing director of the family business and so dealt with him on a daily basis.

In one of these e-mails early in 2023, John had written, "I don't know if this is common knowledge, but dad was involved with Special Branch for a long time prior to the collapse of Communism. He would regularly get calls in the office .... from an inspector or some such rank. He and dad would meet under Bothwell Bridge. Dad basically supplied him with information about the Polish Government's thinking, gleaned from his meetings with the Ambassador and other officials, both in the UK and Poland."

This was news to Martin! His dad was not quite a spy but .......there were other actual spies in his family tree!

During the Spanish Civil War, Gustav Konopnicki, Martin's great uncle was in the Polish Intelligence Service. But that's another story!

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2025 Week 26 : Favourite name #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

As well as researching my own family, one of the other trees I have spent a lot of time on is that of my daughter-in-law, Lucy. Whereas my heritage is Scots and Irish, Lucy's is English and therefore some of the names I came across were quite different to those found in my own tree. One of my first favourites was a Francis Badger who appeared in the 1851 census for England! He wasn't actually a relative, but an apprentice to Lucy's 3 x great grandfather and who also lodged with the family. I did wonder how that surname came about - did the original Badger have a funnily shaped face? or perhaps a white streak through his hair?? Or was he just an annoying person?? I'll never know, but it was fun to find him! Francis Badger's entry at the bottom in the 1851 census for England. Source: Ancestry.co.uk However, my all time favourite name - and character - from Lucy's tree is a man named Golden Bridge ! He is Lucy's 5x great grandfather and he was born in Essex...

2024 Week 19: Preserve #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

A few years ago, I came into the possession of a family bible. It was the family bible of my paternal grandparents, John McAra and Christina Walker. Until her death in 2018, the bible had been in the hands of my Aunt Inez, widow of my Uncle Will McAra. When I started enquiring as to its whereabouts, I found that it was her grandson, John, who now had it. John himself had no real interest in it at all, so he was quite happy to hand it over to me. However, it was, to say the least, in a bit of a state. The front cover was completely detached and there were many loose pages as the spine of the book was also damaged and detached. I had no choice but to take it to a book repairer in Glasgow, where it was repaired as best it could be. The bible itself had been originally published in Glasgow in the late 19th century. In Victorian times it was common for Christian families to have such a large bible in which they could record events such as births, marriages and deaths. The one I have al...

2026 Week 2: A record which adds colour #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

My husband's paternal grandmother, Janina Ciupka, was born in 1902 in a small town, Nieszawa, north of Warsaw, Poland, on the banks of the River Vistula. She was the youngest of 12 children, only 8 of whom survived to adulthood. At this time Poland had been occupied by their three neighbours, Germany, Russia and Austria and Warsaw was under Russian control. Her family were very wealthy, owning granaries, bakeries, brick factories and carriage factories and they also bred white horses for the Russian Tzars. As with her elder siblings, Janina was taught by a private governess and the family had many servants, including cooks and cleaners. She obviously was leading a very privileged life. There was little known about the period of her life from about 1909-1919, The family had moved south eastwards to Haczow around 1909. The reasons for the move seems to have been a combination of business and politics, as Haczow was under Austrian rule, considered more liberal than that of the ...

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