A Novel Sneak Peak!

“Some years earlier…

Although she was only a young girl, Woonda had heard the story so many times that she could recite it by heart.  As the sun began its slow descent beyond the river, the sound of Umina’s voice flowed with the steady rhythm of the water.  It was as if Woonda was hearing the story again for the first time.  The twists and turns still held her in awe, and the dark journey of the narrative captivated her.  She could listen to this story over and over again, night after night, and it would still leave her with a thirst for more.”

To be continued!

In the meantime, visit Ancestry by Heir Line to learn the forgotten stories of your family’s past.

Welcome to Ancestry by Heir Line’s brand new blog!

Welcome to Ancestry by Heir Line’s new blog!  Updated regularly, this site will offer family history stories, Heir Line’s latest news and general office gossip for those interested in our history.

What does Heir Line do, and what can we offer you?  As well as tracing family trees for our customers, there seems to be one particular side of our business that is growing faster than we anticipated – our tracing service, i.e. finding long lost relatives, or locating individuals who solicitors need to make contact with.

It is really quite amazing what Michael Rochford – Heir Line’s chief people-finder – can do.  There is one particular on-going case that we have been working on for a client for some time, compiling more and more genealogical information to add to a very complicated family tree from Western Australia.  This client grew up never having known very much about his family history, and one day he decided it was about time he hired a genealogist to answer the many unanswered questions he had about his mysterious past.

During an incredible Heir Line roller-coaster ride, we began to piece together his ancestors’ lives one by one, but there was one elusive relative, who passed away in Western Australia in the 1970s at the age of just 31, who our client wanted to find out more about.  This young man was called John.

So, Heir Line rolled their sleeves up and got to work.

The police report into the death stated that the body was identified by a “friend” called, for the sake of this story, Barry Brown.  No other information was provided.  John had no immediate family members who were still living, so it appeared as if Barry – if he was still alive – was the only person who could tell us anything at all about him.  But where to start?  We knew nothing at all about Mr. Brown, except his name, and that he was in Western Australia in the 1970s.  It didn’t help that he had a fairly common name.

Having checked the Western Australian electoral roll for the years surrounding John’s death, Heir Line discovered a gentleman called Barry Brown living very close to the house where the body was found.  This had to be our man.  All the other Barry Browns in Western Australia lived a fair drive away from John’s home, and as the young man was found dead at 6 o’clock in the morning, his friend had to have lived fairly close by.

Luckily for us, the electoral roll also revealed the name of Mr. Brown’s wife… who was called Persephone.  We had struck gold!  It would be a doddle to track down a Mrs. Persephone Brown.

Or would it?

Unfortunately for us, there was no trace of a Barry and Persephone Brown still living in Western Australia – or anywhere in Australia, for that matter – in 2012, nor were there any obvious death records.  They had emigrated!  But where could they have gone?

After working our Heir Line magic, we tracked the Browns to New Zealand, and eventually learned an email address for Barry.  After confirming that yes, he is the Barry Brown who knew John all those years ago, Heir Line knew that this was another job well done!

Visit www.heir-line.co.uk for more information.