Bloodlines - Touch Not The Cat - Traces - A Scottish - American Genealogy Mystery Novel Series by Thomas McKerley and Ingrid Schippers

Memories from the 1945 school bench

Wedding picture of my parent’s July 13, 1957.
Could not help but notice the ’7′ on the right side

Today held an intriguing coincidence. The date is November 11, 2018,  the day Thomas McKerley and I celebrated the 7 -year anniversary of our first born genealogy novel  published on 11.11.11.

In the afternoon, I was also invited to a concert in the village of my childhood days, to commemorate all villagers who passed away between the dates of November 2017 and November 2018.

The reason I was invited was because of my mother. She passed away on December 7, 2017. The local undertaker from the relatively small community where my mother spend most of her 83 years, organizes a gathering like this every year at the local church, so family members and friends alike, can share their tears and laughter and commemorate their loved ones. One of the advantages of old and smaller communities

It so happened I was seated next to the lady who sat next to my mother for 3 full years at high school, from 1945 to 1948. ‘Days back when’ girls wore ribbons in their hair, television and telephone in each household were non-existant, food was still simple and nutritious and candy or other extra’s were only consumed on Sunday.

It goes without saying that as co-author of a genealogy mystery novel, interest in family history comes natural to me. And in the Family History Guide Tom & I published this November 11th, to celebrate our 7-year Bloodlines-Touch Not the Cat anniversary, we advise family history researchers to talk to old friends of the family, as they sometimes have stories to tell, you would otherwise never hear about. Yet in spite of all this natural interest and well meant advise, I sometimes tend to overlook the true treasure chests of family history.

As my mother’s school friend pointed out to me, my mother and she shared all big events of a life time. Not only did they sit next to each other at school; they also attended their weddings; witnessed the birth of their children and supported each other after the death of their husbands.

I vowed I would come to her house soon to look at old photo albums and listen to her stories.
To myself I vowed to stick to that promise, It is regrettably easy to forget about these kind of promises in the turmoil of daily life; until suddenly…it is too late. I was grateful to realize today’s commemoration had ‘forced’ me to take some time out from busy life and stand still at the lifetimes of my mother’s generation.

When I returned home and switched on the television, I travelled even further back in time to the days of my grandparents and world war I, the war in which we had our fictitious Bloodlines – Traces character, Alexander Stewart, perform great feats in Gallipoli and save the lives of many. Looking at the television documentary, with original footage from 1914 to 1918, it felt almost as if I was given a glimpse into what ‘our Alexander’s’ life had been like.

For that’s what happens when you write a genealogy novel; the characters become like family

Ingrid Schippers, November 11 2018