If I wanted dates I would have ordered the pudding.

I started this web page for the primary purpose of information exchange. I am  indebted to John Birch, Helen Riches and John McAfee for their certificate and  physical searches, as I am 12,000 miles away.

On my last visit home (1988) the boyhood memories did not fit he towns and  villages as I found them. I found I spent half my time trying to convince  others that the place hadn`t changed and half my time convincing myself that it  had. If I return again I do so as a tourist.

My father was an only child and my mother had left her native Ireland as a  girl. My grand parents divorced in 1947. So I only had contact with Jessie Wray  Dennis and she died in 1980. So family oral histories are sparse and I would  welcome any news or tales.

My grandfather did tell me that one of his brothers ran away to sea. His father  said that he was getting expensive to feed and the lad left home in the night.  I see that his is not so, the facts do not bear up. We don`t know what happened  to Barnabas (1864) Birch. Perhaps he was the one who left home at 16 or 17.  
 The role of cousins became more acute when I had children of my own and I saw  how they interacted with their Australian cousins.

In January I will celebrate twenty years of Marriage to Margaret Mary  Fingleton. (Yes I came all this way to marry an Irish lass.) Her father left  his native Ireland (Dublin) to venture alone into uncharted territories. It was  30 years before he returned. But I see him line the grandchildren up for a  photo with pride and a sense of history.

So it`s no good asking me about Australian genealogy, as I have never had to  perform any local searches. He and I are the generation that emigrated, perhaps  years and years from now an as yet unborn person will be slandering my name and  wondering why I did not write a date or name on the back of a photograph.  
 Most likely the next person to return to the UK will be my son, Dane. John  mentions family resemblance in his Birch line. Most who knew me, as a teenager  will need no introduction to Dane just as my sister was told by a person she  knows, `I have just caught a train with your brother,` without knowing she had  one. Finn, a decade younger, is off the same production line.

I am indebted to Betty West. She kept, or located for me, vital photos. Her`s  was the first family history letter I wrote in 2001 and I struck the jackpot  with her reply. I had the luxury of finding out my grand uncles and aunts`  names as I held their photos. With the exception of Edith Laura Birch, I got  one generation in one envelope.

Until this point I knew my Grandfather was Burt, I had seen the name H. E.  Birch on documents never connecting the two. I found out his name was Herbert  and that he had a two brothers and two sisters. [Family folk law was that he  had 3 brothers.]

My father drank in The White Hart, Grays with a cousin of similar age before he  joined the RAF (I know because we have the photographic evidence.) This cousin,  Ron, immigrated to Australia three years before Clive and each thought the  other back in Grays. Through the magic genealogy and the internet I have found  a fellow genealogist in Ron`s second wife, Mary Tynan Dean.
  
 So, to all who do write names and dates on the back of photographs, a  posthumous thank you. To all who have read this far: welcome to the family. To all the hoarders who preserve history: thank you.

Future generations thank you.

I thank you.

James Birch

Thanks also to Pat Weller and Liz Ernest.

Most of Clive`s negatives came to me. There are approximately 30,000 from his  many years as a professional photographer. He kept meticulous records so if  there is a photo you remember let me know and I will try to recreate it for you.

As there are over 250 photograghs they are sorted into albums. I have lived  away from home for 37 years, if you include my boarding school years, in that  time I have written countless letters. Some of you may have my address written  down in pencil as I moved about quite a bit. This is an opportunity to see  where I lived, the cars I drove and the pets we had.

If you are a cousin and want to see your details and or photo on this webpage  contact me. It is law and just plain good manners to ask.

Expect to see changes and additions as I now begin to write personal histories.  if you have anything to contribute contact me.