This Is Our Lives

Welcome

My Name is Terrie Evette Knibb, nee Laney. I have been interested in family history for as long as I can remember. As a child I used to sit with my Grandparents and ask them about their parents, brothers and sisters. I still have a piece of paper of scribbled notes I made when I was about 16 where my mother's father told me the names of his siblings and parents and of their origins in Norfolk. Despite this, I was always disappointed in the information I received back, the names lacked any sense of personality and family secrets were closely guarded, as I was to find in later years when I carried out my own research.

In recent years the internet and the growing interest in genealogy has given me access to a whole new way of exploring my heritage and I have spent many happy hours doing just that. Along the way I have made contact with previously unknown relatives who have supplied me with copies of photographs that have enabled me to put faces to the names in my tree, but more importantly which have opened doors to exploring what their lives really were like.

I now spend many hours trying to find out more about the lives of my ancestors. Eric and I often drive out to where they used to live and wander round the villages trying to find the houses that they lived in and their graves in the church yards. Little details I find out about their lives send me off researching areas of history and my knowledge of the past has greatly expanded because of it.

During my research, I've found many skeletons in the cupboards. My Great-great-grandfather went to prison twice, once for stealing a watch and once for manslaughter as a result of a brawl outside a pub. My Great-great-great-grandmother committed suicide by throwing herself into the Surrey Canal and my Great-grandfather drowned in the River Thames with an open verdict being recorded.

Eric's family weren't without their black sheep either. His Great-great-great-grandfather was killed by his drunken son during a fight and Eric remembers his mother's parents had quite a reputation in the local community.

I often get quite frustrated that I don't know more about my ancestors. What they were really like, what was important to them, how did they feel about the important issues of their time? I hope that through my scrapbooks and journals any descendants of mine will have a greater insight into my life and beliefs.