I grew up not knowing anything about my father’s family. He told us he was an orphan, although he admitted to having two sisters whom he said had been sent to America and he had lost contact with them. Then over a cup of coffee I mentioned this to a friend who had an Ancestry.com.au subscription. She decided to have a look for me.

We discovered that dad was a man of many secrets. He told us he was born in New Zealand in 1919, that his mother had died in childbirth and his father was dead by the time he was four. Through Ancestry.com.au we have found this all to be untrue. Even his name was wrong! He was known as Edward John Presnell but the name on his birth certificate is Edward Marcus and his real date of birth is 15 August 1912.

His mother did not die until 1973 and his father died in 1941, his two sisters lived in Tasmania and one of them only passed away 2009. He was also married previously and had a son, Barry, before he met my mother.

It seems he walked away from his entire family including his son and never looked back. We think he met my mother during the war years and fell in love with her. She was a staunch Catholic and would never agree to marry a divorced man, so he had to lie about his past to marry her.

He kept his secrets and took them to his grave, we had no idea although I often asked him about his family he always came up with the same story. He would also get quite angry with me for asking.

Thanks to Ancestry.com.au we have made contact with our brother Barry and five cousins (children of dad’s sister Dorothy Caroline). We met at a family reunion in Tasmania in April this year.

The photo above is of my brother John, myself, my sister Jeanette and our new found brother Barry.