Ever since I was a little girl, I knew there was something different about my grandmother. We didn’t have very much contact with her as she had left my father and his sister when they were toddlers. As the years wore on it became aparent that my grandmother was suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s disease. When we looked back into her life we realised that we knew very little about her background. As it turned out everything we ‘knew’ was false. Her birthdate, her family, even her name was different.
I must admit, I didn’t think too much about it and I didn’t worry too much about the family stories of her adoptive family. But as I get older and have had my own children, I realise how much the actions and beliefs of our ancestors have an impact on our lives. Did my grandmother’s adoption lead to her abandoning her own children? What lead to Evelyn giving my grandmother up for adoption? What’s the real story?
When my grandmother died, we were given her loose personal items in shoeboxes. There were a number of well-travelled passports, photos and her birth certificate. It turns out my grandmother’s name when she was born on the 24th of May 1929 was Olwyn Ridgway.
My mother (who is a family tree fanatic) did a little digging about adoptions in our state and found the adoption records that confirms my grandmother’s birth and adoption to the Hann family. And in these documents was evidence of Evelyn.
According to my grandmother’s birth and adoption records, Evelyn Ridgway was 19 years old and born in Taunton, England. There is no record of a father. Baby Olwyn Ridgway stayed in a babies home for several months before the Nanna Hann adopted her and then Evelyn was allowed to visit her daughter on occasion, as shown in this photo.
When I look at this picture I notice how young and awkward Evelyn looks. Olwyn appears happy and innocent, but Evelyn looks harrowed and hollow, like she’s just whispered something to Olwyn that can’t be comprehended by a baby. I wonder what Evelyn said to her daughter on those occasions she visited her. I wonder what happened to Evelyn after the photos were taken.
Armed with the information from Olwyn’s birth and adoption, I went to Ancestry.com and looked for Evelyn’s birth. I found it and ordered her birth certificate, which came in the mail. It tells me who Evelyn’s parents were, and now I can trace my family tree further. And so it begins.
