Jack & Pat Ward's Families

Welcome to the families of Pat and Jack Ward and their many ancestors and a few descendants. The research which is documented in this website all started when Jack discovered that Pat had two small suitcases full of memorabilia, photographs annotated on the back and notes left to by her mother Doris Wallace. Also, Pat was very close to her first husband Donald Boyle's mother Lilian Doris Rosam (Dorie) who told Pat much about her family. Jack knew very little about his family. His mother Alice would sometimes talk about her past, her siblings and parents. Apart from a few other relatives who occasionally reminisced this was his only source of information and he wasn't sufficiently curious enough at the time to ask follow up questions whilst they was still alive. Unlike Pat's mother Jack’s mother never wrote anything down and the few photographs which survive are rarely annotated so Jack has had to make educated guesses.

Both of us have been married three times. Our first marriages produced our wonderful children: two sons for Pat and a son and daughter for Jack. Because Pat and Jack’s first wife Joan were friends our families became friends and as youngsters our children would play together. However, both marriages ended in divorce and our families drifted apart. Our second marriages were ‘on the bounce’ and both ended after a few years. Jack’s rather acrimoniously and Pat’s by consent. Then, quite fortuitously Pat and I met up again and to use the old-fashioned term ‘fell in love’ and married. That third marriage lasted thirty years and only ended when Pat passed away in January 2021. We never had children of our own but after we married we treated our respective children and grandchildren as our children and grandchildren and often had family parties.

It is said that people only become really interested in their past when they are older and the people they could have asked are dead. Never-the-less from the small beginnings of Pat’s mother’s memorabilia and Jack’s mother’s reminiscences I have been able to trace many of Pat's and my ancestors. In pursuing my research I have discovered two interesting facts. The first is 'grade inflation'; e.g. saying someone is a doctor when in fact they were a nurse. The second is that inconvenient, or what at the time would have been considered shameful, facts such as bigamy or being born out of wedlock were covered up with a tissue of lies or half-truths. This is usually discovered where oral history or notes are not supported by the facts. Where I can prove that oral history or notes are wrong, misleading or sometime downright fanciful I have documented the true facts together with observations as to why the cover up may have occurred as those who were affected by it are dead and cannot be harmed.

I hope 'the family' and possibly others will find my research interesting. Dip into it or ignore it but don't throw it away; after all one day you too may become interested in your past.