DNA Testing recommendations?

There is this death, of course not sure of Ana''s birth date.

https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/...off=&ml_rpos=1

Scrub that I see your Ana born 1887 and at another address in 1939, I haven't read the thread through!

Ahh this that Ana and it isn't her, the middle name is Mary and she is with James.

https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/...=successSource

[Merry]

Having said I rarely look at Ancestry trees, I've just done that for the Simpson family and learned that Ana Maria was probably from Peru and her children with Ernest were born in Chili which I why I couldn't see a birth reg for Doreen.

According to the tree, Ernest and Ana Marie had a son called Reginald Herbert Simpson (born c 1914 in Chili -died 1960 Bromley) and I've jus looked at his probate entry which also gives his usual address in 1960 as 8 Kinnaird Avenue.

Hopefully all this will help determine whether these Simpsons are anything to do with the people you vaguely remember or just red herrings!

[Merry]

Maggie - according to the online tree the correct Ana Marie died abroad.

[kr236rk]

Originally Posted by Merry

I treasure my great aunt's 'memoirs' - I expect she thought they were just silly little anecdotes, but makes a huge difference to what I know about the personalities of her siblings, parents, some aunts and uncles and two grandmothers - The same goes for my 3xg-grandfather who wrote about his life (1748-1821) - it's only three or four pages long but again, makes me feel like I 'know' him to some extent!

Cool, I have a lot of family history now - both sides - not very deep in time though, but still. My gt, gt grandfather on my mother's side was a miller, he owned a windmill at Great Baddow by Chelmsford. No-one in the family knew. I love windmills, perhaps that is why? When William STEVENS died his spouse Martha (nee) BROWN became the miller, she ran the mill herself. A mill is like a ship, you have to guide it through the weather like a sailing ship, if you get it wrong, you lose the mill! :-o

Arthur KEMP kept an army diary, I was told it went to my father's half-brother George KEMP, I'd dearly love to read that diary one day, if it has survived.

[kr236rk]

Originally Posted by Merry

With regard to the Simpsons who lived at the back of the house....

Your father's brother, Jack Arthur Kemp seems to have married a Simpson:

Marriages Dec 1941
Kemp John A Simpson Bromley 2a 2226
Simpson Doreen M V Kemp Bromley 2a 2226 <<< possibly known as Marion

So could the other family be connected to her? (I know Jack is written John for the marriage when his birth reg was in the name Jack Arthur, but his death registration is also in the name John Arthur, so I think this marriage is the right person)

Doreen is living at 8 Kinnaird Avenue Bromley in 1939. The people she is with are Ernest (b 1880) and Ana (sic) (b 1887) Simpson. I'm not sure if they are her parents as I can't see a convincing birth registration for Doreen.

Ernest Simpson seems to have died in 1950, but I'm not sure about Ana.

Thanks, gosh - so there does seem to be a connection. When I visited grandma at Bromley, Kent, she & the extended family lived at 50 Lansdowne Road; I am aware of other Bromley addresses for grandma prior to 1939, but her movements - & indeed those of her spouse - are a mystery at the moment.

Yes, I have a Jack A Kemp down as my father's brother. This gets confusing. There was a Jack Kemp somewhere in the family but the only 'brother' my father mentioned was John Kemp and he married a Doreen, they moved to Switzerland in the 60's or 70's. John - who has since sadly passed on - did a lot of family research, but none of it ever came down to our family. So possibly John was known as Jack earlier on?

John & Doreen lived not that far from Lansdowne Road I seem to recall, I remember being shown the air raid shelter in their back garden which was full of house spiders

So SIMPSON must have been Doreen's maiden name? That means the Mrs Simpson my father sometimes mentioned must have been her mother - living at Lansdowne Road? Unless my memory of these snatches of conversation is inaccurate, all these years later.

[Merry]

So possibly John was known as Jack earlier on?

I agree - he was Jack on his birth reg and Jack on the 1939 Register and John at marriage and at death.

That means the Mrs Simpson my father sometimes mentioned must have been her mother

Seems very likely.

[kr236rk]

Originally Posted by Merry

I agree - he was Jack on his birth reg and Jack on the 1939 Register and John at marriage and at death.

Wonder why her mother was living at grandma's though?

[Merry]

What year are you thinking of, roughly?

[kr236rk]

Originally Posted by Merry

What year are you thinking of, roughly?

Well, I was visiting Bromley in the mid 1960's.

The Simpson family must still have been living at the back of the premises, because I never went in that part of the house; grandma's room was in the front of the house, ground floor; upstairs was dad's sister's family with the best room at the front of the property, top floor. The Simpsons must have occupied the ground floor of the premises at the back - I can never remember going into the back yard or garden for example, you'd need to pass through their part of the house to go out through the back door. So they must have been there in the 1960's?

[kiterunner]

The 1965 electoral register gives the names of the Simpsons at 50 Lansdowne Road but I won't type them on here in case they are still alive, as I don't know the names of Doreen's parents until I check. But here is a link to the electoral register image for ref:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interacti...nSearchResults

Edit - there is a possible marriage for this couple in 1963 and a possible birth for him in 1942.

I will send you a private message (PM) with their names.