I dug myself a grave that ended up a flower bed.

It started as my german aunt inviting con & I for lunch with her & one of her sons, bring my dogs she said as her sons dog (1yr) needs to socialize. No prob, we'll be there.... ( she's making moussaka, especially for con.  greek food for a greek boy! 1st time in 8 yrs hes been to her house)

I'd been trying to find one of my other cousins for months, finally found him thanks to my aunt. There are only 5 in Australia with our surname. (Sorry, 6. His ex kept our name so she didnt have to go back to.... smith?) + his 3 gorgeous kids. Here, if you have our name.... i know you! Told him we were going to auntys for lunch...yeah! Hes coming with 3 kids & a girlfriend. Then i spoke to another cousin,( her other son,) hes coming too with his wife & 3 dogs (labs).... my aunts bro was with his son when I called so, after chatting with them, they are coming too..... then, .......................... my sister called. (She lives an 8 hr drive away. I've been trying to get her to come down here for a "girlie" weekend for months) She's coming down, this weekend, yes she wants to come to our aunts to.... she'll be here with her OH.

Oh my god! 4 has turned into 15!

I rang my aunt..... ummmmm, by the way.... we'll have 15 & 6 dogs.

I cooked tons, so did my aunt, I felt guilty, she is elderly,.....I didnt mean to invade her house.... i took fold up chairs, food, cutlery,  drinks, etc.

What a great day!!!
my aunt, my uncle, my sister, cousins, partners, kids, dogs.....everyone just diving in the house to get food, then eating with plates on laps, dogs playing (only 3 as my cousins wife heard... dobe, staff, she got scared & I think she didnt let my cousin bring them. Hes a dog trainer,  he would have bought them. Hes not scared,  she was.)

Anyway..... mish mash of a day but we all had a ball. We played "musical chairs & table". As the sun moved we moved further down the yard.

Here's 2/3 of them. (I couldn't get them to all sit down at the same time)



Heres the puppies.
Jewell ( one of my sisters lines) shes 14? Mths now. Tyson & Jess.

Sounds lovely!

Oh well done for mucking in and making a grand family reunion of it!

And Jess looks great btw. Bless the old girl.

She is lumpy & old lady grumpy (i call her the "fun police" now as she is going deaf & blind, she now barks incessantly at dogs playing, or perseved things sometimes, no one can have fun unless she's in the middle, directing or telling them off.)  She was nackered for 2 days after.

But it was fabulous to see them all together.

It's great getting together with family for something other than a funeral

But what's wrong with the surname, 'Smith'.........?

Ain't that the truth Lorraine! Last time I saw some of them was at my dads funeral 8 yrs ago.

Nothing wrong with "Smith" babe... is it yours?
I don't actually know her maiden name. Though anything is better than my NZ ex bro in laws.... Vyle.

tracyp wrote:
Nothing wrong with "Smith" babe... is it yours?

Unfortunately, yes. I tried so hard to persuade hubby he should take my name instead! After years of teasing my mum that her maiden name (Smith) was common - I ended up becoming one!!!!

Lorraine wrote:

tracyp wrote:
Nothing wrong with "Smith" babe... is it yours?

Unfortunately, yes.  I tried so hard to persuade hubby he should take my name instead!  After years of teasing my mum that her maiden name (Smith) was common - I ended up becoming one!!!!

 Thats funny! It's a normal name here. We always use "Smith" as a generic or "Jones" if you are trying to out do the neighbours.

I couldn't ever take my babes name.... no one could spell it.

What was your name?

tracyp wrote:

Lorraine wrote:

tracyp wrote:
Nothing wrong with "Smith" babe... is it yours?

Unfortunately, yes.  I tried so hard to persuade hubby he should take my name instead!  After years of teasing my mum that her maiden name (Smith) was common - I ended up becoming one!!!!

 Thats funny! It's a normal name here. We always use "Smith" as a generic or "Jones" if you are trying to out do the neighbours.

What was your name?

We do the same - 'Keeping up with the Joneses' is a common saying here. My maiden name was Bailey, not uncommon, but not quite 'Smith'

My maiden name was Kosnikowska , and worse still my real first name is Lydda and my middle name is Muriel, so you can imagine what tortures I went through at school, as a shy teenager! Probably it wouldn't be so bad today, now that everyone is more cosmopolitan. I had a friend called Anne Green - how I envied her, although I expect she got equally sick of "how are you spelling that, with or without an E"?

And then I got married ............

Oh you two make me laugh!

Mine is Prillwitz, (von prillwitz, the von was dropped during the war to stop the Russian's targeting my ancestors. I don't even bother say my surname anymore, I just say, I'll spell it for you.... no, it's not P.r.o... "I"! Is it really that hard? Prill-witz!) which is easier than some of my cousins,  they are Grzegorzek. (Phonetically,  Sheg-or-shek). & there's only 3 of them in AU + one wife who calls herself "Gregory"     & she can't even say her husbands first name properly after 15 odd yrs.  We used to call him "diet bar" as children when we couldnt pronounce "Dietmar". (Ditmar, not Deetmar) Dad was Joachim, (joe-uch-him or john) my uncle is Jurgen (yur-gin or george), Con is actually Constantinos or kosta (when he is in trouble with a female family member ) or Kon, His brother is Vasillious or "bill"...  His sister is katerina (kathy)..I could go on.  

Not many I know actually use their true name! Damn Aussies changing their names constantly!!! (As we do for most everything... wanna get a banger? I'm hungry)  But it makes life fun... when they are naughty, I call them by their true name, not the english version. Stops them all in their tracks immediately. I think, they think its their mum telling them off as I rarely do it for the full effect when I need to pull them up.

Are you polish Lynda? We are prussian if you go back about 5 generations. My middle name is actually samanda but everyone translates it to samantha.

& you are what now Lynda? Please don't say Williams.....  It cant be harder than Kosnikowska.

P.s. Lydda is a lovely name.

Yes I'm half Polish, Tracy. My father had a terrible war, was smuggled to England by the French Resistance and after the war couldn't return to his homeland. And then he met my (English) mum and did his best to settle down.

I'm Lydda to my family and oldest friends, but long ago changed my first name to Lynda for the world at large because it was so much easier. Long story short, I've had so many names to so many people over the years it's hard for me to think what my own name is to myself which is a strange feeling. It's actually a comfort for me to know that others, like you Tracy and your family, experience the same thing and cope with it.

Isn't it strange how cosmopolitan we all are? When I was a child I would have said that I was English. However, my great grandfather was a polish Jew and I have a German aunt. My husband is half Irish.

Quite what that makes Eleanor lord only knows!

My maiden name was Brewer,common enough, but on my mum's side were names such as Hachard and Marecki. Not quite so common!

Yes, I guess most of us are a glorious mixture! Even "pure-bred English" are a mixture of many races. I was an enthusiastic genealogist and found that my English side harks back to Norman and Danish roots way way back.

Uncommon surnames make it much, much easier to investigate family trees if one is interested in tracing family history - at least until the original bearer entered the country.

Even "common" names are interesting - for instance Caryll, your father's surname of Brewer indicates that his forebear (probably going back to 1400's) was known as a producer of beer.

I've had a quick look at my family tree too. I've traced my mother's side back to 1598 in the same village where I was born, and my dad's family back a little further to a village eight miles away! I now live about 35 miles away from there, so I guess I'm a great adventurer!

My hubby, however, had grandparents who were Austrian, French, Irish and English - but he still ended up a Smith

LyndaW wrote:Yes I'm half Polish, Tracy.  My father had a terrible war, was smuggled to England by the French Resistance and after the war couldn't return to his homeland.  And then he met my (English) mum and did his best to settle down.

I'm Lydda to my family and oldest friends, but long ago changed my first name to Lynda for the world at large because it was so much easier. Long story short, I've had so many names to so many people over the years it's hard for me to think what my own name is to myself which is a strange feeling.  It's actually a comfort for me to know that others, like you Tracy and your family, experience the same thing and cope with it.

My oma (german grandmother)fled germany when under russian occupation, set sail to Australia with her then 3 young children , documents & pics stuffed in her girdle.... she would have been shot for it if she was found. Her husband was at war fighting, he didnt know where they went. I don't know how he found them but he arrived here years later to be reunited.

I've done an extensive family tree/history. I'm a "heinz variety".... germans, irish, aussie... It's very interesting!

Learn something new every day!

I like having a relatively uncommon name, though I've met a few people who have the same name as me. I don't even know how many nationalities there are in my family tree!