Jacqueline (Selby) Brooks Mrs

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I was born in Barnet, Hertfordshire in 1940, and spent my first five days under my mother's hospital bed as bombs fell, and the Battle in the air raged overhead. Then I was sent to live with my maternal grandparents near Liverpool at about a babe in arms, not the best place to be as the Liverpool Docks were heavily bombed, and we were only 7 miles away. So I lived and went to school in Longview, Liverpool until I was 15 years old. I started work as a Cadet Nurse in Widnes, Lancashire in 1955. Moved to London in 1956 to live with my mother and step-father, and started work in an Advertising Office in Hanover Square, London. (Funny, in the last few years I have discovered several of my ancestors lived in Hanover Square during the 1800's) I moved back to grandmother's home in 1957 when my mother and step-father moved to Accra, Ghana. My step-father had got a new job as Welfare Officer at a Manganese Mine out in the bush. March 1958 I Joined the WRAF as an Air Defence Operator. December 1959 married my first husband, Michael Norman McNally. November 4th 1960 Our first daughter Michele was born in Felixstowe, Suffolk. November 6th 1961 Second daughter Susan was born in Ramsgate, Kent. July 25th 1963 Son Michael Adrian was born in Whitby, Yorkshire. September 1980 Divorced. April 1981 Second Marriage, to James Paul Brooks in Reno Nevada, USA. About May of 1981 we joined a Motel organization and went to 'Motel School' for two weeks, learning the Motel management and Accounting techniques, we were in a class of six couples, and called ourselves 'The Dirty Dozen.' After the two weeks were up we were all sent to different motels for a further 3 weeks on the job training, we were also told the top couple would get to go to a motel that had the only guest room with a kitchen. We were sent to Tacoma, Washington State, and guess what, yes, we got the kitchen. Eventually we moved to Yakima to our own motel. Later we moved on from this organization to manage privately owned motels and later a Best Western in Cambria, California.

We decided to leave the motel trade and return to England, so in September of 1985 we said Goodbye to all our friends in Cambria and started on a six week journey across the USA to Washington D.C. We stopped whenever and wherever we wanted, sometimes travelling 500 miles, sometimes 50, we stayed in Yosemite National Park for four days as we were lucky enough to get a cancellation, such a beautiful place, I would have been happy to stop right there. We visited Las Vegas for a couple of days, spent too much money, we took a trip down into the workings of the Hoover Dam, when we rached Arizona we had to visit the Grand Canyon, and took a flight 200 feet below the rim in a high wing Cessna, what an experience that was, then we visited the big crater where the astronauts did some of their training. We visited Brooks family members in Branson Missouri, and were given a copy of the Family Tree, that is what started us on the research trail. In Memphis, Tennessee we travelled down the river Mississippi on the Memphis Belle, went into some huge caves in Tennessee and Kentucky. We topped the rise of a hill as we came into West Virginia, and what a glorious sight, spread out before us, a forest in all its beautiful Fall foliage. When we reached old Williamsburg, we stopped in a motel, Jim carried our three month old Persian kitten in with us as we went to register. Caruso was a gorgeous cream coloured, long haired Persian with huge golden eyes, he charmed everyone, and only one motel in the 3000 mile journey said 'No' to letting him stay. The girls on the reception desk at the motel in Williamsburg fell in love with Caruso. Less than 1/2 an hour after checking in, there was a knock on the door, one of the receptionists had brought Caruso a kitty-bag, lobster and steak, we didn't get any though.! Eventually we arrived in Washington D.C. and stayed several days, then we had to take Caruso to the airport for his flight to England, he was picked up on arrival and taken to a Cattery where he had to stay for six long months. We flew to the UK four days later, and we would drive down to Reading, near London from Yorkshire every two weeks to visit Caruso.

Now thirty years later, we are retired, and still living in a tiny Hamlet in North Yorkshire with our present three cats. We will get busy again in December as Santa and Mistress Holly Claus on the Santa Special trains that run between Pickering and Levisham each weekend.

The printed copy of my husband's BROOKS family tree given to us by a cousin, went back to 1773 and the birth of his 4 X great grandfather, apparently born under a gooseberry bush in Virginia, as we have no parents, 30 plus years later Jeremiah Brooks is still our brick wall, one reason why Jim set off on the Y-DNA trail. I got started on several of my family lines, and discovered a cousin in the ILLINGWORTH line who has done a fantastic job in tracing it back via records to the 1400's. I have two mysteries of my own to puzzle over, who was my paternal grandfather, my father's mothers SELBY line goes back to the 1600's so far, but my father was born out of wedlock, and I want to know who his father was, unfortunately I was an only child and have no brothers or anyone carrying my fathers DNA to test. Where was my 4 X great grandmother Jane JOHNSTON born, and who were her parents, I know she was born in 1798 as it is recorded on her death record, she died in 1824 aged 26. Those two people were my reasons for joining the DNA trail too.

My eldest daughter Michele lives in North West Scotland, she is a talented singer and artist, she can draw or paint anything, is fantastic with Celtic art, and loves to work with wood and burn pictures, animals and birds into it, pyrography, She has her own page on Facebook, MichelesPyrographyEmporium. One of my favourite songs that she sings is 'Farewell to Tarwathie' an old whaling song, (Link below) she sings with a group called the Federals, and they travelled around Scotland to Ceilidhs and festivals. Now she is the female half of a Johnny cash Duo. My other daughter also sings, she is with a choir called 'Got to Sing' and they have appeared at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham, as well as other venues.. My son is blind, but he has his computer and it talks to him, he lives about 18 miles from us so we see a lot of him.

I have four granddaughters, one has emigrated to Canada, she is a Geo-Physicist, her sister wants to emigrate too. The other two in Scotland are married with children, so I now also have two great granddaughters, and two great grandsons.

Farewell to Tarwathie: https://youtu.be/O_9RvqDZGfM