Unravelling my family name: Woodlands
This post has been years in the making. It all began when cousin Gail kindly took an AncestryDNA test. The results revealed exactly what I’d hoped for—and so much more. To tell the full story, I need to go back to her maternal grandfather, James Woodland, and then further still, to his mother and her family. None of this history had been passed down—until now. I’m thrilled to have documented it so it can be shared and preserved for future generations. A surprising start to my family history journey When I began researching my family history in 2016, I never expected to uncover that "Woodlands" wasn’t actually my family name. I’d carried it for more than 60 years—long enough to find its place at the tail end of the alphabet a mild annoyance, and its length a bit of a mouthful alongside "Christine Margaret." Over the following five years, I slowly peeled back the layers of the past. While some questions still remain unanswered, one truth emerged: my grandfather wasn’t...