REVELATIONS

H&G TRAVEL SPECIAL
The 14-century Timoleage
Abbey in West Cork, Ireland.
driver’s licences. She claimed she had fallen out with
her family because they were opposed to her becoming
a nurse, and this is why my father and aunt barely
knew their grandparents, George and Clara, and
Uncle Arthur, my grandmother’s only sibling. A pillar
of the local Catholic community, Theresa was so
devout she insisted my parents exchange vows in the
presbytery of the church where they married in 1953,
rather than before the altar, because my mother would
not convert to Catholicism.
As I searched for the Dyers over the years I explored
much of West Cork, its splendid beaches such as
Inchydoney and Barleycove and quaint towns such
as Kinsale, Crookhaven and Skibbereen. But I didn't
turn up a single Theresa Dyer. Years passed and old
age crept up on my father and aunt. But they always
maintained an almost sacred pride in their Norfolk,
England, and Cork, Ireland, ancestry.
Last year, while living in Australia, I decided to have
another go at tracking down the elusive Clonakilty
Dyers, and registered with Ancestry.com. I located a
George and Clara Dyer with a baby called Arthur
living in Littlehampton, a seaside town in West
Sussex, England, in 1900. Had they moved from here
to Clonakilty, Ireland from whence my grandmother
was born? I sent for Arthur’s death certificate – he
died in the 1960s – and sure enough it had him born
in Littlehampton. I had located the right family.
Looking over census records I began to track the
Dyers: George was a ferryman, hauling a chain ferry
across Littlehampton’s River Arun and records
revealed generations of sailors and ships’ carpenters.
The Dyers hailed from a nearby village called
Angmering, and I soon discovered a website on the
town authored by local historian Neil Rogers-Davis.
Neil and I checked Dyer births in the area in 1905. No
Theresa. But we did find a female born in 1901. Could
this be my grandmother? The UK registry of Births,
Deaths and Marriages provided the answer: George
and Clara had a daughter in 1901 they named Dorothy.
Travelling to Scotland in August, I took a few days
out from my schedule to visit Angmering, where >