"Welcome to my updated website. I have tried to make it easier to navigate and for visitors to find items of interest. If you have any comments, please email me at MrsRoseDempsey@aol.com"

It's been an interesting journey, and as I've delved into my family history I've found much that has excited me, puzzled me and made me realise these people who came before me were real - not just names and dates to fill a family tree chart - but flesh and blood people with feelings, hopes, dreams and who experienced the politics and hardships of their day.

Most of my research thus far has been on my maternal grandmother's side, the Poysers and the families that married into them. Centered mainly around Canning Town/Plaistow area of London for about 100 years up to the 1960's, although one of my grandmother's sisters lived there until her death a few years ago.

For quite some time, my maternal grandfather's side of the family remained elusive. The brick wall began to come down this past year, and I have made exciting advances in the Lewis research, although still have a long way to go. Some of my findings have brought long lost memories to the fore, and those memories have provoked further questions ... so the journey continues.

Ancestry.co.uk and GenesReunited.co.uk have been wonderful resources in my search, plus numerous Facebook local groups for places in London that I lived in or visited as a child. Google has been awesome for searching for photos and maps, and for retracing some steps of streets that still remain.

I finally found information of my natural father, Alec Leggett, and have had contact with his other two children. Unfortunately, I was never able to speak to him before his death, so much that I would have liked to have asked him must go unanswered. However, from things that have been mentioned by my siblings, I have surmised answers to some.