History

Our quest is to trace the ancestors of George Denny, my third great grandfather. My brother Roger and I (Valerie) were brought up in Harleston to believe we had very few relations. We seemed to be the only Dennys remaining in the area Our father ran the family ironmongers shop, G Denny & Sons. I married in St Mary’s, Redenhall — little did I know how many family “events” had taken place. I knew about a few of these but more were to be discovered.

Roger started on the family search some 15 years ago. With the help of family knowledge, a birthday book belonging to our great-grandmotherr, various family papers and dedicated research, he traced the tree back to George and Rhoda. Roger wrote to everyone he could find of approximately our generation, sending them the family tree. He received some replies but unfortunately any notes he has about people in the family tree have been mislaid in an ancient Pedigree file which we are still looking for!

In November 1999 I decided to research more about the Denny Family Tree. I started by going to the web site www.familysearch.com and there I found a group of about 9 people under the Denny name. I sent an e-mail to this elite group asking if anyone was researching George and Rhoda. Within 24 hours came back a reply from a fourth cousin in New York.  My brother had been corresponding with her mother and her back in the early ‘90s.  She put me in touch with a fourth cousin once removed in Norfolk. Since then I have met both of these "cousins".

What originally inspired me to write this is story form is “The Colby Connection”. In about 1986 distant relatives researched the Colby family tree and visited Harleston. There they met our family and we exchanged information. They wrote a wonderful family history called “The Colby Connection”, with photos, maps, hand-drawn family trees and lots of stories, all without the aid of a computer. Their book brings the history alive and this is my intention with this web-site.