Win the chance to have your family tree researched and recorded - worth £150 *NOW CLOSED*

I remember being around 7yrs old, fishing on a beach in Scotland. At about 1 am, my Da started dropping stones into the water and there was an explosion of sparkles. Da told me it was magical whale food swimming away in panic in case they were eaten. I believed him of course! I found out many years later it was something called Bio-luminescence or phytoplankton, but he'd suckered me again. I was amazed by his WIZARDRY. .

When I was seven I had a family holiday on Lanzarote during which my father finally managed to teach me to swim after our school instructor had given me a terrible fright of water! My father died the summer after and that final holiday all together and the lifelong skill he passed to me by helping me overcome my fears is treasured as my last truly innocent childhood memory.

My Granma Alexander was in a Magdalene Convent in Dublin and never even knew her birthday, I would love to find out about her, she was Danish living in Ireland

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I don't really have a favourite childhood memory. My dad passed away when I was a toddler & my mother gave my brother & sister who was a baby away as she was pregnant with her new partner & she didn't want us but because I was older I wouldn't go. I wish now that I did.

Playing inside the Major Oak ( a very big tree in Sherwood Forest). The tree is now protected and its fenced off so children now don't have the chance tp play hide & seek there.

Stealing a piece of my mother's homemade chocolate fudge, and cutting my left hand on the sharp tin lid of the cow&gate powdered milk tin where the fudge was stored. I have the scar to this day, sixty years later AND my 99 year old mother is still alive, but I just can't confess to her!

Making a den and hiding underneath my grandmother's staircase, whenever there were thunder and lightning. Used a box as a makeshift table to eat my Heinz Tomato soup & bread!

Picking blackberries and mushrooms in the hedgerows and fields then making crumbles, jam and pates with the foraged goodies.

Xmas time was such a special time with a white net stocking with red crepe round the edge. It had nuts & a tangerine in the toe & a sugar pig & a sugar mouse. We were so excited with this gift from Santa Claus. One Xmas when I was 4 I had a doll with brown curly hair & a pretty dress.

My favourite childhood memory is hiding behind the sofa at Christmas hoping the day would never end.

Winning the First prize original in my Grandmother's vuillage Easter bonnet comeptition and being photographed for the local paper

Me and my big brother playing out for hours on end with the other local children, carefree, no mobile phones, hot summers and lots of ice cream!!!

When I was six years old, my family decided to move back to England from New Zealand (they had emigrated there when I was a baby). The boat journey took six weeks and we docked in Southampton just before Christmas. It had been snowing heavily and I was absolutely mesmerised by the magical beauty of the wintry scenes all around me as I’d never seen snow before. Sixty years later, I still experience the same feeling whenever we have frosty or snowy weather.

One of my favourite memories is would be in about 1942. My father had constructed an Air Raid Shelter for our family members and several local resident. We all rushed there as soon as the Air Raid Siren went. There was a little bed for me but I seldom slept as I enjoyed the fun we all had, We had facilities to make hot drinks and various friends always produced some titbit. I realise now that it was my Mother's ingenuity that kept mebeing afraid.

My mum’s chips. She made them so they were crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. I loved her cooking.

My favourite childhood memory is also my first memory. I was three years old and our neighbours were looking after me while my parents were at the hospital, they broke the news to me that my little brother had been born and I was overjoyed.

running to the shops as a young girl ! !

My dad telling me stories before bed time, the weekends visiting different parts of the city, my grandparents.

Leaving Scotland on the steam train Heart of Midlothian and arriving at Leeds Station to start our new life in England where they appeared to be speaking a foreign language.

Going on a cycle ride for a picnic. I was very young, I sat on a little seat on my dad's bike's crossbar.

Being taken by my father, with my mother and sister, in his car with two neighbours to see the King and Queen wave from the balcony of Buckingham Palace on VE day. The happiness of the crowds, the sear lights in the dark are magic memories to this day.

Eating! Pomegranates and figs brought as gifts from visiting cousins aunts and uncles. Yoghurt, hummus and aubergine before they were commonly available. Marmalade or ginger cakes, parkin and curd tart! Noisy and busy
cross- generational family mealtimes each evening with my NE England meets Middle East family!

As a child my father regularly took me to Somerset House to help in the search for his grandmother. We used to look through numerous, large volumes of handwritten entries which I remember finding fascinating. Sadly my dad died before we did find out who his grandmother was so it would be lovely to win this prize now.

My Grandfather lived near Brighton and we went every year in the school summer holidays to visit him for 2 weeks, we got the train from Blackpool and had such good times