<—The Refuge for Friendless Girls Marie —> Olga’s Diary (Continued) Dear Diary I never knew places like this existed. Matron said I was lucky to be here because this is a Catholic refuge and other girls in my state end up in the workhouse, which, she says, are very unpleasant places and the treatment [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Ross family’
Home is a Refuge for Friendless Girls
Posted in Family History, Family Saga, Memoirs, Nursing during the War, tagged Browney family, Carmen Browne, nursing WW2, Olga Browney, Olga's diary, refuge for unmarried mothers, Ross family, unmarried mothers in WW2 on February 23, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Olga, Nursing and a Declaration of War
Posted in Family Historian, Family History, Family Saga, History of my ancestors, tagged Browney family, Carmen Browne, London 1939, nursing WW2, Olga's diary, Ross family, St Giles Cottage Hospital, St. Mary's Hospital, WW2 on November 29, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Olga’s Diary (Continued) Dear Diary War: Moores and I were in Oxford Street, when the air raid siren went, shopping for a new dress for her date that night with an army officer. We’d just reached John Lewis when it sounded and we knew it meant we were going to be bombed [...]
Sydney comes to London -1939
Posted in Family Historian, Family History, Family Saga, Genealogy, History of my ancestors, Memoirs, tagged Carmen Browne, London 1939, Olga Browney, Olga's diary, paddington, Ross family, St Giles Cottage Hospital, St. Mary's Hospital, Sydney Browney on November 6, 2009 | 2 Comments »
<—-Aunt Martha, Paddington Olga – A Student Nurse –> When I asked my mother (Olga) how safe she felt in London during the first part of 1939, she said she wasn’t worried because people felt that war with Adolph Hitler had been averted. Maybe the previous war was still fresh in people’s minds (after all in 1939 it was less than 20 [...]
Aunt Martha, Chilworth Street, Paddington
Posted in Family History, Family Saga, Genealogy, Jamaican History, tagged Browney family, Drury Lane Theatre, Olga Browney, Olga's diary, Ross family, Ross sisters on October 24, 2009 | 2 Comments »
<—A Change of Plan for Olga Sydney Comes to London 1939 —> My Great Aunt Martha was the oldest and not at all like her sisters, Becky and Lucy, either in temperament or looks. She was a short, stout woman with a badly pockmarked face – apparently the result of chicken pox. Every now [...]
London 1939
Posted in Family History, Family Saga, Genealogy, History of my ancestors, tagged Browney family, Jamaica, London, London 1939, Lyons Corner House, Martha Ross, Munich agreement, paddington, Ross family on September 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
<—-Kingston 1938 – A Dangerous Place A Change of Plan for Olga—-> My mother, Olga Browney, arrived in London from Kingston, Jamaica on 1st April 1939 intending to stay only a few months. The plan was that Olga would stay with her Aunt Martha in Paddington. Although in the months before there had been talk [...]
Sydney Shoots a Burglar
Posted in Family History, Family Saga, Jamaican folklore, Jamaican Genealogy, Obeah, tagged Browney family, Catholic religion, family story. roots, Holy Trinity Cathedral Kingston Jamaica, Jamaica, Obeah, obeahman, Olga's diary, Ross family, Sydney Browney on July 15, 2009 | 1 Comment »
<– More Spells and Obeah Kingston 1938 A Dangerous Place to Live—> Click to englarge image Once my Mum (Olga) started to talk about her family to me and what her life was like growing up in Jamaica, she told me about the two biggest scandals in the family (and there were quite a few!). [...]
More Spells and Obeah
Posted in Family Historian, Family Saga, Jamaican folklore, Memoirs, tagged Browney family, Jamaican History, Obeah, Olga Browney, Olga's diary, Ross family on July 1, 2009 | 1 Comment »
<—Sydney & The Cook Sydney Shoots a Burglar—-> When I was a child my mother, Olga, used to tell me that her family practiced witchcraft (Obeah) in Jamaica, but I didn’t believe her. Being a good Catholic girl, I didn’t countenance such ‘mumbo jumbo’! After Emancipation in 1834 the Government made Obeah illegal and it [...]
Sydney and the Cook
Posted in Family Historian, Family History, Family Saga, Genealogy, Jamaican Genealogy, tagged Olga, Olga's diary, Ross family, Sydney Browney, Vivie on June 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
<—Aunt Lucy & Anancy Stories More Spells and Obeah —-> Olga’s Diary (Continued) Letter to Vivie, Miami, USA from Olga, Kingston, Jamaica. Dearest Vivie There’s been a terrible scandal in the family. You just won’t believe what happened last Saturday morning when we came down to breakfast. “That’s strange; I can’t smell [...]
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Why I Wrote ”Olga – A Daughter’s Tale”
In 1994, my mother, Carmen Browne, was admitted to the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton in the UK seriously ill. As she slowly recovered I realized that had she died so too would the chance of my finding out about her past, her family in Jamaica and, of particular importance to me, who my father was information she had consistently refused to share with me. So I decided to find out for myself.My first discovery was that my mother’s real name was Olga Browney, born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica and one of eleven children from a close-knit, coloured Catholic family. A kind, naïve and gentle girl, my mother arrived in London in 1939 and lived with a malevolent, alcoholic aunt, intending to stay for only six months. However, world events, personal tragedy and malicious intent all combined to prevent her from returning home to Kingston.
"Olga - A Daughter's Tale" is based on a true story about cruelty, revenge and jealousy inflicted on an innocent young woman and about moral courage, dignity, resilience and, in particular, love. It is the story of a remarkable woman, who because of circumstances, made a choice, which resulted in her losing contact with her beloved family in Jamaica, until nearly half a century later, when her past caught up her.
What I discovered about my mother filled me with such admiration for her that I wanted her story recorded for future generations of my family to read so that they would know about this remarkable woman whose greatest gift to me was her unconditional love. That's why I wrote “Olga – A Daughter’s Tale”.
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