Robert Davies
The man before he was Grandfather
Before he was Grandfather
A brief animated introduction to the photographs, records, ships and small clues behind this family story.
A little more about the man himself
This project looks at Grandfather's teenage years and the period when he was starting adult life and beginning a family.
The purpose is simple: to help us understand a little more about the man before he was Grandfather.
I'm piecing the story together from family photos, documents, ship records, remembered details, and reliable historical sources. Names, dates, places, jobs, captions, numbers, and other small clues are checked carefully. Facts are kept separate from historical context, and anything imagined is clearly labelled. Historical photographs come from real archival collections whenever possible.
Two versions are being built
I'm working on two versions of Grandfather's story at the same time.
The first is the fuller historical version for adults and anyone who enjoys digging into the details — the ships, places, photographs, records, historical background, and sources.
The second tells the same basic story in a kid-friendly way, aimed at the younger members of the family: shorter, more visual, easier to explore, and focused on what Grandfather was like when he himself was young.
The hope is that both versions become keepsakes for the family — especially for younger generations who never really had the chance to know him themselves.
Five Summers on the Lakes
The ships, records, historical background, photographs and sources.
The Book With the Red Number
The same true story, shorter and more visual, with a few open mysteries to help solve.
Public by link, unlisted by design. These family stories are hosted on the public internet so they are easy to open and share, but they are deliberately kept out of normal search-engine indexing and public site navigation. Anyone with the direct link can still visit or forward them.
Scroll. Tap. Take your time.
It's designed mainly for a phone or tablet. Just scroll through at your own pace.
You'll occasionally see small numbered references. Tap one to see where a detail, photograph, or bit of historical context came from, then close it and keep reading.
Take your time with the photographs too. They're part of the story and part of the evidence.
I hope this gives all of us a chance to know Grandfather a little differently — and gives the younger generations something of him to carry forward. There is still plenty to discover, and that's part of the fun.
Brian Robert Lefebvre