by Jim Ross

Created on: July 19, 2008   Last Updated: October 19, 2008

Learning family history can be a fascinating subject, even though it may take you many years to produce a decent sized picture that describes your ancestral roots. The first thing a family detective should learn is that no one is unique, we're all mongrels, even Royal Families can't escape, as our ancestors married for different reasons, and married into different races and creeds, so no one' race is ever' unique.

Secondly, every family has skeletons hidden in the cupboards, and it's often an important decision to make as to whether you wish to open those cupboard doors or not for you never, ever, know what you will find lurking in the shadows! I studied my family history for over a decade, and discovered many startling facts: usually, either because someone got the story wrong, or more commonly, because someone, from decades back, lied...

At the end of my ten year research I had amassed almost 18,000 names on my ancestral tree, and they came from all walks of life and all areas from around the world. One family, even originated from Transylvania minus any teeth marks of course! By far, the most intriguing story I have uncovered comes from the nick name: "Silent Otto." Otto's story was discovered, all thanks to a lie many years old, in fact, it was over forty-years old!

I was informed that an ancestor had died onboard the Royal Naval ship "HMS Royal Oak" at Scapa Flow and, as such, the family wanted to know a little more, in particular, what had really happened, and where he may have been commemorated, or remembered, and gruesomely, how he had met his end, should it was listed in any facts.

With as much information as my two elder family members could give I went in search of the facts, and, after many weeks of searching every available nook and cranny, I found, absolutely nothing. It was then, as a last ditch effort, that I decided to "Google" him as I wasn't sure whether the idea would yield anything or not - it was a shot in the dark, and one I couldn't afford to ignore.

I typed in "James Miles Finn" and within seconds I was prancing around like a mad leprechaun who had just found his pot of gold! Everything I wanted, everything I had searched for, was there and, as such, a huge lie' had also been discovered. Yes, the young man had died at sea, the result of an attack, but he wasn't on the "Royal Oak," he was on the "ss Baron Blythswood," a small freighter, in a convoy, headed across the Atlantic Ocean towards Halifax, Nova Scotia, known as HX72. Listed in the

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