Cathy
Cathy was born in Cavity on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. Her mother's mother was a Tagolog speaker from Unisan, Tayabas. But, her ancestors were from the Vasayan Islands. Her mother's father was a British citizen. He had been born in Australia in 1879. His immediate ancestors were convicts and free settlers. His great grandmother had been a cause celebre at the Old Bailey and was transported during the Second Fleet on the Lady Juliana. Ironicly, Cathy's grandfather would also spend most of his life at sea as a steam engineer.
Cathy's father was a sailor too. He joined the US Navy during the Korean War and divided his enlistment between Korea and the Philippines. The latter is where he and Cathy's mother met. His ancestors were Italian and Danish which is where many of Cathy's and our daughter's features can be traced back to.
In the early 1970's Mother Divine Child, who had raised Cathy's mother in a Good Sheperd convent, arranged for Cathy to gain her nurse's training in Queensland. Cathy had previously completed a year of pre-nursing at the University of the Philippines in Baguio. Apart from a year-long visit to family back in the Philippines and longer stays with family in the United States, Cathy has lived and worked most of her life in Australia. Melbourne has been our home for decades.
Rick
Rick was born in the Flathead region of Montana. The grandmother of his father's mother had homesteaded with her children in the eastern portion of the state earlier in the Twentieth Century. That branch of the family can be traced back to the Dutch settlements of upper New York before the War of Independence. They had a long association with the Brotherton Indian Nation of New York and Wisconsin. On paternal side of the Hayes-Guinness family, one branch arrived in Canada in 1816 with the British Army's 100th Regiment of Foot. They homesteaded around Brockville, Ontario for a few generations before migrating south to Michigan. Another line can be traced back to the founding of the Plymouth colony in the early 1600s.
One strand of his mother's paternal ancestors migrated from the Palantine in the 18th Century and settled in Pennsylvania. Another strand emigrated to the United States in the early 1830s from Ireland and farmed in Vermont for generations before moving west. Others would arrive later in the 19th Century from Ireland and Wales. The strands on his mother's maternal side migrated from Norway in the late 19th Century and setted in North Dakota. They farmed there until oil was discovered under their properties. Many moved to warmer climes afterwards!
Like Cathy's father, Rick served as a Petty Officer in the US Navy. While stationed in the Philippines, he met Cathy and they were engaged a little over a year later. After marrying and living in the US, they moved their family to Australia to support Cathy's family. Rick has worked most of the last forty years as a welfare, community, and pastoral care worker. He "accidently" did something about Men's Health in Australia and became an academic. Rick retired in 2016 due to illness. With Cathy's support, he tries to live as freely as possible with Parkinson's Disease.