The Ghazala Dynasty : An Ancient Family in the Modern World | 0:e upplagan

FOR ALL OF OUR CHILDREN This all began when my British daughter-in-law Mary-Anne Priestley Ghazala, kept asking me to tell her about her children’s ancestry. I started to feel embarrassed as she persisted in chasing me up about this and I had still not started my research. Maybe now the time was right to take on this enormous challenge. The year must have been 1986 when I embarked with enthusiasm on my journey as a traveller through family history. I considered that a well thought out plan of action was essential in order to avoid the overwhelming disorder which might have occurred from the great volume of information which started to pour in. And my pedantic attitude – a positive trait I have inherited from my own father – enabled me to sort all the documentation, and the thousands of photos collected over nineteen years, into suitable piles. However, I am sorry to say that a lot of information is still missing. Grey hairs – tears – disappointment – humiliation – all this is the price that has had to be paid. I was caught by surprise when many relatives, near and far away, felt the subject matter of family relationships too personal to go into. I encountered innumerable reasons for this information being kept back, which, if joined together, would be as long as the Tigris and Euphrates put end to end. To my surprise I even found that some people did not know the date of birth of their mother or the name of their father, though there may be a reasonable explanation for why this is the case. Shining through the mist of all the bewildering and difficult work of collecting facts, however, there have also been a tremendous number of sunbeams. Relatives have happily and enthusiastically contributed fabulous information and material to assist me with drawing up the pedigree of our family - a family which has spread proudly over all the continents of the world. The foundation of this book is built on facts deriving from my father’s and mother’s relatives and ancestors, along with similar information originating from the three female companions with whom I have shared my life, thus presenting the family history which we share with our children. A few of the articles in this book are wholly or partly based on material from Swedish and foreign reference sources, encyclopaedia and Google. The majority of the members of the family speak English, although they are of many different nationalities. The layout of the pages is as follows: on the left-hand side all incoming documents, biographies and other information can be found in the original language in which they were given to me, while the English translation of these is on the right-hand side. There are texts which have not been translated into English – no rule without exceptions! Explanations of the photographs are only in English.