Joyce took a keen interest in family history. Adopted at the age of seven, she knew very little about her birth family until her mid-to-late adult life.

Joyce's husband Bill helped her to trace her birth mother during the 1950's. Later, with her daughter Heather, Joyce travelled to Birmingham to see the house where her mother was born. The internet helped Heather to connect Joyce with members of her birth family in West Yorkshire, Manchester and Kent. She was thrilled to be able to meet some of her cousins on her mother’s side, and we are still in touch.  

Just a year before she died, Joyce agreed to undertake a DNA test. This helped to establish for certain who her natural father was. It turned out that she was descended from a Norman/Viking family on her mother’s side and on her father’s side, Francisco de Miranda, a Spanish General. 

Francisco de Miranda was born in Tenerife in 1750. He helped Venezuela fight for independence and became that country’s second president. He was quite a character who led a colourful life, including spending years travelling the world and having numerous affairs, including, allegedly, with Catherine The Great of Russia. Francisco's empowerment of the Venezuelan people seriously upset the Spanish government. He was eventually betrayed, arrested by the Spanish government and in 1816, died in jail.

Joyce's birth father's side of the family have some additional Eastern European Jewish connections, which we are still researching. Before they came to London, ancestors from this side of Joyce's family came from Norwich and Yorkshire. 

There are strong military links in both Joyce's birth and adoptive families. In addition to warring Vikings and Spanish Generals, her birth grandfather James William Daykin and her adoptive father G.W. (Peter) Radford both served in the First World War. Her grandfather was a Sergeant in the Warwickshire Regiment Machine-gun Corps. He died in action in April 1916, at Fonquevilliers on the Somme.

Joyce's adoptive father was a cavalry officer in the Gloucester Regiment. He was awarded the Military Cross for capturing an enemy machine gun. Like so many veterans, he was deeply affected by his experiences. He never spoke about his War service or his medal, and we did not find out about it until long after he had died.