One Student’s Search for His Ancestors

Journey In Time

What does it mean to be a Third Culture Kid? Tanglin student Rohan looks to his own ancestors for the answer and discovers an important truth about family

For this special issue, The Voice invited Year 9 student Rohan, who is a contributor to Tanglin’s The Last Word magazine, to write a piece on his own family. The Last Word is an independent online newspaper written by Senior School students; its corresponding CCA provides a platform for different interests and opinions, while also supporting the development of writing skills.

“All of us have a family history of sorts, whether it is known inside out by family members or only vaguely remembered. For those of us who are part of an expatriate community, these stories carry particular significance and personal value; it can become incredibly easy for our family history to become lost, either in translation, through missing records, or because relatives died young or split up.

While these events are hard to prevent, we as expats can do our best to stay in touch with our heritage. The easiest way for us to maintain this connection with our roots is to keep the stories of our family alive, and that’s why I’m about to tell you the story of my great-grandfather, Harold, who left Kielce, Poland, in 1913 to find a better life in Canada. Above: Harold (left) and his younger brother Joe. Below: the passenger manifest from Harold’s journey on the Montezuma in 1913.

that year in the Pale of Settlement, where many Jews were living along the border of the Russian Empire. For many years prior to this, prejudice against the Jewish people was prevalent and Jewish businesses struggled to stay afloat. My great-grandfather was seven years old at the time. He had a younger brother, Joe, and two older sisters: Lena and Golda. Due to the ongoing prejudice (and the rising tensions among European nations), Harold’s parents decided it was in the family’s best interest to move to Canada.

The family left Poland on the Montezuma ship sailing to Canada. It was a brutally long journey between Antwerp, Belgium, and Quebec City (their destination ended up being closer to modern day Montreal), and the cold on the ship must have been unbearable.

There are many stories of their journey that have been passed down through the generations. One is that Harold recalled hearing a shrieking woman in the corner of the ship and found out it was his mother, pulling her hair out and heavily sobbing. She was in dismay as the family had lost all their savings in the process of the journey and were heading to a foreign land with nothing but the shirts on their back. But, still, the family persevered.

On August 18, 1913, they all arrived in Montreal. However, as they disembarked the ship, an administrative error was made and the immigration officers mixed up their surnames. While the family name was Wroncberg upon leaving Poland, it had somehow been changed to Rosberg and it has remained so to this day.

At that point in time, Canada was inundated with immigrants as part of the mass migration movement. It meant Montreal couldn’t issue visas and staff had to send the family to Niagara Falls, near the American border. The Rosbergs had to get back on the Montezuma and, while it was for a shorter journey, it must have still been difficult for them to return.

They were facing seemingly insurmountable challenges, but arrived in Niagara Falls – their new home – and quickly established themselves. Astonishingly, by 1919, they were already able to open a family-run department store. They were in many ways living exactly how they had hoped to. This lifestyle would have been next to impossible to achieve in Poland, considering the tariffs on Jewish goods. It must have been incredibly difficult for the Rosbergs to settle somewhere completely strange to them. While very different Above: Year 9 writer Rohan was born in London and moved to Singapore with his family aged seven. He has relatives in the USA, Canada and Italy.

“To forget one’s ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without a root” – Chinese Proverb

experiences, it was in some ways similar to what my own family has done here in Singapore. It wasn’t easy for any of us to move away from home to go to an unfamiliar country, but we did it because we knew it was the best thing for our family.

Harold didn’t let his wish to be back with his relatives in Poland stop him pursuing a new life as an adult. He married his wife, Florence (who was also a Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe), in 1935, and never looked back. He did not return to Kielce in his lifetime and lost touch completely with his family there. Harold had three children: Barbara (who collected all this information), Suzy, and Gerry. His grandchildren and great-grandchildren now live all over the world – from the USA and Canada, to Italy and Singapore.

I was born in London as a British-American citizen and moved to Singapore at the age of seven. My move to South East Asia is a distant memory, although I recall feeling excited and afraid – and I didn’t have much to lose. Our journey was a 13-hour plane ride, and I had an apartment to move into and a school to go to. It must have been much more surreal for Harold – he didn’t even know the language! That mixed bag of emotions he was lugging on the Montezuma must have been far too much for a seven-year-old to bear.

While Harold’s descendants have very different experiences, we all still stay connected. We’ve been staying in touch – bonding over previous visits, dogs on Instagram, and old records of Harold’s journey. Therefore, even as my family is somewhat stuck in Singapore, we are keeping our family history close. And no matter where we are, it will remain that way.”

The Stories We Tell

Pippa Chorley is an award-winning children’s author and a Tanglin mum of three. The Voice caught up with Pippa to find out about her latest work – and discovers a love of stories runs in the family

Listening to Pippa Chorley, a children’s author and Tanglin parent, speak and it’s difficult not to feel inspired.

Alongside a career incorporating work in PR, advertising and teaching, British-born Pippa has so far successfully navigated life in three countries and is currently raising three children, one in each of Tanglin’s Infant, Junior and Senior schools. And throughout all of this, she has continued to write children’s literature, recently publishing a third book inspired by her life here: Eye Spy Singapore.

“Growing up, I was obsessed by Usborne’s 1001 Things to Spot series and two years ago I hit on the idea of creating a similar book that, rather than being about sea creatures or dinosaurs, was focused on a country,” she says. “I love living in Singapore; I thought, ‘Why not here?’”

Pippa put pencil to paper, mocking up some rough sketches and asking a friend, David Liew, whether he would be willing to apply his artistic talents to her work. “It was very important to me to have a Singaporean illustrator on board,” Pippa tells. “While I have lived in the republic for 16 years, it was crucial to have the representation of someone with a deeply rooted history here. David was amazing to work with; he was a stickler for getting things ‘right’. One page, for example, is an illustration of the area surrounding Arab Street, and David was insistent we should give that its proper name, ‘Kampong Gelam’. He brought so much depth and understanding to the table.”

publishers Marshall Cavendish; her first, Counting Sheep, won the Best Picture Book Award at the Singapore Book Awards 2020, while her second, Stuffed!, launched last year at the Asian Festival of Children’s Content. The main character of both books, a little girl named Sam, will also feature in another adventure, Out of the Box, due to be published later in the year. With so many tales to tell, where does Pippa find her inspiration?

The answer is simple. “I think you can snatch it from anywhere if you have an open mind,” she says. “For me, it could be a book I have read myself, on a walk with the dog, a nature programme... Obviously, the children are a huge one.”

The premise of the award-winning Counting Sheep was inspired by Pippa’s father, who would tell his daughter to count sheep whenever she was struggling to drift off at night. One morning, heading to work after a particularly sleepless night, Pippa found herself thinking of his words.

“I was on a bus going down Orchard Road and it was a time before tap-and-go cards, so I was sat holding a paper ticket when suddenly, the first four lines of the book popped into my head, fully formed. I found a pen and scribbled them straight down on the ticket,” she recalls. “I still have it at home!”

Pippa says her passion for writing picture books started at age 12, not long after her younger sibling was born. “I would read constantly to my baby brother and think I absorbed the style and language of those books simply from exposure,” she tells. At 17, she wrote and illustrated her first work, The Tale of Fluke the Dolphin as part of her coursework for an A Level in English Language.

But although Pippa went on to write throughout adulthood, it wasn’t until her third child, Caitlin, was enrolled in Tanglin’s Nursery that Pippa felt able to commit seriously to her craft. She joined the Singapore chapter of SCBWI – the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators – and there met author Leila Boukarim, who suggested she take the concept of Counting Sheep to Marshall Cavendish.

Pippa’s second book, Stuffed! and its protagonist, Sam – a spirited little girl with a lively imagination – was directly inspired by her daughter. “Sam is who I imagined my daughter turning into, I suppose. Caitlin loves pink, and she loves dolls, but she also likes playing with her two older brothers, and the Above: Pippa with (l-r) husband James, son Lochie, daughter Caitlin, and son James. Left: On a recent visit to the Infant School. “It was so special – I felt quite honoured!” she tells.

rough and tumble that involves.”

“Stuffed! is inspired by a phase Caitlin went through of throwing her toys out of the cot at night. I’d walk into her bedroom in the morning and there would be stuffed animals all over the floor, and she would invent these stories about what they had been up to; they were always very creative!” Pippa later reworked Counting Sheep so as to also include Sam as its main character.

The author, who recently visited Tanglin to share her stories with children in the Infant School, says she is now starting to explore different genres of writing. Her second son, nine-year-old Calum, is a voracious reader and has been helping her to hone the manuscript of a chapter book she recently completed. “He’s very good at telling me if something’s not quite right,” she tells. “Often he will note down very thought-provoking questions for me; I do wonder if he will write himself one day.”

With Caitlin in the Infant School, Calum in the Junior School and eldest son Lochie recently joining the Senior School, life is busy, but Pippa says she appreciates seeing the different stages of their learning. “Lochie is enjoying everything about Year 7, and Tanglin handled that transition so well,” she says. “Calum loves language and is getting into fantasy literature, so we’ve recently been connecting over Lord of the Rings. And Caitlin, of course, is just starting to read. It’s such a lovely age – they begin to put sentences together and suddenly, their world explodes!”

“Books are invaluable in terms of escapism – and especially now, during a time when we are relatively immobile. They are a wonderful way to relax and certainly are integral to my life. I hope I will be able to pass that onto my children.”