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Quiz about My Family Abroad
Quiz about My Family Abroad

My Family Abroad Trivia Quiz


From early days, members of my family have had itchy feet. From the clues given can you identify the places in which my family members have holidayed, studied or worked?

A multiple-choice quiz by Cymruambyth. Estimated time: 6 mins.
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Author
Cymruambyth
Time
6 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
307,347
Updated
Jul 23 22
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Difficult
Avg Score
5 / 10
Plays
1131
Awards
Top 20% Quiz
Last 3 plays: Guest 172 (3/10), Guest 96 (5/10), PurpleComet (6/10).
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Question 1 of 10
1. In the 1920s my mother learned her trade - cooking - under the tutelage of the chef of one of Switzerland's oldest and best hotels. The city in which she lived and studied is in central Switzerland and it remained staunchly Roman Catholic during the upheavals of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. Which is it? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. My father's family descends from one of William of Normandy's soldiers at the Battle of Hastings. Our ancestor remained in England rather than returning to his native heath, one of the Channel Islands. It lies some 12 miles off the Cotenin Peninsula of Normandy. Which island is it? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. One of my maternal great-grandfathers was something of a classical scholar (I'm told he could recite 'Dante's Inferno' from memory!). He and my great-grandmother honeymooned in the Tuscan city which is generally considered to be the birthplace of the Renaissance. Which city?

Answer: (One Word. Uffizi.)
Question 4 of 10
4. My mother's cousin always fondly recalled a cycling holiday he took in France, in a part of the country in which he, as a Welsh speaker, encountered no language difficulties. In which part of France would Welsh-speakers feel at home?

Answer: (One Word. Bay of Biscay on its southern coast.)
Question 5 of 10
5. My maternal grandfather was an officer with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. He was killed at Delville Wood in 1916. Delville Wood was one of the battles that took place during a lengthy engagement better known as The Battle of the ___? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. One of my cousins was an ardent mountaineer who died of a heart attack while climbing the highest peak in the Swiss Alps. Which peak is it? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. One of my cousins works for an international hotel chain and has managed hotels all over the world. The first hotel he managed is in a former British dependency that was ceded to China in 1997. Where did my cousin work? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. One of my uncles, a career officer in the British Army, narrowly missed being blown up in the King David Hotel. In which city was he stationed at the time?

Answer: (One Word. Do you really need a hint?)
Question 9 of 10
9. The husband of one of my cousins worked for a large international chemical company. For five years, he managed the company's plant in the first African country to manufacture mobile phones. Which country is it? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. One of my cousins has twins, both of whom are doctors. They work with an international humanitarian aid organization founded in 1971 by a group of French doctors. Give me the name of the organization in either English or French

Answer: (Three Words)

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Most Recent Scores
Mar 10 2024 : Guest 172: 3/10
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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. In the 1920s my mother learned her trade - cooking - under the tutelage of the chef of one of Switzerland's oldest and best hotels. The city in which she lived and studied is in central Switzerland and it remained staunchly Roman Catholic during the upheavals of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. Which is it?

Answer: Luzern

Hotel Des Balances is a four-star luxury hotel in the heart of Luzern. The modern hotel is housed in the former Guildhall of the city, a building which dates back to 1200 (don't worry, it has running water!). Luzern was founded in 1178, and joined the Swiss Confederacy in 1415.
2. My father's family descends from one of William of Normandy's soldiers at the Battle of Hastings. Our ancestor remained in England rather than returning to his native heath, one of the Channel Islands. It lies some 12 miles off the Cotenin Peninsula of Normandy. Which island is it?

Answer: Jersey

Jersey had been part of the Duchy of Normandy since 933, when William Longsword, great-great-great-grandfather of William the Conqueror, relieved the Vikings of possession. With the exception of the 55 years between 1204, when the King of France conquered the Islands, and 1259, when France ceded the Islands back to England, they have been part of first England and then the United Kingdom, albeit self-governing provinces. Jersey is the largest of the islands, even though it measures a mere ten miles east to west and six miles north to south.

My ancestor settled on a hill in Herefordshire, the county where most of my father's family still lives.
3. One of my maternal great-grandfathers was something of a classical scholar (I'm told he could recite 'Dante's Inferno' from memory!). He and my great-grandmother honeymooned in the Tuscan city which is generally considered to be the birthplace of the Renaissance. Which city?

Answer: Florence

My Welsh grandmother was conceived on her parents' honeymoon in Florence and they named her for the city. It was a family joke that she should be grateful that her parents didn't honeymoon in Turin, Genoa or Calabria! Her sisters bore the names Beatrice and Laura (for the women beloved of Dante and Petrarch).
4. My mother's cousin always fondly recalled a cycling holiday he took in France, in a part of the country in which he, as a Welsh speaker, encountered no language difficulties. In which part of France would Welsh-speakers feel at home?

Answer: Brittany

The Celts who settled in Brittany, Cornwall and Wales shared the same language. Over the years local modifications have crept in, but Breton-speakers and Welsh-speakers can understand one another when speaking their native languages in much the same way that a Glaswegian can hold a conversation with a Cockney, a native of Maine can make him or herself understood to a native of Louisiana, and a Quebecois can converse with a Parisian.
5. My maternal grandfather was an officer with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. He was killed at Delville Wood in 1916. Delville Wood was one of the battles that took place during a lengthy engagement better known as The Battle of the ___?

Answer: Somme

The Battle of the Somme, waged from July 1 to November 18, 1916, was one of the costliest of World War I. The British and French forces gained a mere 12 kilometres of ground in four and half months of fighting and the casualty list was enormous - 420,000 British troops (58,000 of them on the first day of the battle!), and 200,000 French troops, which accounts for more than four-fifths of the original force of 750,000 British and French officers and men. German casualties were estimated at 500,000.

In the end, the campaign was halted by bad weather when snow made it impossible to continue. My grandfather and two of his three brothers were killed on the Somme. The third brother survived, but came home without his legs. Isn't war a wonderful thing? When will we ever learn?
6. One of my cousins was an ardent mountaineer who died of a heart attack while climbing the highest peak in the Swiss Alps. Which peak is it?

Answer: Dufourspitze

Dufourspitze, at 4,634 metres, is the highest mountain in Switzerland. It is part of the Monte Rosa Massif and was named for General Henri Dufour, co-founder of the Red Cross. Dufourspitze was first climbed in 1855 by a group of English mountaineers, Swiss guides and porters. One of the climbers was Charles Hudson, who died some 10 years later during the first ascent of the Matterhorn.

My cousin suffered a massive heart attack while scaling the Macugnaga Wall, the most difficult side of the mountain.
7. One of my cousins works for an international hotel chain and has managed hotels all over the world. The first hotel he managed is in a former British dependency that was ceded to China in 1997. Where did my cousin work?

Answer: Hong Kong

Hong Kong was ceded to the British in 1842 under the terms of the Treaty of Nanking which ended the First Opium War. In 1898, Britain obtained a 99 year lease on part of mainland China and islands around Hong Kong (known as the New Territories) and agreed to return Hong Kong and the Territories to China in 1997. The deal was kept, even though the government of China was no longer in the hands of an Emperor and China is now the People's Republic with a Communist government.

Singapore became independent of the UK in 1963. Macao had been a Portuguese colony from the 17th century until 1999 when it was handed back to the Chinese, and Indonesia was a Dutch colony which won its struggle for independence in 1949.
8. One of my uncles, a career officer in the British Army, narrowly missed being blown up in the King David Hotel. In which city was he stationed at the time?

Answer: Jerusalem

Part of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem served as headquarters for the British Army in the then-Palestine Mandate. On July 22, 1946, the Irgun, a right wing Zionist paramilitary organization which was a subdivision of the Hagganah, planted a bomb in the basement. Telephone calls were made to the hotel, warning of the impending explosion but none of those calls was made to British Army HQ. For some reason the hotel was not evacuated and the result of the explosion was the loss of 91 lives with 46 more people on the injured list. The leader of the Irgun at the time was Menachem Begin, who later served as Prime Minister of Israel as leader of the Likud, the political party with its roots in the Irgun. After the formation of the State of Israel in 1948, the new Israeli government branded the Irgun as a terrorist group.

My uncle avoided the explosion altogether. He had gone out for a walk just minutes before the bomb went off. We always maintained that he led a charmed life, because he survived campaigns in North Africa, Sicily, Europe, and the Far East during World War II without a scratch, and he suffered no injuries while stationed in Malaya and Korea in the 1950s, either. He died in bed in Wales at the ripe old age of 91!
9. The husband of one of my cousins worked for a large international chemical company. For five years, he managed the company's plant in the first African country to manufacture mobile phones. Which country is it?

Answer: Zambia

Zambia (the former Northern Rhodesia) is the first African country that manufactures mobile phones. Mineral-rich Zambia is still struggling to overcome the effects of the one-party rule instituted by the Kenneth Kaunda, the country's first president and dictator after it achieved independence from Britain in 1964.

In 1991, Kaunda was ousted, a multi-political party democracy was instituted and Zambia began the slow climb out of its economic woes. By 2007, inflation was reduced to single digits and the economy was improving (thanks to foreign investment in the mining sector and higher prices for copper on world markets), although the worldwide economic downturn in 2008 hit the country hard. 55% of the Zambian population ekes out a living on less than $2.00 a day.
10. One of my cousins has twins, both of whom are doctors. They work with an international humanitarian aid organization founded in 1971 by a group of French doctors. Give me the name of the organization in either English or French

Answer: Medecins Sans Frontieres

Medecins Sans Frontieres was established in 1971 by a group of French doctors who had witnessed the horrors of the Biafran war of secession. Nowadays, some 26,000 medical professionals (doctors, nurses, lab techs), administrators, sanitation engineers and logistics experts are deployed in 60 countries which have been ravaged by war or natural disaster.

The secular humanitarian organization receives 80% of its funding through private donations, with the remaining 20% contributed by various governments. Despite receiving some of its funding from government sources, MSF/DWB resolutely maintains a non-political stance and provides care where it is needed, regardless of the politics, ethnicity or religion of the recipients. In 1999, Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders received the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of its efforts to provide health care and medical training, hygiene and sanitation (including access to clean water) and basic food needs to the civilian victims of war and any natural or industrial disaster.
Source: Author Cymruambyth

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Pagiedamon before going online.
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