CannyCat Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 I've been doing it for about a year now - it's sooo addictive! It's fantastic when you get another peice of the puzzle, but so frustrating when you hit a brick wall! My family all come from Durham and Cumbria, which is unfortunate as I'm in Wiltshire, so I can't visit County Record Offices or look for graves How many other people here research genealogy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 Not me , but my Dad's cousin has got right back to the late 1700's with their branch of the family. Absolutely fascinating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronze Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 I do I'm stuck on my fathers side in schleswig holstein ( from when it was Danish). I've gone back pretty far on most sides but I'm appalling at concentrating on one line and of course every time you go back it splits in two. I found out a lot of my family were from where I used to live (by pure coincidence) but I only found out afte I moved. Another bulk are Devonites. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinnamon Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 Its something else I have never done but always thought I should do. Not sure where I would start to be honest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnnieP Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 I do too! I did it mainly for Jonnie's Dad, as he knew nothing of his family, and when he was terminally ill, he suddenly announced that he regretted knowing so little about his grandparents etc. I managed to trace the family back to 1680, to Devon, and we managed to take him to a little village called Gittisham and actually saw the graves of his ancestors. It was a brilliant experience, ridiculously moving, and finding out stuff about them was fascinating. I wrote it up in a book and included the tree, photos and a commentary on it and gave it to him for a Christmas present. I really enjoyed doing it. He was so shocked as he thought the family originated from Birmingham (where he was born and lived as a young man). Turns out his grandfather was a black sheep and left the huge farm (which by rights he would have inherited and went to Birmingham). It would be great to find out why!! Doing my family now, but its much harder as we have a more common surname. Have found a long lost cousin of my Dad's whom none of us knew about: She was illigitimate and never knew her father until her mother died and she found her birth certificate. Her mother had always refused to talk about him. Anyway, she lives in Australia, but last year she came over and we all met up. It was wonderful. She cried and cried when she saw my dad. They are so alike its unreal. We had photos of her father (my Dad used to play football with him) and he was able to tell her so much about him. They took a trip to Blackpool together and showed her where she would have been born and where he lived etc. It was magical and she still rings my mum and dad on a monthly basis. Researching your ancestry is just so addictive! Be warned though, you can find things you'd rather not know! My mum found out (my uncle told her ) that her father had been married before he married her mother and that she ( my mother) was illigitimate! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 Be warned though, you can find things you'd rather not know! My mum found out (my uncle told her ) that her father had been married before he married her mother and that she ( my mother) was illigitimate! Yep...that's true...my Dad grew up believing himself to be the youngest of a family of 10. It turned out that his oldest "sister" was in fact his mother. Not an uncommon state of affairs. His natural father was a soldier who was killed in the First World War aged 22. Dad was in his 50's when he made this discovery. He said suddenly so many things became clear to him. Here's the interesting thing though....no one (family, friends, neighbours) ever said anything which is unusual given how people love to gossip! I must admit I'd smelt a rat....something wasn't right....the maths didn't quite add up, and there were one or two other "clues" too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Looney Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 My Gran traced her family back to 1700 and something and then got stuck so couldn't go any further. I think she was trying to establish the family "link" to Guy Fawkes! My OH researches WW1 medals and service records - he has a real passion for that sort of history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickpea Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 My dad's side is quite interesting. It's been traced back to 1599 in Stafford, and they pretty much stayed in that area until his dad emmigrated as a vicar to India. There he met my gran, who's father ran a tea plantation, (now this gets interesting) who's family emmigrated from Germany eons ago. When we were moving her down south from Yorkshire we came across paper work about the 'scandel' that her great grandmother was the daughter of a Greek pirate! Also on her side was Jim Corbett the hunter-naturalist/author and photographer who had a National Park named after him in India, and Augusta Fullam who murdered her husband and her lover's wife in about 1913 and featured in a book 'Seven Deadly Women'. My mum and I having a go tracing her side, so far we've got back to early 19th C in Gloucestershire and they were mostly farmers/agricultural workers. Her grandmother on her mum's side has also left a written account of her life from playing in the streets of London to WWI, meeting her husband having a family etc. It's a very good read! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnnieP Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 My OH researches WW1 medals and service records - he has a real passion for that sort of history. I'm really interested in that Lorna.... does he do it for other people? A PM is coming your way...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen & co. Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 I haven't tried yet, although would like to. I tried to talk to my grandmother about her family, but she is affected slightly by Alzheimers and can't remember who they are karen x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaime Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 I love Genealogy but it gets so addictive that you realise that hours and hours have passed as you are trying to solve puzzles and link people together. I've build a website with hundreds of people in it - still collecting them through various census and other bits of info. http://www.j4gjf.co.uk/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellekatz Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 I've been doing it since last summer and have got back to the 1700's on my Mums side. Also found 3 cousins (loose term!) that are part of hte extended family and last month I found a................................... SISTER. Shes a half sister, (all my siblings are half sisters and brothers) and is Mayor of the london borough of Havering. We are in regular contact now which is great - just be aware of what may happen when you start digging into the past!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel (& Paul) Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 I do too! I did it mainly for Jonnie's Dad, as he knew nothing of his family, and when he was terminally ill, he suddenly announced that he regretted knowing so little about his grandparents etc. I managed to trace the family back to 1680, to Devon, and we managed to take him to a little village called Gittisham and actually saw the graves of his ancestors. It was a brilliant experience, ridiculously moving, and finding out stuff about them was fascinating. I wrote it up in a book and included the tree, photos and a commentary on it and gave it to him for a Christmas present. I really enjoyed doing it. He was so shocked as he thought the family originated from Birmingham (where he was born and lived as a young man). Turns out his grandfather was a black sheep and left the huge farm (which by rights he would have inherited and went to Birmingham). It would be great to find out why!! Annie - thats such a lovely thing to do for Jonnies dad - you are really kind Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carolinep Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 I've been tracing ours back for a number of years, with quite a few visits to the records office in London. My family has been relatively easy back to 1700's, but my husbands paternal side is impossible. I have a copy of his fathers birth certificate, but no father is named . His mother was married at the time, so who his real father was we'll probably never know. There have been plenty of little skeletons uncovered which makes it all the more interesting. The lies that have been told over the years that become family gospel is unreal, only to be uncovered when we start to snoop...and find out the truth.. All in all a very addictive hobby Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 I've managed to trace one side of my Mothers family. I found some old papers believed to have been written by my great grandfather listing his ancestors as some very prestigious people, so thought it would be interesting to research them further (also some bits 'didn't add up') Basically he had delusions of grandeur and was related to none of the people listed! I've found a few very distant cousins all coming from one huge family in Derbyshire (my great great grandfather was one of ten, whose father was one of ten etc) Mostly spinners, weavers and cotton mill workers from the north west. Still fascinating, especially seeing the original handwritten census entries from the 1800s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnnieP Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 I am really I have been plaguing Lorna all afternoon and her poor OH with PM's and emails as they have managed to find my grandfathers war records! What a lovely bunch of people you all are!! Cheers Lorna! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Looney Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 I am really I have been plaguing Lorna all afternoon and her poor OH with PM's and emails as they have managed to find my grandfathers war records! What a lovely bunch of people you all are!! Cheers Lorna! You're welcome! Fingers crossed you will be able to discover more info on him. I enjoyed OH showing me the sort of things he does to find out info, (he's not quite as geeky as I thought ) unfortunately due to the sheer numbers of soldiers in WW1, record keeping became a bit haphazard and it tends to be the senior ranks that have the most info recorded (plus the records still exist!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CannyCat Posted March 17, 2007 Author Share Posted March 17, 2007 I am really I have been plaguing Lorna all afternoon and her poor OH with PM's and emails as they have managed to find my grandfathers war records! What a lovely bunch of people you all are!! Cheers Lorna! You're welcome! Fingers crossed you will be able to discover more info on him. I enjoyed OH showing me the sort of things he does to find out info, (he's not quite as geeky as I thought ) unfortunately due to the sheer numbers of soldiers in WW1, record keeping became a bit haphazard and it tends to be the senior ranks that have the most info recorded (plus the records still exist!). Gosh! Is there any way he could maybe have a little look-see for my Great Grandfather? According to my Dad he was in the trenches in Europe, and although my Dad used to ask him about it, he never wanted to talk about it (understandably). You guys all have such cool stories! No skeletons in the closet here yet, although I did get back to 1600 in one of my branches and discover one of my ancestors had been knighted! All the other sons of the Knight got big castles, except the son I'm descended from Interestingly, back then the family surname was Fletcher, and it continued as a forename right through to my Granda! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronze Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 for war records http://www.cwgc.org/ is a good start Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theherd123 Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 My uncle is doing his side of the family and is usually calling my mum just to check names of relatives and who was related to who! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CannyCat Posted March 17, 2007 Author Share Posted March 17, 2007 for war records http://www.cwgc.org/ is a good start Ooo, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CannyCat Posted March 17, 2007 Author Share Posted March 17, 2007 Its something else I have never done but always thought I should do.Not sure where I would start to be honest I started by getting as much info as possible from my mum and Dad. It can be really crucial to get back to before 1901, as that's when the first available census dates from (they're classified for 100 years - i.e. 1911 will be released in 2012). Luckily, my Dad's grandfather has a really unique name (if you google it, only one item comes up and it's his marriage details!) and my Mum's Dad wrote down everything he could remember before he died. Then, http://www.ancesty.co.uk is a great place to start, because you can search all the census's there, and build your family tree. My 2nd most-used website is the Latter Day Saints' IGI - http://www.familysearch.org . It's a really good source, but more difficult to use and it uses the Latter Day Saints own records (usually parish records) rather than the census's. Usually it's good to get approximate birth dates from Ancestry, then enter them into the IGI to get exact dates and parental info Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 My grandfather did a family tree when he and my grandmother got married, as a wedding present. Turned out that my grandmother is a direct descendant of Rob Roy MacGregor. My father, as a Silver Wedding present to my mum, started to look into her past, as very little was known about it - all we really knew was that her mother was actually her aunt, and that her Auntie Margaret was actually her mother (adopted just after the war, as Auntie Margaret was unmarried). He discovered that several of mums family survived the Titanic. It is an absolutely fascinating thing to do - to see what moments in history your family have been involved in! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinnamon Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 Thanks for that info CannyCat. I will look into it for sure. It is going to be hard though.I would be most interested in my Mums side of the family, but she had an acident a couple of years ago & suffered brain damage,so I cannot get any info from her. One of her siblings in is Australia,& one is very sick with Parkinsons.....so I am going to have to find my info from another source. I do know my Mums Grandfather was the royal photographer (I have a box of photos he took), & his father was a Rifleman in the war. I am quite excited about this. Are there any good computer programmes for making a family tree,do you know? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 (edited) I did mine a few years ago and just need more time to continue. I traced my father's mother's side as my Gran asked me to find something out for her before she died. I didn't find what she wanted to know until after her death unfortunately but I carried on along that line as it was an easy name to trace. This side of the family has stayed fairly local but because we are near the borders of Worcs, Glos, Oxon, Warks. my travels took me to different Records Offices, which was a pain before you could find everything online. A cousin of mine has traced my mother's side of the family tree and my great, great (great??) grandfather was a founder member of the RA in London. He taught the artist Gainsborough! My mother took up watercolours in her 60's and never knew until recently where this talent for painting had come from. http://www.nmm.ac.uk/mag/pages/mnuInDepth/Biography.cfm?biog=232 Francis Hayman was in the news recently..... http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article642581.ece Edited March 18, 2007 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
