Sooo much pooping

[Chickendoodle]

A word of warning - be careful of what you may find when researching your family history.

 

My maternal Great Grandmother and Great Grandfather had the same surname and they both came from the same village which even today only has 100 houses. The ancestors of both of them go back 7 documented generations in the village which only had 50 houses in the 19th century.

 

I have got back to around 1800 for both lines so we have at least 100 years of very "close" relationships before my g/grandparents moved away and subsequently diluted the mix.

 

I should be thankful I guess that I only have 10 fingers and toes

[Egluntyne]

Not uncommon ...and the invention of the bicycle brought an end to it apparently.

[Reikiranf]

It would appear that my family are no strangers to bikes We have Italian on my Mum's side but with an unusual name, a man in a shop said to my Great Aunt that it was a 'good' African name, but had probably been shortened Her Cousin in Italy started tracing the family tree and found that the Italian catholic side of the family came from Portugese Jews.

 

My DH started tracing his family tree and found them in London a few hundred years ago, but then they seemed to vanish There are rather a lot in Australia & a town with our surname

[kerryegg]

Yes, I have found a few strange things. Census information has been really helpful. I was slowed down a bit as my husband forgot to mention that his greatgrand parents left their son when they moved to Australia in 1800 something.

Another member of the family has traced my side back to 1780.I'm going to cheat and see if I can share his info.

Facinating, wish I'd started earlier.

[yvonne]

There are definitely families in our village who have yet to discover the possibilities offered by the humble pushbike (if you know what I mean !)

[Cinnamon]

I have not researched our history,but I do know that my 2 Grandmothers had the same surname & were bought up on the same street - they didn't know each other however

[Chickendoodle]

I have not researched our history,but I do know that my 2 Grandmothers had the same surname & were bought up on the same street - they didn't know each other however

 

Probably best not to investigate further

[Seagazer]

My DH started tracing his family tree and found them in London a few hundred years ago, but then they seemed to vanish There are rather a lot in Australia & a town with our surname

 

Reikiranf - there's a town in Australia with our surname too

[Mrs Webmuppet]

My Great Grandfather, I discovered when doing the family tree, had married 4 times ( two of those marriages are possibly bigamous) and I found him 'living in sin' with another woman on one of the census's............the mind boggles as to how many other women passed through his life

 

What was worse the vicar at our local church dabbles in family history and asked me to do a presentation on my family tree in church..........can you imagine having to stand up and do a presentation with a Great Granfather with that track record! Fortunately the audience thought it amusing

[snowberry]

My grandfather was done for bigamy in Hull when my mum was little (early 1930's). Apparently he was a very rich industrialist; I'd love to find out more but both my parents have been cagey about their pasts (my other GF was a concientous objector during the war) & all the females on my mothers side changed their names in the 1960's ('twas fashionable apparently!) & so I don't have much of a hope of tracing anything...

[Looney]

Wow, this is all really interesting.

 

Last year I made contact with my maternal grandfather who had given my mother up when she was a baby. He was in his 80s and was trying to set things to rest before he died. My mum's parents (her natural mother and her adoptive father) don't know that I was in contact with him but my mum did. We knew nothing about him before so I learnt a fair amount of things about that bit of family history such as I'm a bit Irish and a bit Essex! It was really interesting. I never met him, all done via email.

 

Unfortunately he died six months after we got in contact and his daughter then found all our emails. Came as a bit of a shock to her as he had never told anyone about my mum.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

A friend of mine recently traced her natural mother. She then discovered that she had a (full) sister 19 years older than her . Turns out her mum had an affair with a married man who left his wife & 3 kids when she got pregnant (with my friend's sister). When she got pregnant again 19 years later, they gave the baby (my friend) up for adoption and told their daughter the baby had died. They admitted the truth soon after but no contact was ever made. They even married each other after they gave my friend away. Thankfully the sister is lovely and delighted to have been found but my friend won't be having much, if any, contact with her mother.

[Egluntyne]

Good grief!

[Bramble]

I'm just starting to dabble in family history at the moment (don't think my Mum would approve, so it's all a bit secret at the moment ). I've been using Genes Reunited on a PAYG basis, just wondered which sites you all use and which you find to be the best?

[Chickendoodle]

I bought the Family History maker software - it gives you a really good program for building your family tree and you get 6 months free subscription to Ancestry.

Ancestry is pretty good at flagging up hints but they do try to rip you off with buying copy birth certificates etc. If you press their button to buy it is over £20 but if you jot the details down and order from the official gov site it is only £9

 

It's all fascinating but I so wish I had asked the right questions when my parents/grandparents were alive. I vividly remember my grandad talking and talking to me and my sister about his life - we were so bored that we used to take it in turns to sit with him and we didn't listen. I was only 12 or so and it just wasn't interesting that he had met Mr Walls when he was starting out making sausages! Oh the folly of youth

[Seagazer]

Or you could end up with families like mine where my mum and dad's parents end up falling out with the rest of their families and you get no details of anyone.

 

My Dad has been doing his family history for years but some distant cousin who has lots of family papers refuses to let him see any because of past family feuds between their parents Its so annoying

 

I've used Genes and Ancestry and agree that its just as easy to go through the government site for any certificates, they usually come quite quickly too.

[MummyHen]

These are my tips for research, however my top tip is talk to the oldest generation in your family before its too late

Ancestry (Sub) – good for England & Wales Census, England, Wales, Irish BMDs, incoming passenger lists, WWI military records, some probate

Findmypast (Sub) – good for England & Wales Census, outgoing passenger lists, prior WW1 military records, probate 1858-1903

News Paper Archive: (sub/PAYGO) The Times, Irish Times/ Irish Independent, local newspaper archive

FreeBMD (Free) – England & Wales BMDs

Family Search (Free) worldwide, IGI, BMDs, bap, and burial info – I use mainly for Irish

National Archives of Ireland (Free) – 1901 & 1911 Irish Census (North & South)

FIBIS (free) – Families in British India

British Library (free)– Indian BMDs plus loads of info on East India Company – army records etc

Irish Genealogy (free) – Irish Church records

ScotlandsPeople (sub/PAYGO)– Scottish BMDs & Census (owned by same company as FMP and GenesReunited)

Identity & Passport Service – for England and Wales BMD certs they are currently £9.25 NEVER pay more. There are companies that will try and rip you off or unless you use the ONS priority service @ £23.40

[memphisto]

I did my family history about 2 years ago and got back to about 1787, when my Grandfathers family moved from Eire to Scotland.

 

The process was fascinating, I discovered that one relative who was pregnant with an illigitmate child was killed in the Tay Bridge disaster in 1879 and her death had been recorded incorrectly, her name was spelt differently on the death toll roll, so I have actually had that corrected

 

I also found out one set of my maternal great grandparents weren't married, apparently they couldn't afford it, so my great grandmother simply changed her name to my great grandfathers.

 

Some of my Grandmothers uncles and cousins died in WW1 and WW2, we have found 3 buried in Ypres and my cousin went to lay flowers for them last year.

 

I've also found lots of spelling inaccuracies on the census things too, which hampered things initially.

 

I've hit a brick wall and have done so for over 2 years but fascinated by what I know.

[snowberry]

Or you could end up with families like mine where my mum and dad's parents end up falling out with the rest of their families and you get no details of anyone.

 

My Dad has been doing his family history for years but some distant cousin who has lots of family papers refuses to let him see any because of past family feuds between their parents Its so annoying

 

I know what you mean; we once made some enquiries of someone with the same surname (unusual in our neck of the woods at the time) who pompously told us that he was the rich side of the family & we were the original corner shopkeepers!