General Chat

Is it just me, when I reveal to friends or work colleagues that I love genealogy and am looking forward to spending time working on my tree or maybe a cemetery of interest and am off there armed with my camera next weekend. Do they look at your in surprise? This happened yesterday and the look on the 2 guys faces was just shock. I had to repeat the words in my head, had I just told them I am a member of a coven or collect and number and photograph toenail clippings? When they have recovered and realised I was serious they always pretend to be interested or an OLD AUNT who did their side and they were related to Joan of Arc or someone like that. Then you always get the same 2 questions.


So I tell them after I have made a point of saying “ that really is not that important to me, what is important is that I have managed to piece together a jigsaw that 4 years ago I knew naff all about”.Now sometimes if they are interested the next question is “ Have you found any skeletons? Depending on weather they are really interested or not they don’t walk away or start another conversation whilst you’re in mid sentence.

So this made me think.. is it me or are you only interested in the 2 always asked questions?



How far back have you got ? or how many do you have in your tree?

Well the two questions my son asked me last week (regarding my interest in genealogy) was a puzzled 'Why'? and 'For what purpose'? So I have promptly given him a grave clearing project to do in Ireland. That'll learn him! lol BC XX

Absolutely not.

I always think "How far back have you got?" is such a weird question anyway. It normally seems to be asked by men and I wonder whether they are just thinking that if they were researching it would just be the male line on their father's side. I am trying to do all lines going back - so I have a shortish but wide tree (with some bits going back to 1640 but that's more luck than anything else). I want to know how they lived and what they were like so I take my time.

The other question is a bit irrelevant as well - at least to me. I have no idea how many in my tree - on here there are about 800 but there are more that I could add. In my offline tree there are quite a few more but that includes my One Name Study people too. So to me it doesn't really matter. If they're on my tree they're related ...

But yes, it's odd the questions they ask ...

Jill

Not interested in anything being on my tree which isn't 100% provable or 100% accurate. If I can't prove the link using parish records or certs it does not go on my tree.

I'm very proud of the ancestors I have........none of them were aristocratic or high born..........and I couldn't care less. I'm comfortable with who I am and where I came from..........

So, no, neither of the questions you asked are important to me Hayley.......accuracy and the fact that I did it all by myself are what counts for me xx

I dont mention my tree at home anymore
None are interested in it
My FIL is the only one that is and so have done a lot of work on his side
Dont talk about it at work

afternoon Hayley, toe nail clippings.....mmh interesting thought....


well I've got back to 1764 and have about 160 odd at last count. I managed to trace my lot (with all the appropriate documentation/proof they all belonged in my family) via the internet, but now I've gotta start doing some real leg work to get back any further...

if you dont have the evidence
its a waste of time adding the names

you might as well just pluck names out the air

i am sure some people (maybe not you) on gr
are just name collectors

Now this is an interesting debate ...

There are a number of issues here. Are you a genealogist or a family historian?

A genealogist basically collects names. The aim is to get as many names and as far back as possible. We are all related to royalty, celebrity or infamy somewhere in our past, and the geneaologist's aim is to find it. The later it happened the greater the signifigance. All due to the six degress of separation and all that ...

On the other hand, a family historian collects names, but the real interest is in the story that goes with the names. For example, I'm intrigued as to how my Gt Gt Grandfather who lived in Essex met and married my Gt Gt Grandmother who lived in Co Durham. What was life really like for my forebears?

The really good thing about this hobby, and I've said this before, is that it can be unique to each one of us. We can all approach it in the way we want to.

Mrs Grumpy absolutely, I am only interested in some and it doesn’t matter if you only 6 reallies on your tree that fact is you have researched them, like Muffy unless I am 100% they are correct and have been verified with certs they get no where near my FT.

BC…do you think he will do some of mine..lol mwahhhhhhhhhh


I wonder if it would have been cheaper if I had decided on collecting toenail clippings or even if anyone else is ???????

** ponders **

Like Muffy, I won't put anyone in my tree that can't be backed up with paperwork and documentation, and I always source it too. I certainly don't take the word of someone else as to whether this person or that person is an ancestor. I prove it to myself first.

If I added on that basis I would probably have several thousand in my tree, as I have access to two one-name studies that someone else has done.

I'm back to 1760 on one line, and I'm proud of that, an achievement in five years with just a few clues (at the time I thought they were lots of clues, not knowing just how big a job it actually is LOL)

I usually get asked how far back. They are impressed enough, until I tell them its taken me five years and piles of papers and documents to get that far. When asked why, I say, because I'm not collecting names and dates, I'm collecting the people, their lives, their surroundings jobs, from birth to death. Thats why it takes so long to track down one little piece of information on a person to 'flesh out the bones'

I have been asked the 'skeletons' question. My answer is, the Met police officer, as the rest of the family are rogues LOL

Oh forgot to say, my aunt looked at her/my Mum's family history and she reckoned we had a Russian Princess thrown in. When I looked into it, I couldn't find any documentation to proove she was at all linked to our line so she got the boot. No point adding something just cos it looks all fluffy and fancy if it isn't real....I would hate to hand my trees over and they're all twoddle...

Hello TonyW you lovely man...hmmmm that has me thinking, when I started and would still like too, get as far back as possible, Whirley I have some going back on my mums side to 1600 but that was passed to me, now I find it very interesting and by all means its a good read but it doesnt feel conected to me as I have done the research if that makes any sense.

Mo..mine are all like that..lol

Joy I know and have fell for it a couple of times bout amth ago I was contacted via here by someone on so they said someones else account and wanted to share my tree....I didnt even rely...lol

Hello Karen I think unless you have attempted to research your family tree people will never understand how umimportant numbers and earliest dates are.. Like you I like flesh on bones....I have researched army regiments prisoner of war camps.....trades and condations...

What on earth is the point in importing other peoples' names into your tree unless you have 'proved' them?

I do add people from other trees on Ancestry if I couldn't find them myself but from there I always try to disprove the link. If there is any question as to the veracity they 'die off' again.

I spoke with daughter yesterday about the tree (she's 28) I could hear yawning from her end and she said "well it's an old persons thing isn't it?".

Fortunately there are lots of youngsters researching which is great. By the time I started I had no family left to question.

Sue x

~~~~~~~~~ Hayley Mwah!!

The way I look at it is when I hit a wall with the history bit, I add a few names. With most of the family being from Durham it is handy, because there are huge rafts of information available on the net.

And, Durham Records Office is a gold mine - the staff are so helpful.

I use Family Tree Maker and find it incredibly useful. I have two elements to my tree - validated and non-validated. As I confirm data it becomes validated, however that can only happen with three independent sources minimum.
And remember, certificates should confirm what you believe to be true - you can very easily go the wrong way with a certificate!

Good subject Hayley .

The how far back question does always tend to come up and like others on here it isn't really my aim to get back to the year dot .

I'm more interested to trying to put names to the faces that lurk in the two Victorian photo albums I inherited when my Nan died . There was also a rough " tree " that my Grandfather had scribbled down in about 1914 , only names , no dates . I have found them all ( and more ).

On my Dads side there is one name that grips me and I'd like to one day discover the origins ( Nanna always said her family originated from France ) but I can't find the "missing link " there .

I think your right that the two questions get asked by people that don't understand the ins and outs of the hobby . I suppose they don't know what else to ask ?

Amanda

Hello Amanda....thank you..ohh yes I have discovered a few family myths are BS...lol


SueM...please tell your daughter that her and I are nearer age and its jolly interesting...not just for retired people, I think when people think of family historians they tend to stereotype, in retired bald old men in anoraks and knitted jumpers, or even retired ladies with a blue rinse and pearls..lol but that isn’t the case .

Or thou I do refer to my hobby as anoracking and you can just see peoples face’s when I say I am off to a meet this weekend yes you get the yawn…if only they knew.lol

My sister started off Karen as interested as I was...but lost interest once we had found our grandparents...

To be honest, I'm not impressed at all with people who claim to have gone back further than recorded history. We all know that very little of history was actually recorded before Roman times in Europe, and most of what we know is not from records, but from archaeology. The only likely way of finding stuff from very early times is through finding a later link to royalty. When people start on that one I back off, because more often than not its just a fanciful idea that is removed from the reality of a line of ag labs back to 1700.

That's not to say that some aren't linked to royalty in any way. Of course there are. But most of those talk about how they are descended from a more recent royal, rather than bragging that they go back to Adam. Anyone knows that royal tree is not proven, and was written to show that the kings of the day are chosen by more divine means than human desire and will.

I've said many a time, if you look at many family trees in USA, they all came over on that first voyage of the Mayflower. If that was to be added up, there would have been near enough half a million people on a ship that had the capacity for only 60 odd passengers at a squeeze.

Going back beyond census and BMDs is more difficult, relying on wills and parish records and maybe some other records like court proceedings, evictions, and other odd bits of record that may be found by chance, is like piecing together a complicated jigsaw puzzle, but once you have managed to fit the pieces together, what a thrill! Its hard finding all those bits of information, especially if you don't even know if any exist, but I think its worth even spending money on what sometimes turns out to be not on the line you are researching...or one tiny snippet of information that could blow the rest of that line of research into the water.

'Has any money been left to us?' is the question my family asked ( all of them ). Others just get a glazed look until I say I will do their tree for them. Then they are interested......mostly men.

My immediate family aren't a bit interested.

The skeletons question is invariably asked, as is the 'how far back' question.

I still plod on to ensure the accuracy of my research which is very important to me.

Susan
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