General Chat

me and my daughter was both doing the family tree
i was doning my side and she was doing her dads side so bothe tree mearge in to one and looks biger than it realy is

we started about 4/5 years ago now and it all sarted becouse of some think that i had heard when i was little i heard a family member say that my grandad isaac was a jew but we have not fant a line of them yet so im now thinking that. what i heard was not true

that will teach me for earwigging xx

I have been tracing my ancestors for about 5 years. I had always fancied doing it as mum and dad came from big families but I knew nothing about them as we moved from the area when I was aged 8/9. When I had mentioned it to mum when she was alive her reaction was 'what do you want to go delving into the past for' so I thought there must be a few cupboards of skeletons!!! I later found I had 56 first cousins, but only met 2 of them when I was little. The other reason was that I was interested was to see if certain family illnesses were inherited from any of my ancestors.

What Wend said struck a chord as I found Quakers on dad's side of the family in the 1700s and when I read about their beliefs I felt a real empathy with them.

I love it when I find a photo and hope lots more people take up FH so we can share photos.

happy birthday jillian :-D

Today is my 52nd birthday - EEEEEK!

I wrote my first family tree enquiry when I was in my early teens. I didn't really do much more until my late 20's/early 30's after I got married. Then I used to use one of my week's leave to go over to Sutton Coldfield every day to the LDS Family History Centre. For several years at the same time I subscribed to the GRD - The National and Internation Genealogical Research Directory. Then the kids came along and I put it all away. Christmas 2007 or 8 I sat at the computer input a couple of names to see what came up under family history and here I am. I'd like to think that I'll progress slowly now rather than stop again.

Although I do create my tree on here, I'm happiest using pen and paper because I find it difficult to look at the computer screen for any length of time. I often cut and paste stuff and e-mail it to myself. I can look at printed pages no problem.

At the moment I'm going through all my notebooks transcribing individual family census entries into mini-trees. It really helps me to see the families much clearer.

xJ

About 24 years but like to 'pad' out the names and have matched many with photos gathered up from various relatives. In exchange they received a copy of 'our' tree!

I have been tracing my family tree on and off for nearly 20 years now.

I started after i found a name of an aunt that lived close by so i went looking for her and found her! That just made me curious about the rest of my family and things grew from there.

I was very lucky to get the pleasure of meeting my great grandfathers youngest sister who was 89 years young at the time i first met her.

I have found family in Canada and Australia! The journey continues!!

I started in ernest sometime during June 2006 when my dads gave me his memoirs just before he died and since then I have spent so many hours on it sometimes 16hrs a day when I got a lead or ancestry was free ....

For awhile I lived and breathed it now ...it's just a hobby

Since 2005 and my goodness what would I have done without the members of Genes. Elaine. :-D

I have been researching my tree for 9 & 1/2 yrs now...I began when my last grandparent died...Oh how I wish I had started before as she could of told me alot about my paternal family....

Jules..

Back in the late 80s a friend & I decided we would spend the winter doing a nightschool class. We were a little late going to enrol so there were only 3 classes left with vacancies.
We didn´t fancy either Coastal Navigation or Creative Icing, so plumped for Tracing Your Family History.
Talk about addictive. We´re both still at it.

It was my maternal grandparents who first made me interested I family history and one great Aunt.
My mother was the 10th and last child of my grandparents by a considerable gap!

Grandma used to show me old photos and I was promised that I would hsve them when they died. However my mother decided to throw many of them away but I did manage to keep certs of weddings etc going back to the early 1800s when they were on parchment. I feel very fortunate to hsve such original records.


My great aunt, never had children and she also left me some original bits and pieces.....

So my interest started and on thevway I have made the occasional error but am fascinated how similar the men have bern particularly in the forces,including the present.

I cried when I learnt that some emigrated to Australia and children died for lack of food etc...
I discovered that people are not always what they seem, that being illegitimate is not a new phenomena. Etc etc

Social history has always interested me, and to know that being in the Army or navy goes back as far as the 1600s, not called the navy or Army then, more about protecting the local areas, but always ready to obey orders when wars did break out.

I do find it difficult to find which ships etc people emigrated on ...so sny tips would be helpful,

Bridget in Spain

about 6 foot

20 odd years ago, just after moving to Winchester, I saw a small photo frame at my grans, and in it, a carbon copy of some sort of article - possibly newspaper..
The only bit of the 'headline' I could see was 'Heaviest man in Engl'
I asked gran if I could see it - it was the obituary of one Henry Floyd of Romsey - apparently the heaviest man in England, in1842.

As Floyd wasn't a family name, I asked gran who he was.
'Some relation of your grandfather's' she replied. Grandad died 6 weeks before I was born, so I couldn't ask him!!

So, as I lived where the Hampshire Records Office was (at the time in a church!), worked in a school and had 6 weeks off in the summer, I started to trace Mr. Floyd, backwards!!.
He was a master bricklayer, and my g x 4 grandfather.
He had 2 daughters - hence the name had disappeared.
In 1841, 16 households in Romsey were Floyds - and all were involved in the building trade.

Sort of went on from there.
When my gran died in 1993, aged 99, we found love letters between her and my grandad - they are fascinating. I spent 2 years typing them up, and gained so much knowledge about social history of the time (1924 - 1956).I haven't done much family research for the past 5 years, but have been 'padding out', looking up events of certain years etc., and trying to work out why certain ancestors moved etc.

I started having an interest in family history in 1985 when my mother received a letter for an American cousin who said she was trying to sort out her family tree. The interest lay dormant for several years but really gathered momentum when I retired 5 years ago. Initially I wanted to account for the family of my maternal grandmother who had died in the 1920's. There were 14 children in her family which I thought very unusual.......until I started....and found dozens of families with these large numbers of children. I have many brickwalls, but the buzz of finding some unexpected clue to unearthing another relative is so rewarding.-jl

I started in December 2007.

Mum and I were watching an episode of WDYTYA and my Mum said "I would love to do that".

Well, that got me going and I have been obsessed ever since - even solved some family mysteries and obtained a photo of my grandmother when she was 20 years old from a relation I met on GR. Mum only had photos of her mother when she was older so was over the moon to see that photo!

My only regret is that I didn't do it earlier (wasn't interested when I was younger) because, apart from Mum, there is no one left to ask!!!

Sorry Foggy, didn't see you there. Good to see you on here again :-D

Some people say to me that they are not the slightest bit interested in researching their family history - what matters to them is the present and the future. I say to them that your past ancestors are what made you what you are to-day. I find it totally fascinating (and sometimestimes rather disturbing!), whilst researching my closer ancestors, to discover that I have inherited traits, both physically and mentally, of which I am not so proud lol! (You know who you are, she shouts!) On the other hand, there are some I feel an affinity with and know why I am who I am - good or, ahem, not so good :-) :-0

Edit to say - I've been researching my family history for 3 years.

Have been researching my roots for about 6/7 years now.

I am fortunate that all my ancestors from my parents are Scottish, and they mainly all come from Fife, so reasonably straight forward.

Scotland has good BDM records, gives lots of information which is a blessing.
Scotlandspeople is where I do most of my research as well as trips to Fife.


Foggy

I've always been interested in history, but when my uncle died in 2006 I said in passing to my cousin that I would like to do a family tree, it took me another year to get on the internet, so nearly 5 years.

Its funny though it was irish side that was first interested in but I have found myself researching the English side and O boy whay a lair my English grandad was.

Since 2009. Not too difficult one. Nearly all relations in the North East. Only one I'm struggling with and that's County Armagh.

Had to stiop myself just adding names. Now want to pad the people out a bit if I can. Unfortunately a bit of a bland tree as very little money and therefore very few photos.

Something that came out of it that despite the difficulties for unmarried mothers in the past, any illegitimate children all remained within the family
cared for by granparents and aunts and uncles.

Vera