General Chat

GWYNNE YOU CANT IMAGINE HERE WHEN I DID FIND THE MAN THAT WE HAD SPENT FIVE YEARS EACH SEARCHING FOR..I HAD HAD A MEGA ROW IN THE EVENING WITH OH GOT UP AT 2am,AND TYPED THE WRONG SPELLING FOR SURNAME,,,,,,,,,THIS NAME APEARED,WRONG VILLAGE,, THOUGHT WONDER IF HIS WIFES FAMILY ARE NEAR 179O THERE SHE WAS HARRIS WITH AN EXRA S,ONLY ONE MISS SPELT.2;30am I WAS PHONING ROUND

Thanks again to all who answered. It is very much the thrill of the chase but is shooting ducks in a barrel as much fun as a wild duck hunt? I'm still totally addicted but I do think if it was very easy to start with I may have gone off it - my Dad always said I never liked anything too easy. Gwynne

Sitting in a Record Office and turning the pages of the church register of marriages from 1837 to 2004 was one of the highlights of my research ( it is still a small village so the book was still only half full, when it was handed in.) Being able to turn each page, then flick back to check a linked surname gave me a real sense of feeling about my ancestors that online records don't match. I also find it easier to link families when I do this, rather than view their individual records in isolation. This said, I am more than grateful for finding families in census online. Some moved far away from their birthplace and I would never have thought to search eg. Lancashire records for my Gloucestershire-born folk. So I will continue to search online AND in Record Offices, hoping for a few more 'Yes' moments than have happened recently .I can't do without my R.O. 'fix' from time to time. Gwyn

Definately NOT easy especially if of Irish descent with a native American thrown in for good luck!! n it's taken me 5 years to get the marriage I just found--more records are accesible yes, but decidedly not easy and some sites are getting very expensive!! Carol

Interesting question Gwynne, and I understand what you mean. OH's great aunt did nearly all of his family tree in the 1970s when it was all 'legwork'; even the actual tree was hand-drawn over 12 pages of A4! Looking at her work, we've often thought how thrilling it must have been to trawl through old documents etc. However, for me, I would never have been able to take up this hobby if it hadn't been quite so internet-friendly. Due to my health problem, getting out and about is one thing that's particularly difficult, so finding a really interesting and absorbing hobby online has been a real godsend. I do intend to make full use of the LDS films now that we're near a library though! Mandy :)

Hi Gwynne, No it hasn't lost its charm for me yet, I still get so carried away,and forget all about time,especially when I think I have found someone else. If I come up against a brick wall (who hasn't), I leave it for awhile and forget about it,and carry on with something else. I too used to go to Record Offices,long before the days of the internet,must admit I did like looking through the dusty old registers. Most of the people then seemed older to me,sat at the desks, with their glasses on the end of their noses,engrossed with their searches. If you talked or got the giggles, which I very often did,people used to tut,and give you an icy stare. I must admit,I do miss that way of researching,I would be classed now as one of the oldies,with my glasses on the end of my nose. Trish xx Still happy hunting days for me

Gwynne No it has not lost its charm for me. I actually marvel at how clever it is that i can find so much information on the internet. But I also enjoy the thrill of trawling through parish records and finding an elusive name. even though it is not easy to get to most of the ROs that I need to. I still have several 'brick walls' I would love to demolish, I would so love to find the area in France where my Gt grandfather was born and get his birth cert in 1844, I would love to find out why his Father absconded from Derbyshire to France, and how and why his wife and family managed to follow him after leaving the workhouse. I would love to know why that same Gt gt grandfather and wife sent the children back to england alone and what happened to them the parents. Those would be real yessss moments for me, so i am not ready to give up the chase yet. Ann Glos

I started a while before '1837online' and had several trips to London FRC to go through the indexes and order certs. I loved my trips and found out a major item of interest (i.e. Grandfather's surname was not what we thought it was!) fairly quickly and this made me even more enthusiastic. Some branches of my tree have been easier to research than others bit I find it all fascinating.

I still get the same buzz as I did when I began 20 years ago. Census was only available up to 1881 and the BMD indexes were not available on microfiche. I was lucky enough to spend occasional weeks with my partner in Surrey. Used to go up to London every day to read nationwide census at Portugal St and then join the scrimmage at St Catherine's House to look at the BMD entries. When investigating Parish Records, you got the originals, not filmed copies! In between visits, I fleshed out at CROs and libraries, read books for background info and joined family history societies. That was all excellent practice in finding and using a range of sources. I enjoy and relish now being able to access some sources directly from the internet (what a saving in time and travel expenses) but I am so pleased that I also had to learn to get out and about and see what other sources were available. Pre internet, we probably travelled back through the first few generations almost as easily and quickly as people with instant access today, but we were also learning important research skills whilst we did it. I still love the thrill of the chase. I think my pre-internet experience has taught me patience, however, - I laugh when people say I,ve been stuck on this for 2 years: some of my problems are still with me after 18 years! Jay

Gwynne I have done most of my tree the way you did yours - before the internet. But I marvel at how easy it now is, to look at something on line which previously took months of work - GRO indexes for instance, meant hours of peering blindly at microfiche and praying that someone hadn't pinched all the 'H' fiche, yet again! It does feel a bit like cheating though - instant results. And like you, my satisfaction comes from looking at a filmed parish register and going through it name by name and picking up the extra information which is not on line. I think the internet has brought forth a new breed of family historians, who are content to use what is on line and nothing else. That is a great shame - there is still a hundred times more information NOT on the internet, than there is on it, and those people are missing out on so much information. OC

Thanks for all the replies - I popped away to do something H*worky. I still spend 2 hours a week at the LDS going through films of parish records etc and do still get a thrill when something appears, much more so than when it comes up on the PC screen. And I still go to ROs to ferret about or Brum library to look at wills indexes. I just think that if it had all been online when I started I might not have persevered with the tricky ones and I wouldn't get such satisfaction. The IGI has never been much use to me - a work of fiction for many of my Dad's families. It was fun proving it wrong, though. Gwynne

I suppose it depends on whose line Gwynne. I started my searches in 1980's going to library using fiches etc. and it was a hard slog. Have had my computer a few years,subscribed to various sites and I still haven't found my elusive grandparents, although I was fortunate in that my sil. was contacted on her sites and found a cousin for me.Her mother and my father were fostered to different families. However since starting my Mam's side of the family I have loads of info. possibly because they shared same 'life-style' ie working on the river/sea and living in same area. Only when I found my GGgrandfather came from Ireland does the search get harder. It is addictive like you say Gwyyne and I am an optimistic person at heart,ever hopeful! Mau

Not for me Gwynne. I have found some bits easy but the majority of the time I can never find relatives on igi, ancestry or freebmd - and no I am not doing it wrong. The majority of my leads from more obscure branches have come from the wonderful people on here. I am still struggling with several lots but keep plodding on. The one that took me the longest was a relative I was searching for way back in 1989 and I eventually found her in 1901 - two counties away from where she and her family had lived for several generations. Plus, she had married for the third time which didn't help matters. So to repeat my view - no it has not lost its charm and in many cases is not too easy.

Noooooooooooooooooo Gwynne. I love it and as for it getting easier.... well back to 1837 maybe but before that it is still a question of trawling parishes for births, marriages and deaths and living in hope that when they said on the 1851 census they were born in John O Groats they didn't mean Lands End lol. Surely you heard my yesssssssssssssssssssssss this morning when postman delivered letter from LDS telling me the parish records for Pencaitland had finally arrived after waiting for three months. Jean x.

Gwynne, I have not been lucky enough to experience the ' thrill of the chase' as you have done. I am very new to family history having only been doing my research for just over a year. I envy you...for I am sure that your efforts, gained by such hard work, brought you such a feeling of great satisfaction. Having said that, I too get satisfaction when I find another ancestor whilst sitting here trawling through the records now available the 'easy' way. I have had so much help from other people that my tree has grown and I have got back to my Great x 7 Grandparents. A half brother of my father (I found him through this site) has spent over thirty years doing just what you have done with great enjoyment, persistance and at the end such a feeling of knowing that he has done it all himself, the hard way! I will never be able to say that. Beryl x

Thanks Beryl....you have written so eloquently what I would have liked to say.....

Hi Gwynne, I only started my research in 2004 so its always been fairly easy. I have to say Ive managed to trace alot of ancestors in such a very short time,and found out some very interesting things. Ive been in a lethargic mood recently concerning my tree,But Im back into it again. With me I think if it had been more difficult I would probably not have bothered as much. So for me its an added bonus its easier now. Roxanne:-))

No Gwynne---I am finding it just as hard as when I started out. Lol *wonders if BC and I are looking for the same ancesters?* lol C xxx

Morning Gwyyne I think that depends on how serious you are about doing your tree. I started just as the 1901 went online. I use the stuff I find on the internet as a guide, but I like to confirm things with PR's and certs.......and believe me I have alot of confirming to do! The CRO is also a very good place to get background information to put flesh on the bones as it were. So it's still addictive as far as I'm concerned Jeanette x

It's all very well getting info from LDS etc - but it has to be verified. Having supposed info in greasy palm means some of us have more time to visit the parishes and check the parish records :o) maggie