General Chat

I did an evening class in Geneology back in 1983-4 ish because I knew that sometime in the future I would like to work on the tree; then about 3 years ago we got broadband, genes reunited was up and running and the time was right to start. In the interveening years when ever possible I have hoarded photos, cross examined relatives, claimed birth certs and correspondance collected by family members etc. So when the time came to start I had a nice little hoard of info to lay some foundations with. j

well all the photos mum has of family she gave to me .but before she did i went through everyone and asked who they were.then wrote on the back of them,so just incase i .............. i now have all the info for mums side.as for dad well hes passed away,and im struggling,but i do keep finding bits out so im sure i,ll get there in the end.i wish i had the money to have my whole tree done proffesionally just to see if what ive done is right uptill now.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxjoy

My grandad died in December and it was after we cleared his house at the end of March that I decided to do it after going through loads of old photos of his and my grandmas family. Made me realise I didnt know that much about previous generations. I also want to do it for future generations, hopefully my own children

Not after losing a family member. In 1996 my grown son asked if I had photos of my parents and grandparents he could have. I dragged out all the albums that had finished up in my 'care'. Photos of above, plus gt grandparents and even some gt gt. Also siblings and children of siblings. Then son asked who, where, when. My niece had started about 1980 so I borrowed her stuff. Found some gaps, plus she hadnt gone back beyond my gt grandparents or in one or 2 cases gtgt. Decided to fill the gaps and extend things back. I do my research at the LDS. Have found a little bit from the computer but our Gen society warns us to go back to source. Certainly some of the stuff on computers is not correct. I found some trees my mother had drawn up quite a few years ago which helped. Sister gave me some notebooks in which mum had written her memories of her grandparents. She had a wrong place of birth for one, I think the niece might have given that to her, but I found the correct place. Then a line of dads, I had help from a 3rd cousin in England who had been working on it with her aunt. She even had photos of our mutual gt gt grandparents, which her dad had on his wall and she photographed and put on her website. I was like a Cheshire cat when she did that. I have also worked on OHs tree. My 3rd cousin made a break-through with a brick wall I had there. Genealogy is such a drug.

understand completely mum, birth father and step dad all gone and mums death last year started it all. wish id done more before but hindsight is a wonderful thing but i wouldnt have contacted birth fathers family while mum was alive - a bit messy. in one month built tree (with hubbys side as well) to nearly 200 and found second cousins etc loving every minute of it and found some good friends as well better than friends reunited

thats lovely,its nice to pass on info to the grandkids eh.xxxxxxxxxxxjoy

I first started 26 years ago, when I was engaged to my hubby. I was browsing through a Webb Ivory catalogue looking for ideas for Xmas prezzies for my future in-laws when I saw a paper tree on offer so I brought it and put in parents, grandparents and siblings on both sides. I added the marriages of siblings and births of our children, but never did any serious research. Then we lost my Mum almost 5 years ago and Dad wanted to make sure that his grandchildren had info on their ancestors so we both got down to some serious research then, and we both have been hooked since then. Helen

I started after my hubby past 20 months ago not doing to bad as not very good with computer Val

what lovely stories,thanks all.i think whats really nice is how we all came to be on here ,all trying to find our roots and meeting some great people along the way.wvm that was so sad eh.we dont realise whats round the corner.hugs to all xxxxxxxjoy

started mine just after I got married as have an unusual surname and wanted to know more about it!! Now tho I don't really care and its daddy's side that I am more interested in!! xx

I started for a different reason. I'm adopted and had traced my birth family, and there was a part of me that quite 'enjoyed' the research. I'd also seen the ad for GR on Friends Reunited, so thought I'd have a go. I'd never had any interest in history at school whatsoever, but family history got me totally hooked. I'm very fortunate in that my parents are still alive with pretty good memories and have been able to give me quite a lot of useful information. If I was really greedy, I'd say that I wished I had just one living grandparent to get some memories from further back! Mandy :)

MUM DIED WHEN I WAS 20 DONT TALK TO DAD SO TIRED TO FIND WHO MY GRAND DAD WAS LAST YEAR NOW AM HAVING A BALL

aye up jane ,and all .im never lost what to look for and always dig something up,lol.hugs joyxxxxxxxxxxx

I started entering my immediate family on here but before I got very far, I have needed to spend more time caring for elderly relatives, including my parents. I also quickly realised that I didn't have enough spare time to spend on my tree anyway if I was going to do it properly. Maybe once I retire - if GR still exists in another 7 years! I sometimes peep in to read the threads where people are searching for rellies - just in case I can help - but haven't recognised anyone to date. Mind you, having said ALL that, I do find time to pop in here fairly regularly to read threads and sometimes make a comment because there are so many super people on here. Caring for elderly relatives can be exhausting and most people on here cheer me up immensely. Thanks. Margaret

My trigger for doing real research, rather than doodling with what I already knew, was hubby's nan dying, aged 96, and my father-in-law and brother-in-law chucking all her photo albums! Here we are 10 years++ later and her husband is still a brick wall........Was he never born???! LOL Merry

Hi Joy I started more or less when I was 13 years old. It was my mother's hobby and I used to work with her on things. I have been doing it now for about 30 years on and off. All my own lines have been done but I am now doing my husband's tree, not to mention all our friends trees. Once someone knows you do genealogy they all say can you do mine, don't they? Dianne xx

I started when my grandad died and only had dad left so thought I'd better research while I could ask Ali x

Ay up Joy ......****waves**** i started this 9 years ago just after my great grandma died, just before her 100th birthday. she seemed to be proud of the fact she was illegitimate,and mentioned many times she didn't know who her father was....... WELL............... proved her to be alittle fibber, as she named her father on her marriage certificate !!! luckily she had been given his surname as a middle name, and then when i found him living next door to her in the 1901 census, all my christmas's came at once !!!!! hope you've forgiven me Gran xxxxx lol Jx

hi,peter i wished my family had left me a little black book,boy have i needed help at times lol.hugs xxxxxxxxjoy

Wife and I been talking about it for some years but never did anything. We started after my F.I.Law died in died in1999. He had a little black book where he had started to record family names and dates - not much to look at but it was enough to get us going.