General Chat

It's a hundred years in the future,,,,,someone is trying to trace us,,,, their ancestors,,,,,,,,what clues have we left behind........census's ,,,electrol roll,,,but what clues to the real us,,,,,our hopes ,,our dreams,,,our fullfilments,,,did we ever acheive our dreams,,,,look how hard it is for us now,,,,,,i managed to trace a gg/gran but no-one in the family alive realised she was their great gran they thought she was just an aunt,,,, another ggg,,,kept changing her first name ,,,why i will never know,,,,,so what clue would you like to leave..

Hi Gwen, My parents sorted it out for me. I am the only person in the UK with my first name and maiden surname. And there are only 3 with my forename and married surname. Gwynne

Do you think they knew somthing !!!!!!!!!! that perhaps family history would become an obsessive occupation ,,,,in the future,

Hi Gwen I`m the same as Gwynne I`m the only one with my maiden name and the only one with my married surname as well! Diane :))

I'm gonna have to change my name!!! my husbands okay h'e got first name and three middle they used all family names on him,,and run out for his brother

I think I'll have to start kepping a journal more than once in a blue moon. I was given a pretty little diary a few years ago and the first entry was all about me (who I am, who my family are, what I want to do and were I want to go - all that junk). But my lot will think I'm a nut as I've inherited my grandfathers obsesion of collecting Funeral service programs (well there a record of death and burial/cremation dates). They'll also lose the plot when they realise that I'm on the electrol roll twice in some years (home and uni). Besides I plan to still be here in 100 years time and still compiling my tree, so with any luck no-one will need to trace me because I'll have a compleat record of decendants (and my brothers and cousins) that I can keep up to date. Gwen Don't assume that having so may names will make your hubby easy to find. I have a Henry James John that is a pain in the neck! I have his daughters birth, his marriage (that I had to use the wifes name to find), a death and a birth reference. But do you think I can find him on a census Nooooooooooooo, because they only seem to have put one name, but which one? He was know locally as Joe! aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh

I would imagine tracing ancestors is going to be harder for future generations. With so many people living together, marriage certificates/records will be few and far between.

Just thought it may be an idea to leave our future ggggg's a message some way on our hopes and dreams our lives ,,the good and bad times,,so they caould get some insight to the real us !! pity Gene's dosn't have a time capsule

Im going to give mine the runaround - why not? they all have me! Moved away from where i was born, married and changed my name -now live with someone and havent changed my name! Im not on the electrol Roll either, nor the phone book Tee hee! Jess x

That's one reason why I keep paper records of all my FH data as well as those on the PC. All of that will be preserved by my son and, I hope, handed down through subsequent generations. My maiden surname has already died out in our branch of the family, as my brother had one daughter, whose name changed on marriage, and my son bears his father's name, not mine. There will probably come a time when means of recording data will be very different from how it's done now (as with recording music, for example, going from reel-to-reel tape recorders-audio cassettes-burnable CDs-iPods, etc), so there will be constant rehashing of all the available data. I think it's very important to save the handwritten records now, as old books and papers can't survive forever, but I do think it's important that data is transcribed correctly. I think organisations such as Ancestry ought to correct the myriad obvious errors on the data they sell to their subscribers. It doesn't take a genius (just a person who can read a map properly and type correctly) to put right the glaring mistranscriptions of place names, for instance. Obviously, it would be more difficult to transcribe personal names accurately, but some of the errors I've discovered lead me to think that very little thought goes into transcribing and it's all done far too sloppily in the interests of speed. CB >*|*<

For the last 3 census I have lived within a quarter of a mile of where I am now, - but will they think to look round the corner at the next street, when they can't find me at my 1981 address and around another corner for 2001 information. Even if they do find me they'll not guess that some of the intervening years were spent overseas.

My married name has someone else with the same living only a couple of miles away - and it's not that common a combination - causes alot of confusion in the docs etc! And it doesn't look like my maiden name will carry on as my brother had a short-lived marriage and is getting on a bit now to start again! When my Mum and Dad died, I decided to write about their lives and the lives of my Grandparents as far as I knew (which unfortunately wasn't alot) so there was a record of them and they wouldn't be forgotten.Ordinary people's lives are so important. This then turned into an autobiography so our kids will know a bit about my younger self. I do so wish I had something which my grandparents had written about themselves - think there should be a campaign to start people writing about their lives to pass on. And we shouldn't rely on electronic means of recording this either - paper records will survive better! Allie x

God help them when they come to trace me ha ha I move house that many times in my life they will be wondering why I moved so much LOL My partner and I have never married and no kids, so they will be looking for a marriage that never happened. Keep them guessing I say it will keep them amused for years. Ive still got my school reports and birth certificate so they will have to go by them, but they will have the files and my information to go by. Regards Yvonne

My New Years prediction but I'm not sure which new year. I think that well before 100 years time our descendants will be able to link ancestors with everyone in Britain if not in the world good hunting Dave

i would love to do one of those capsules, with all of my granparents, parents, mine, childrens, grandchildrens and great grandchildrens 'things' so when someone gets it they have so much stuff to work out there relatives xx

Well I really can't imagine why anyone would want to trace ME, but I made it a bit easier by double-barrelling my maiden name when I married a Mr Smith. We've no kids though. What I am finding very sad is that one of my Gt Uncles did a lot of work on our tree over 20 years ago (before computers). He had had a major falling-out with his son before he died & no-one knows what has happened to all his research. Its my greatest fear that there are loads of people in similar situations all over the place, and what becomes of your Family History research notes could end up depending on the whims of a rellie with no interest in it, so it gets chucked out. SO MENTION IT IN YOUR WILL.

My descendants will know quite a lot about me and my family. I scrapbook and have albums with photos and journalling. All dated, every person named with their parents and grandparents noted on the back of each page. So, as long as nobody throws it all out, my family will be able to look at us and read about our lives. Maybe I will have taken all the fun out of the research!! Susan

Susan, its precisely that sort of detail that brings these people alive. I have no photos at all of gt grandparents on one side of my tree, no family bible, no little stories, nothing. All I know is what I've got from certs & censuses. Would have loved Gt Uncle's notes, he must have had loads of stuff. Shame to think its all gone. He would have known my gt. gt. grandmother (he was about 12 when she died) Looking at her various addresses on the censuses, and her parents and siblings, I bet she had some tales to tell. I've never been organised enough to keep a scrapbook, perhaps if I'd had kids I would have, for them. I must confess when my dad died I chucked out a load of photos from his navy days in the 1940s and 1950s simply because I didn't know anyone on them, and he'd not labelled anything. They were his memories, not mine. Now I wonder if some of those photos might have been of people whose rellies didn't have photos at all. But with no idea who, or where, it would be very difficult to track them down. So another tip from me - LABEL YOUR PHOTOS!

When my husbands gran died no one wanted her photo albums they were going to the tip so i took them home,,,now all the family are after them as she spent over thirty years in India with her army husband from 1920,they are fantastic photos of the old way of life out there,,now the problem is who most of these people.are but getting there slowley

Mine will need lots of luck! Sister and mines' Birth Certificate is in Greek! Luckily Brother's is American and he even has a SS Number! becx