General Chat

When someone said to me 'I never knew my Father either'- so we both started to do our Family Trees.

I used to look through the family photos as a child and in with them I found three memorial cards, one each for my Dad's parents and one for a Harriet Horsup. I was curious to know who she was. Many years later, I thought I'd find out who she was and also try to find out when the Tocqueville's came to England. My first ever e-mail was to someone who was doing a one name study on Horsup. That was six years ago. I now know my Great Grandfather Tocqueville came from France sometime prior to 1884 and I have contact with a distant (possibly third or fourth cousin)

Getting a computer, two years ago, and someone telling me about 1881 census for free. Now I subscribe to almost everything, am now poor and have a dusty house lol Just wish I had started before my Mum and Dad died, which ironically was the year I started My Mum would have loved all this and would have known a lot of the things I have 'discovered'. Linda

Not really sure what got me started. As a child I loved to listen to the stories my parents told about when my mum was young & what happened during the war. It may have been because my father lost contact with his oldest sister & when I came home to England in 1979 we tried unsuccessfully to find her. My children & I went to St Catherines House & also to Kensington Library & made a start but then lack of time & funds put it on the back burner till last year when my children got me a computer for my 60th. I seem to be the only member of my family [apart from a cousin who's just got started] to be interested in doing this. I have only made one contact on here & that is with the neice of the daughter of the sister my father lost contact with. Her grandchildren seem not to be interested. I live in hope that someone else will turn up. Vivienne

I have always been interested because my mother did not know anything about her father befor he married his first wife in 1916 and my father could tell me all these stories about his father and grandmother but I did not know where to start, and every time I got a book out of the library all they would tell me to do is go to some where in London (not very helpful if you live in Cheshire on benefits) then one of my best friends let me house sit for her with access to their computer, looking at friends reunited I saw the link to this site, and the rest is history PS my maternal grandfather was a trapeze artist in the music halls, and my fathers stories were geographically out by about 10 miles

My motivation was a lifelong wish to know more about my father's family. He died when I was a child, and I've only ever met a few of his relatives, although there are many of them. I began my research when I got my own PC after years of sharing one with my son, who needed it for study purposes, so I didn't get much use from it. I began by Googling my unusual maiden surname and found several listings, so I began collecting more and more data on people with the same name. I was already signed up to Friends Reunited, but it was only several months' searching and many pages' worth of data that I decided to join GR in July last year. My family research took off from there, thanks to the info provided through this site and to the relatives I've found on it. I now have a Family Tree Maker tree containing almost 500 individuals who share my surname or married someone with it, and I'm trying to establish connections between the various branches, as well as seeking the origins of those who 'married in'. I use my smaller GR tree mainly to establish contact with living relatives - and I'm delighted to have found 16 so far, plus several really good friends and lots of nice people to have 'conversations' with on the Boards. Thank you GR. CB >|<

Whoops, Paul. I just started a new thread with your topic. Sorry but I guess 'great minds think alike'. Susan

the old friendly giant in the 1600s, his name goes on in my mums, but cant work out why, stuck at my grt granparents, she married twice and no one knows wat names so cant get any dfurther. sob sob.

Paul, I came out to Australia with my Mum and Dad when I was only 3. No other rellies came out so as I grew older I needed to find my roots and find the family I never really had. Boy, did I find them. I have been back and walked the streets where they were born and lived and died. And the bonus? I have living family members I knew nothing about. Susan