whats your reason?

[Nick Carver]

Marie

It is exactly for this reason that I have been trying to persuade my wife to extract as much information as possible from her very elderly great aunts before it is too late. Long before I got into genealogy, I overheard them gossiping at a wedding about a mutual ancestor (perhaps two generations earlier than they were) who had incurred the displeasure of her family by 'marrying beneath herself'. It is this sort of information that would be incredibly difficult to dig up simply by researching parish registers and the like, so I would encourage all others on this board to do likewise. I'm not currently researching my wife's family - she shows only passing interest in the subject, but if one of my children inherits the bug 20 or 30 years hence, this will all be good background for them.

[MrsLizzy]

But almost invariably they won't give you even basic information, such as the date of the marriage of their own grandparents.  I spent hours, and a lot of money, searching for all kinds of information and obtaining certificates, only to find on my grandmother's death that she had been hoarding original certificates in a box under her bed.

Just WAIT till I get over there!   

[tallted]

Marie,
For many years I kept thinking of doing a family tree search as there were a lot unknown about grandparents, lack of any knowledge of gggrdparents etc.. When our first grandson arrived I realized I had put off doing it until all my parents, aunts, grdparents, uncles etc. were all gone and I had missed the opportunity to question them.  I decided that my grandson should have as much information as my wife and I had before we passed on.  I then realized Icould research further and was successful in clearing up a lot of mysteries of our family, though it has raised a few more puzzles.  I am now on my 268 th page of the Book of his family genealogy and am completely addicted to finding more answers.
Tallted

[MrsLizzy]

Marie

It is exactly for this reason that I have been trying to persuade my wife to extract as much information as possible from her very elderly great aunts before it is too late. Long before I got into genealogy, I overheard them gossiping at a wedding about a mutual ancestor (perhaps two generations earlier than they were) who had incurred the displeasure of her family by 'marrying beneath herself'. It is this sort of information that would be incredibly difficult to dig up simply by researching parish registers and the like, so I would encourage all others on this board to do likewise. I'm not currently researching my wife's family - she shows only passing interest in the subject, but if one of my children inherits the bug 20 or 30 years hence, this will all be good background for them.

Nick, have you thought of interrogating your wife's relatives yourself? 

[leagen]

I have always loved history.  As a child it was my favorite subject in school and genealogy is My history.  I started young, in my early 20's and lucked out because many older rellys who were (b) in 1800's were still alive to get me started.   Leagen

[pritch19]

I too have always enjoyed history and the realisation came to me that although I had read much about bygone days I knew very little of my own family history.  Sadly this realisation came after both my parents and grandparents had passed away.  My mother had often entertained me with stories of her own early life, so I decided to find out more, and as so like many others became hooked on family history.  We live our everyday lives completely unaware of the history that surrounds us, no matter where we live.  My family history has now become entwined with the local history of the area I was born, brought up and indeed still live.  It's fascinating 

pritch19

[MrsLizzy]

I was a history nut from the age of at least seven, which is around the age I started shining lights in my great-grandmother's eyes and interrogating her about her parents.  After years of doing my family history, I did a BA in history at Birkbeck College (in the evenings, whilst working full time in the day) and loved every minute of it.  But I can remember even at Birkbeck, being laughed at by at least one other student for expressing an interest in social history.  Seems some people don't think the history of ordinary daily life is really respectable - it has to be just military, political and economic history, nothing else.

[Mulder23]

Mine is because my Father knew nothing about his side of the family.

[juddee]

In the early 80's I arrived home sick after living in the highlands of Papua New Guinea for 3 years. Went to a naturopath for treatment and apart from malaria I was told everything else was hereditary which I didn't believe.      Checked with Dad ...........he verified all the naturopath had told me.  That started me thinking ....it was then I became interested in my past families and their possible effect on my life and my children especially medicalwise.   Along with compiling a medical family tree I started to trace the lives etc of my ordinary but very special families and as history has always fascinated me  why not combine the two?  It has been a  labour of Love over more than 20 years

Juddee

Have discovered that heart and lung problems were and are the common theme in a lot of my families