RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: piedstilt on Thursday 28 April 05 10:25 BST (UK)
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... on the mad and wonderful pursuit of your ancestors?
I'm wondering what turns normal people into passionate genealogists - a thought sparked by meeting a librarian from our central city library at a social occasion the other day, who turned quite pale when she discovered I was one of THEM!
In my case my elderly father knew little about his family but we knew vaguely where they used to live and decided to take a trip to Invercargill (southern tip of NZ) - mostly because I'd never been there before. On the way down my husband had the bright idea of putting an ad in the personal column of the local newspaper saying 'Desperately seeking Henrys ...' and we added the few facts we knew.
By the time we had spent a day trolling around a huge cemetery, met wonderfully helpful people - and discovered the grave of my gg-grandfather, born Campbeltown, Scotland in 1821 - I was totally hooked.
The icing on the cake was a contact from an elderly woman, whose sister had seen our ad, who subsequently sent me a whole lot of information plus a wonderful photograph of my grandfather's whole family outside their rough pioneer's house in 1881.
I went home and got straight on the internet - and I'm still there, hundreds of my and other people's ancestors later!
My deepest regret is that I didn't do it all before my father died (aged 98). He would have been fascinated.
Ros
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Just last October I had a spell off work (depression). It was not a good time, and I wanted something to focus my mind. My mother had been passed a small family bible which had some unusual names in it that didn't seem to ring any bells.
Earlier that year I had attended my grandma's 100th birthday party, and I guess seeing so many people there from different branches of her family also proved intriguing.
I started off on the LDS site and Genes Reunited, and then discovered Rootschat.
Discovering this new hobby proved to be a great 'lift' and helped re-organise my mind in preparation for the inevitable return to work.
cheers
Paul
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Hi Paul,
I do hope that you have been able to pin down just which of those runners-up was yours! Love that photo - I laugh every time I see it.
I'm dying to put up the photo I was given, but I'm finding it too hard. Nothing seems to happen when I follow all the instructions. Ignore, this is not a cry for help - I'll work it out one day.
It was very artistically posed with lots of little girls (wearing identical clothes) scattered artfully over the bare bare bare ground, oldest sister standing sideways to show off her bustle and - best of all - the cow in the far left corner was captioned Blossom. It made them all seem real! Don't imagine anyone in England could come up with a scene like it for the time.
Interesting to see your route to RootsChat. Have to say that I am devoted to Ancestry.com. I couldn't live without those censuses and only arrived here through googling.
Haven't actually advanced any of my causes (hopelessly obscure ancestors), but loving sharing the passion with like-minded people.
Cheers,
Ros
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What started me off was when a long lost cousin contacted my mum wanting to know more of the families history ...... and since there is a great mystery about who my Nans parents were (my mums mum), I decided to try and solve the great secret! (Which is proving to be a very difficult one to solve!)
Like piedstilt said, I wish I'd started looking earlier before my Nan died. :-\ As she always wanted to know the truth.
Then my mum said 'I think my dads side would be easier to trace' so I went off on a tangent tracing the Morgans too, and have possibly got back to 1722! Just need to get the time to go to Worcester Record Office!
As I had no idea where to start, I started off with Ancestry and then a few months later just happened to stumble across Rootschat while googleing, and have been hooked ever since!
Paul, I'm glad to hear you're feeling better now :)
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I'd had some copies of certificates and also info copied from a family bible by my paternal great grandfather for many years, but hadn't followed them up. Then one day I was googling and stumbled across John Palmer's fantastic Wirksworth, Derbyshire site, where said ggrandfather and his ancestors came from - and that was that ::) ;D Jan
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Mitochondrial DNA
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I think my first thoughts to doing a family tree where about 20 odd years ago when my grandad (John Fallon) kept getting mail from America asking him if he was related to "So and So Fallon" of Liverpool who sailed to America in 1478.
We always replied to say sorry but our Fallon's were from Scotland. It got me thinking more about them but my grandparents were very uncommunicative. Now they are deceased it was difficult to get started with just 2 names but heyho that's the fun.
It's a sad fact, I think, that my grandpa never encouraged me earlier he would have loved finding the info about our ship owning ancestors, but he was ashamed by the illegitamacies or at least his parents were therefore the older generations were lost to him. :(
This is why my website is based around him - I think he lost out.
The actually doing the tree, rather than thinking about it, came from teh release of the 1901 census online.
Pam
;D
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My cousin,who died sudenly and unexpectedly,had stated her intention of "doing the family history". Her sister, thereafter, decided I should inherit her computer.
I had no real intention of compiling the famil history, but one day I had a look at the LDS web site and the 1881 census...........the rest as they say.................
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My sister in New Zealand sent me a copy of the tree of one line of our family. It had been compiled by a professional who was researching for one of our second cousins.
At that time I was taking astrology classes and my chart said I would receive news from abroad and was entering the section of my chart which was about family.
My husband had died that year and I needed a hobby. I saw some family history classes were available at night school so I joined. This was in 1989 and I've been "at it" ever since. This was before the internet so I went to the LDS every week for about five years and managed to trace all my family back to 1837 and some to well before that.
I now have two 10ft shelves full of information and books
I really can't remember how I found Rootschat but I think it was recommended by someone on Genforum or I may have seen it in a magazine. I only know I am having great difficulty in finding time to update my files in order to send them out in book form to various relatives who may or may not be interested
Sylviaann
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It was my darling Dad's 70th birthday in 1981, and I thought what a nice idea it would be to do a photo album and family tree for him. This lead me to his cousin who had a wonderful old album with a clasp. Inside were photo's of my great grandparents whom I'd never seen, and all their children. I was thrilled to bits, borrowed them and copied them. Then I asked the folk who had bought my late gran and grandad's cottage if I could visit the garden to take some photo's. They invited me in and it was very strange as there was a rocking chair where gran had hers, a piano in same place and looking round brought all my child hood back.
I then went to the parish church where great gran and grandad were buried and looked in the register.
Then I made a very small family tree which I put in the front of the album, together with a history and coat of arms of the village where Dad and the rest of my family were born.
Dad was thrilled to bits.
It was only when we got the computer a couple of years ago that I thought about taking the research further, and joined Genesconnected, where I was immediately contacted by relatives in Australia.
I have now gone back to 1629 on Dad's side. Dad sadly died in 1999 and like Ros said about her Dad, mine would have absolutely loved it. I now believe he points me in the right direction when I hit a brick wall, and that he hit on Rootschat when I too was googling one day.
Thanks Dad xxxx
Su
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When my first daughter was born, I wanted to find out how to register in the UK, the birth of a child born abroad. I have been living in Mexico for the last 6 years and my wife is Mexican. I came out here from the UK on a short term ex-patriate contract and then I met a girl............... I could fill a whole page with the trials and tribulations of registering a birth in Mexico but that's another story for another day!
Googling around (or was in Yahooing? - don't remember) I came across the GRO site and was intrigued to see that the 1901 census was available on line. I got out the plastic and started looking for the entries for my grandparents and found all 3 of the four who were born before 1901. I guess having children is one factor that can spark a curiosity to know where and who we came from especially now that I live about 6000 miles from my parents and brother.
My mother had been to Somerset House many years ago trying to find out about her Grandfather who died before she was born but without success. The family had always said that my g Grandfather was born in the West Country and had died when his youngest daughter was 6 months old which would have put his death in early 1901 but I had found him very much alive in the 1901 census!
I then found 1837online and having got the plastic out again I started to trawl through the death indexes until I found the record in 1908. Almost a year later, I now have the records of my great Grandfather from birth, marriage to death including the entries in all 6 censuses that were carried out in his lifetime thanks to a subscription to Ancestry among others and the generous help of you Rootschatters. He was born in Southwark and not in the West Country (although his parents were) and died in 1908 not 1901 so it just goes to show that you can't always rely on what your relatives tell you about the family tree!
I also now have other lines of my ancestors going back up to 9 generations and I'm well and truly hooked on this hobby. My parents are gobsmacked by all the information I have been able to accumulate on their ancestors and eagerly await news of each bit of information I manage to accumulate.
I don't remember exactly how I came across Rootschat although I'm so glad I did.
A big Thankyou to everyone here who's helped me with my research and to those of you that have made me laugh so much with your postings on The Lighter Side.
Allan
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G'Day all,mine was started because of two things,one I think of as an act of contrition,a debt of honour,my shame for not doing the things I should have done when younger.
The other was a chance remark made by my totally unworldly Mother,just out of the blue,for no good reason.
"You should have been a Prince"Just that,no more,made to younger brother,I wasnt present at the time.Said many years ago,only much later recalled.
When retired, I got into the mystery,and found that certain connections did exist,certain childhood memories niggled,as did later family gossip.
My debt?Is to a Lady,natch!Still a sucker for those in distress.Anyway,she took refuge in what was an Asylum in about 1937,and died there about 1955,my maternal G'Ma.I saw her twice in my life,at 3y.o and again in my hormonal teens,she was offered the chance to live with her children but was too used to peace and quiet to accept!!
We never had the chance to know her or be known by her.
Records are blocked,personal details sketchy,Iam estranged from my large family of rellies in u.k.BUT!!Still 'avin a go!!
Long winded aye?Goggy.
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No choice in the matter. ;-))
My brothers and sister were given mutiple forenames, but I the youngest was named after my mother's suname; a name which would die out in the family after that generation as the only son was killed in WW2.
My grand-father had been collating family history for some years and had privately published a book of the pedigree showing family wills etc., my mother was given copies for her children.
On seeing a copy of the pedigree, stretching back through the generations, as a child I was hooked.
The die was cast my destiny sealed. ;-)
Cheers
Guy
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My ggg grandfather was captain of a ship that took unassisted immigrants to Australia and my Nan's cousin has a copy of a diary that he wrote on a voyage in 1871. I was fascinated by it. When I managed to find the passenger list for that voyage, and could see all the people listed that he talked about, that's when I realised I had to research everything.
I'm doing my PhD at the moment too, so it's a good research exercise. Only problem is when it gets just that little bit too interesting and other things get neglected.......
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My search started when my grandson's class were given a project to build a family tree. To my disappointment, childlike, he was only interested in ancestors with his surname. We completed the tree to his satisfaction, but my curiosity compelled me to go on searching for the other branches of my tree. I'm at a brick wall at the moment, but keep on searching as that elusive ancestor just may turn up.
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My Fathers parentage has always been a mystery, he was adopted by his mothers Aunt and took their family name. My Mother was naturally curious when they married but any questions she asked were always dismissed with a 'don't know what happened to his mother' and 'Father unknown'. My Mother did at least see his mother (Catherine) and her fathers (Victor) names in Dad's papers though, which she mentioned to me on a couple of occasions over the years.
A couple of years ago I came across Free BMD (not sure how!) and something made me put Victor's name in - and it came up with his marriage in 1902 and there were some obvious birth entries over the next 9 years. I then found Genes Reunited - clicked the link from Friends Reunited - and started to explore the list of useful links. Also made contact with a rellie who put me on to another who had about five years intense research behind her.
I suddenly felt as if I had come from somewhere rather than nobody knowing anything. My own research has since uncovered the fact that my Dad was born in the workhouse as his mother was unmarried; she did marry when Dad was five and moved to Warwick and had 3 children (so far!), and I am quite sure that none of them ever knew about Dad's existence which is probably why the family down here always said they knew nothing.
I would dearly love to find out who Dads father was but know it's extremely unlikely. There are plenty more gaps to fill so enough to keep me busy for some time yet. Sadly work and part time study takes up too much of my time so the research peaks and troughs.... peak imminent though ;D
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I found an old 'forget-me-not' bracelet in the loft, some names I recognised but others I'd never heard of. It was from my grans side of the family so i quizzed her about it, unfortunately she knew nothing as her mother had supposedly died in 1927 when she was just 4 months old. My gran had never been allowed to talk about her maternal family and only knew of her father, brothers and paternal grandparents.....I made it my mission to find out about her mothers side.........typically I hit a brick wall at my first hurdle and cannot get any further....its driving me completely insane!
Oh well I'm sure I'll crack it one day!
Also my other gran had written a story about her grandmother which I happend to stumble upon, the detail of life in the late 1800's and all the names mentioned had me hooked instantly
Happy Hunting everyone
Love
Legs
xxxxx
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My grandmother had been told, erroneously, by her mother that, when she was born (1902), a birth certificate was not required. When my grandmother reached pension age she was told that there was no evidence of her existence and had no right to a pension. She had to let the authorities know where and when she went to school, work, etc. Eventually, she was given a birth certificate (of sorts) recording her parents (see below) and saying that she was born in Britain.
From that time, my mother began to doubt the real identity of her maternal grandfather - although she never voiced this to her mother. Some attempts to trace her family at that time and in the 70s came to nowt.
We started again a couple of years ago. One of the first records my mother found was her mother's birth certificate which recorded her mother (under her maiden name), no father and the workshouse... I found her supposed father quite a distance away. Only three months after they married, a son was born. My mother's comment: "What was the point of having a hat for every occasion if she couldn't keep her knickers on?"
Well, there you have it. I could say more. For instance, how my great grandmother became very puritanical about marriage/infidelity/divorce; how she went out clubbing (in today's parlance) after marriage; how her parrot parodied her swearing. What a character! We now have several hundred names on the tree - with illegitimate children occurring frequently (whatever the social status) and particularly during the C19th (so much for Thatcher's "Victorian Values"!!!)
D.
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In a word 'curiosity.' My mother always told me stories of her family and loved looking at family photographs especially those of her family when she was young. I felt I knew quite a lot about her side of the family although it is not documented.
So what did I do...I decided to find out about my husbands family. He was the youngest of his family and was away at school for most of his childhood. He has no family photographs or documents and knows nothing of his family history. His remaining family know little and are sensitive about discussing what they do know. What little I have gathered is of doubtful accuracy.
So never able to resist a challenge I decided this was the way forward. My husband is fascinated and probably knows far more than anyone else in the family now. This from the man who when I asked who his Grandmother was said 'I don't know I never met her!' He knows now!!!!
My only worry is what did I do before I was bitten by this bug?!?!
Jo
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;D I started on this mad course ten years ago, just to find out where in Ireland my Dad's grandad came from, he can remember going to chat with him when he was old and bed ridden, and he would tell him all about Ireland and show him how to use the joinery tools, which he passed onto him when he died.
Turns out he was born in Liverpool and grew up in and around Liverpool, Windle then moved to St Helens and finally to Irlam in Salford. Probably never set foot in Ireland. But spent years chasing the irish John Patrick, ten years down the line, I am still chasing the Irish John Patrick Callaghan, as we cannot find his dad.
Anyone know him??? ???