Do you have a favourite family in your Tree and why?

[JK]

For me it would have to be my Maternal Great Grandmothers family. Our tree was tentatively started some 40+ years ago by my Aunt through discussions with my Grandmother, she recorded her first (unresearched)tree on the back of the only known photo of my Gran and her Twin, at that time my great Great Gran's family was only a mum, dad and a couple of siblings.
Since I took possession of the tree and began full blown research this family has expanded to mum, dad, 9 daughters and finally after 20 years of trying 1 son!!
The reason they are my favourites is that through census research it is clear that they must have been very close, down the years the married girls and their subsequent families lived together in varying combinations and when one of them or their husbands died at a young age the others rallied round and took care of their dead sisters children. Indeed it was tracing missing children in wrong households that lead to me finding more and more sisters!! Along the way I found some of the people my Gran spoke of and the jigsaw has become a lot less holey.

[KathMc]

I do like this topic. But I honestly can't pick a favorite. My fave is the one I am working on at the time. I have sunk my teeth (and my heart) into my Murphy branch right now. There were 7 brothers and maybe one sister (not confirmed yet) who came over from Ballon, County Carlow. One of the brothers was my gg grandfather. I am very focused on one of the other brother's family now, due to them being orphaned at a young age. I am on a mission to find the orphaned children, but I don't how many and only have 2 names. Of all of those brothers, it appears there are no actual Murphy descendants. All descendants come from females in the family, although 5 of the boys had very large families. I am not sure about the orphaned ones, and my gg grandfather had 4 children by two wives. One of those children was a boy and I haven't been able to find him after the 1870 US census in Cohoes, NY.

Before that it was my Hayes branch. My gg grandfather Hayes was widowed in 1888. He lived until 1943 and never remarried, although he had 2 little girls to care for. There is the possibility that there were 2 more (family rumor) and they might have been placed in an orphanage or with another family. We found out that my gg grandmother, dead at 24, was illegit and had a sad life. We also miraculously found one of my gg grandfather's 3 brothers through the Welcome Walls in Australia and now have family down under.

And then there was my Schmieg branch, of which I knew nothing until recently and worked hard finding other family members, graves, birth, marriage and death records.

It's so hard to pick. I haven't even jumped into several other branches and then they will be my favorites.

Kath

[kerryb]

What an interesting subject JK and not something I have really asked myself before.

I think I have to agree with Kath, I have different favourites at different times. 

There is Jeremiah Hall who's wife died very young and left him with 6 daughters, there are no trace of his 3 surviving sons.  He never married again, I don't supposed he had to all those girls to look after him!

Then there is Helena Lorraine Lovekin Stamford Smith, her family give me more problems than any other but somehow I wish I knew her.  I still don't know if her mother ever married, Helena has about 8 siblings all of whom seem to have non existent fathers and when they marry the father on the marriage certificate is different from that named on their birth certificate.  The census records show a father but I'm still not sure just how many, if any, children he fathered!!!!

Then there is Gaius and Naomi Vincent, the only old photo I have managed to get so far, which just speaks volumes to me about them.

Kerry

[JK]

Did Helena's siblings all have such fancy names Kerry? That's quite an impressive handle she has 

[buttonmoon]

Hello all. I think that the branch that has most interested me has to be my Israel family. They were from Monmouthshire and according to the census' were apparently the only Israel's in that county at the time, so that has narrowed my search down a bit!
 Its just the different spellings that has been a bit of a nuisance, but the frustration makes you appreciate your findings more!
 Its also a very interesting name, I'm not sure where they came from originally and I presume that they were Jewish somewhere along the line. Hopefully I will evetually find out more about them, until then a bit more searching!
 My own surname has to be the most frustrating of all though, 'Sutton', trying to find them in Ireland has been a nightmare, but I live in hope! Concentrating on all the other names in my tree at the moment (leave the hardest until last).

Happy hunting
Kate.

[kerryb]

Did Helena's siblings all have such fancy names Kerry? That's quite an impressive handle she has 

LOL she married and became Helena Harmer, except that when she was buried she was Eleanor Harmer!!!

That was the original name I found on the IGI for her but I don't think she was actually known as that, the man on the census records who I presume she called dad was Smith, I think Stamford is her mother's maiden name, if I have the right mother and Lovekin is the name she gave herself when she married James Harmer.

The funny thing is the only birth certificate I can find that might just be her, the name is Rawlins!!!!!!!!!!!

Kerry

[pipkim]

I too, have lots of favourites.

One family on my side called Hooker who seem to originate in Odiham, Hampshire. I was shocked to find that they only lived a few miles down the road from me now (I have no family connection to this area, I only ended up here due to my husbands first job, 22 years ago).

The other family who have become a favourite are one of my husbands on his mothers side, the Tootells. My husbands family were believed to have originated from Manchester, but I have found this part of his family in Chorley, Lancs, where funnily enough I used to live, when I met my husband (in a pub in the town). It was his first trip to Chorley to visit a friend who just happened to move to the area for a job.

The Tootells must have lived very close to where I went to school, but nearly 2 hundred years ago. I've learned a lot more about the industry around there through finding the Tootells and hope to find out some more.

There is a Tootell Street in Chorley from what I remember.
They didn't teach us at school about the local history.

Pipkim 

I hope I haven't bored you all, as I've mentioned this before on a slightly different thread.