Just got back from Suffolk ...

[Ebor337]

... ... and WOW. What an experience.

We had 5 days down in Suffolk (my first time) where I have found my paternal line comes from. We were just walking and generally sightseeing in the areas that i know my ancestors lived around (not to mention the odd pint in the pubs they may have drunk in!)

It was fantastically humbling and pretty emotional. The highlight was finding my gt gt gt grandfather & mothers grave, who, despite dying 40 years apart, were still buried next to one another.

I wish I was a bit more prepared, especially at the Ipswich record office, and I didn't get round to producing an indexed map - which would have also been on great help. But, nevertheless, I am already planning my next trip.

Looking at census information in black and white is great but it is nothign compared to actually goign out there and walking the roads that your ancestors walked. It gives you a real sense of identity and relativity

Anyway, just wanted to write and share my experience. Smiley

P.s. If this sort of post isn't appropriate on this board, feel free to delete.

[suffolk*sue]

Yew carnt beat it boi, thas a good place bor, oi spuzz.


 

[janglaschu]

It was good to hear about your trip; I too have never yet been to Suffolk, where my mum was brought up, but have walked many of those streets in my imagination! One day, though...

[jjq]

Having been to Suffolk, to "walk in my ancestors footprints" -I know exactly how you feel. I was on a coach holiday but managed to spend several hours at Lavenham - and sat in the Market Place there, imagining....!

No gravestones in the churchyard though - too poor, but touched the font in the church where they were baptised.

Regards

Jan

[sandiep]

your right Suffolk is a lovely county, and I lived there for about 10 years, and my children were born there...............I walked where my ancestors lived  and didnt even know it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I didnt start doing my family history till after I had moved from Suffolk and then I found on my maternal side my grandfathers ancestors all came from Suffolk.........................but I have been back and will go again

sandie

[heywood]

I echo the sentiment too! What an experience. I have spent a few weekends there -sometime ago now. Sadly never yet found my gt gt grandfather's baptism although found lots of other BMDs. Just saw the repeat of Barbara Windsor's programme where she goes back to Suffolk too.
I recall the time I heard from someone how my ancestor must have travelled from Suffolk to Lancashire in 1830s - with others but no immediate family (parents dead) and he was just a child. I just cried!
It's that sense of belonging isn't it when you know they have been there too.

[harrywrag]

hi i have just booked train tickets for trip to leiston suffolk on 28th june to 3rd july, i have never been to suffolk before and looking foreward to my trip where hopefully i will find out more on my ancestors the name staulkey have found out the zepplin that was shot down over theberton came down on one my ancestors feilds. everyone on the suffolk board has been so kind to me with info thanks again to all for there help so looking foreward to trip  kind regards harrywrag

[willis]

If your post is not appropriate then we might as well all pack up and finish.
It is a very emotional feeling walking where your forefathers trod. Just to walk into a church where your X times Grandparents were baptised or married gives you a feeling that can't be put into words ( or at least not by me ). I too have touched many a font and somehow when I do I never feel alone.
If only we could hire a time machine for the day.

[Aulus]

I spent a few days in Suffolk last year looking for my Guests and walking in their footsteps in Bury St Edmunds and the surrounding villages.  It wasn't as flat as I was expecting 

The people in the records office at Bury St Edmunds were so pleasant and helpful.  To see great x4 and great x5 grandfathers' actual signatures on vestry minutes and such like, and then to visit the churches where they worshipped.  Greatx5 g'father Ralph Guest was an organist at St Mary's in Bury, and to walk in and hear the organ playing was spine-shivering in a nice way.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any specific addresses for them in Suffolk in any of the records.  I still don't have any specific addresses of which house they lived in, though I've since found out (by piecing together a few separate sources) that great x 4 grandfather owned and rented out 7-10 Chalk Lane in Bury St Edmunds, which he sold at auction on 28th April 1830 for £205.

I need to go back to Suffolk some time, to try and track down some of their residences, and also to go to the other end of the county to see if I can track down any more on my Scruttons in the Falkenham area.

If anyone's visiting the Records Office in Bury St Edmunds from out of the area, I can recommend the Cannon St Brewery in Bury as a place to stay.

Oh, and I agree with Willis.  A time machine would be wonderful sometimes.  I have a list of questions for some of my ancestors!