Author Topic: Stories to interest non genealogists  (Read 5790 times)

Offline brigidmac

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Re: Stories to interest non genealogists
« Reply #9 on: Saturday 19 November 16 10:41 GMT (UK) »
what an amazing photo ..i wonder if it was a special occasion

only rich families or families in the business had photos so early

they do look typically Victorian

I have borrowed my nana's photo album from my mum ...she wrote places on the back or in the album ..occaissionally dates and very rarely peoples names because i suppose she thought she'd always remember them ...we dont think of our descendents puzzling over our lives ,

I'll get my mother to identify as many of the people as she can  while she still can 1
Roberts,Fellman.Macdermid smith jones,Bloch,Irvine,Hallis Stevenson

Offline Andrew Tarr

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Re: Stories to interest non genealogists
« Reply #10 on: Saturday 19 November 16 10:55 GMT (UK) »
what an amazing photo ..i wonder if it was a special occasion

only rich families or families in the business had photos so early

My gt-gt-grandfather set up as a land surveyor in Liverpool about 30 years before this pic was taken - his wife is seated on the left.  I guess the 'special occasion' is the co-existence of four generations.  I have been told that when such photos were taken they were usually all female, as this one is.  That bias may be partly because people who managed to live long enough then were usually female?
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Offline Berlin-Bob

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Re: Stories to interest non genealogists
« Reply #11 on: Saturday 26 November 16 15:14 GMT (UK) »
With JAKnighton's permission I posted this on a german forum. 
Things that interest non-genealogists from my experience:

1. Having photos of an ancestor immediately makes them more interesting.

2. Revealing that your ancestors came from a "different place", whether that be a county or a country.

3. Revealing that your ancestors were originally from the same place you live now, but moved away and recent generations only just came back.

4. Traits of ancestors that match the traits of living descendants. "This is who we get our big noses from".

5. Tales of sadness and hardship.

6. How far back the family has been traced.

Also it helps to stick with surnames they are familiar with. Even if the info you have on your mutual 5x great grandfather is really interesting, it means nothing to non-genealogists if it's a surname they have no immediate connection to.

Not a lot of response, but it is worth adding here, perhaps as No. 7 ?

7. Finding and reporting on scandal(s) in the family !!

This is particularly fitting, as it seems that FindMyPast now has more newspapers on file. I previously knew from these newspapers that my GG-grandmother had accused someone of being the illegitimate father of her child, but the court case for a bastardy bond was dismissed.

Now, with more information available,  it seems that this was not my GGgrandmother, but her daughter (a different one, not my Ggrandmother !)

BUT ....

7 years earlier, my GGgrandmother was accused (and convicted) of killing her own child, shortly after giving birth to it.

So if she'd killed the "wrong one", I wouldn't be writing this now !!!!

Bob
Any UK Census Data included in this post is Crown Copyright (see: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk)

Offline Ali Reynolds

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Re: Stories to interest non genealogists
« Reply #12 on: Sunday 15 January 17 14:05 GMT (UK) »
i like the idea of time travelling detectives and am really interested in your family history ;)


Offline brigidmac

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Re: Stories to interest non genealogists
« Reply #13 on: Monday 16 January 17 07:09 GMT (UK) »
Thanks Ali and thanks for the technical help setting things up .

You.re welcome to take over the postcard research ...Leicester market stall holders look out for the 1906 ones for me .

There is something about the changes in ethics at that time in the Abbey Pumping Station museum .I took photos will try and download /upload /copy on here

Oops
Roberts,Fellman.Macdermid smith jones,Bloch,Irvine,Hallis Stevenson

Offline andrewalston

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Re: Stories to interest non genealogists
« Reply #14 on: Monday 16 January 17 15:31 GMT (UK) »
For some inspiration about starting to write down the stories about your relatives, have a look at
  http://auntiemabel.org

There are ideas about how to start, and some excellent examples written by the webmaster and others about their relatives.
Looking at ALSTON in south Ribble area, ALSTEAD and DONBAVAND/DUNBABIN etc. everywhere, HOWCROFT and MARSH in Bolton and Westhoughton, PICKERING in the Whitehaven area.

Census information is Crown Copyright. See www.nationalarchives.gov.uk for details.

Offline Meelystar

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Re: Stories to interest non genealogists
« Reply #15 on: Monday 16 January 17 17:52 GMT (UK) »
For some inspiration about starting to write down the stories about your relatives, have a look at
  http://auntiemabel.org

There are ideas about how to start, and some excellent examples written by the webmaster and others about their relatives.



Good recommendation I've just spent quite a while looking and will refer to in the future.  Actually I think it's the thing that most people don't do enough of, so many people are just obsessed with going as far back as possible to rather than really concentrating on some of their interesting (or not so interesting) ancestors.  I think that why family history seems so dry to so many people.  Really studying your source documents to glean every little fact, setting the scene both locally and nationally and researching what day to day life meant along with images of their surroundings really makes people come to life. The partleton in their shoes website was excellent for this but seems to be offline at the moment.
OP I found your story very interesting (I'm sure it has not yet had its final embroidery either) and I'm not even vaguely related!

Online coombs

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Re: Stories to interest non genealogists
« Reply #16 on: Monday 16 January 17 18:34 GMT (UK) »
Things that interest non-genealogists from my experience:

1. Having photos of an ancestor immediately makes them more interesting.

2. Revealing that your ancestors came from a "different place", whether that be a county or a country.

3. Revealing that your ancestors were originally from the same place you live now, but moved away and recent generations only just came back.

4. Traits of ancestors that match the traits of living descendants. "This is who we get our big noses from".

5. Tales of sadness and hardship.

6. How far back the family has been traced.

Also it helps to stick with surnames they are familiar with. Even if the info you have on your mutual 5x great grandfather is really interesting, it means nothing to non-genealogists if it's a surname they have no immediate connection to.

My brother did ask me how the family tree is doing and I said that one of our ancestors came from our home city, Norwich, and moved to Bethnal Green. He said "So they went from Norwich to London and back again".

Another thing to interest non genealogists is telling them about the 2 convicts in the family transported to Australia. One for stealing a horse, and one for maiming someone. Juicier than stealing a basket of apples.
Researching:

LONDON, Coombs, Roberts, Auber, Helsdon, Fradine, Morin, Goodacre
DORSET Coombs, Munday
NORFOLK Helsdon, Riches, Harbord, Budery
KENT Roberts, Goodacre
SUSSEX Walder, Boniface, Dinnage, Standen, Lee, Botten, Wickham, Jupp
SUFFOLK Titshall, Frost, Fairweather, Mayhew, Archer, Eade, Scarfe
DURHAM Stewart, Musgrave, Wilson, Forster
SCOTLAND Stewart in Selkirk
USA Musgrave, Saix
ESSEX Cornwell, Stock, Quilter, Lawrence, Whale, Clift
OXON Edgington, Smith, Inkpen, Snell, Batten, Brain

Offline cristeen

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Re: Stories to interest non genealogists
« Reply #17 on: Monday 16 January 17 19:25 GMT (UK) »
I recently 'completed' writing up my fathers line. He is enjoying reading through the various family biographies and commented on how snippets such as a newspaper article about an ancestor being prosecuted for dynamiting the local trout lake really bring them to life for him. :)
Newson, Steavenson, Walker, Taylor, Dobson, Gardner, Clark, Wilson, Smith, Crossland, Goldfinch, Burnett, Hebdon, Peers, Strother, Askew, Bower, Beckwith, Patton, White, Turner, Nelson, Gilpin, Tomlinson, Thompson, Spedding, Wilkes, Carr, Butterfield, Ormandy, Wilkinson, Cocking, Glover, Pennington, Bowker, Kitching, Langhorn, Haworth, Kirkham.