What has Rootschat done for you?

[Viktoria]

I ,like many of my generation(old) criticise young people for always being on
their mobile phones,but really I am in a way as bad.
I can’t wait to get on to RootsChat and see the latest posts,I am so curious to see what interesting queries there are and if I can help.
I had a few days away visiting family last week and  I got withdrawal symptoms ,honestly.
Couldn’t wait to see what I had missed.
My consolation is I could be addicted to something much much worse. .  Viktoria.

[coombs]

I joined in September 2004, 14 years ago, I think to try and get census info for my ancestor Mary Ann Walder born 1839 in Slaugham, Sussex. I got some good help.

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=11816.msg39350#msg39350

This site is addictive and is virtually a genealogical database itself with all these queries and helpful replies which contain info on (probably a few million) deceased people.

The site has worked wonders for my research. Rootschat Genealogical Database as well as a forum.

[cristeen]

I am shocked that I joined up in November 2005, much earlier in my research days than I had thought! I have learned so much on here, not just about genealogy research but lots of social history, general knowledge etc. It's great that so many folk with extensive knowledge in specific fields give their time & support so freely to others. I have to say that a good proportion of my requests for help haven't resulted in further information but I don't think that reflects on the expertise on this forum, I have taken it to mean that I have covered all online resources effectively and further info simply isn't there. It's reassuring that my research skills maybe aren't too shabby
Although I don't post much I really enjoy reading other threads & do contribute when I think my info or opinion might be relevant/appreciated. I think there has only been one occasion where one of my posts was 'shot down' as such and that was years ago, it did put me off posting for a while, but I think the member concerned left the forum fairly soon after the event. Heyho, chalk it up to life & there's nowt queerer than folk

[Treetotal]

I joined in 2006 and like Igor, the site was recommended to me on the BBC forum like Igor. I originally posted damaged photos for repair and became hooked on seeing the transformation of my cracked and creased photos, so much so, that I bought photo editing software and taught myself how to restore and colour and thoroughly enjoy bringing people's photos back to life. Thanks to RootsChat, I have a hobby that allows me to excercise my creative side whilst helping others to preserve their precious photos for future generations to appreciate.
I have had one two brick walls knocked down, had a great deal of help on the Armed Forces Board. Learned so much from the many willing and very helpful chatters and made many friends along the way. It's a real education as you learn something new every day on here.
In my experience of other forums, this one is unique and there is a wealth of collective knowledge freely given by the friendly community that is RootsChat.Long may it continue.
Carol

[Mowsehowse]

Apparently I joined just over 8 years ago.... seems like longer! 
I am always overwhelmed by how helpful, generous and knowledgeable people are on here.
I get a massive thrill from being able to help others a little too. I really love being able to visit somewhere local to me, for people in USA, NZ, Oz, and "up country" too.
I keep "recent unread" book-marked to my tool bar, so that I can catch up easily while I eat my porridge.
Many thanks to the lovely Roots Chatters that have put themselves out to help me, and to those who keep the site functioning for the rest of us.

[jaybelnz]

As well as all the wonderful discoveries that Rootschatters have made for me, and trying to help others,  Rootschat is the only website in the world that makes get up at a decent hour in the morning!  (It's always my first go to site while I'm having my breakfast)! 

GO ROOTSCHAT!! 👍👍💞

[River Tyne Lass]

What a great thread this is that Greensleeves has started .. 

Where do I start on beginning to express how much RootsChat has done for me .. it has done so much ..

I have had questions answered .. I have had the joy of being able to help others  .. I have learned more about history .. I have been engrossed in reading great stories ..  I have learned about how to post photos (I am completely, well almost completely hopeless with technology things) .. 

This has also kept me going when feeling low and frightened.  There was a time when I was going to have to have a health procedure carried out to investigate something which could have been quite serious.  I am not a very brave person and the wait to have this done and get results sometimes had me in tears and really quite down.  I remember one day, it was my day off, I was really quite low at this point but I had promised a RootsChatter to do a look up for them at the archives.  I always believe in trying to stick to my promises, so as low as I felt, I set off on the bus to do this.  I got out my Kindle on the bus en route too and began posting on things which caught my notice .. before long my low mood was lifting.  Thankfully, when I did get the procedure carried out and the results came through in my case it turned out to be nothing to worry about after all.

I don't know if I am the only one but I can sometimes claim that RootsChat also keeps me fit .. Saturday night on the way to work .. missed my bus stop on account of being too engrossed in looking at RootsChat .. had to run back literally to the previous stop to be in time for my next connection.  This doesn't happen all the time but I must confess that this is not the only time this has happened.  Also, Sunday on way home from nightshift I was going to do at look up at the library for a RootsChatter .. the local studies is on the 6th floor .. there was a big crowd around the lift .. could any of them want a microfilm reader, I wondered.  I must be first! I must be first!  I told myself and so decided to make a dash up the flights (with my heavy bag) to ensure I was one of the first ones up.  This type of thing sometimes happens when I go to the archives and try to speed walk in, in a dignified sort of way to ensure I beat the others to a microfilm reader.

I did once nobly give up my microfilm reader once to a lady, in a mad spirit of generosity.  I thought she may have travelled a great distance as she seemed quite disappointed.  However, she seemed that much in a hurry to get on, she never even said thank you - just jumped in my seat!!

I visualized myself wrestling her to the ground and reclaiming my microfilm reader amid the staff cries of "Bravo! Bravo!"  However, I know that in reality that this would not happen and in reality such a response would likely have resulted in me being carted off by the police and banned (horrible thought! ).. not to mention she was a much bigger woman and I likely would have come off worse in any scuffle ..

To quote Oscar Wilde .. 'No deed goes unpunished', I guess.

Oh well, I agree with Viktoria in that I could be addicted to much worse things than genealogy and RootsChat.   

[mare]

It's opened the world up a bit more for me, not just in an international and geographic sense but also in a technical way, having learnt so much from so many threads over the years and helping with much more than just genealogy, numerous times I have realised I know something because I've come across it via RootsChat ... quite often helpful for quiz answers 

I put together and read the eulogy for my brother's funeral at the end of 2005 and my oldest niece was particularly interested in his timeline and photos to add to what she had done of family tree. Then in January of 2006 I received a lovely letter from a relative of her generation, following up on my brother's death notice and the likelihood of a connection being an unusual surname, she was the granddaughter of my dad's cousin  My niece then found one of her posts on RC while googling the same surname, profile matched etc ... so that was the start of my navigating the RC site, finding threads and frequent user posts rather interesting though I was still reluctant to join up to online forums. With some tweaking of what was viewable to guests, it became a bit harder to flit and I eventually decided I should register in 2007, took a wee while to make a post but that took off a bit, particularly when I got my first digital camera in 2008. I was able to photograph records and at cemeteries and check that images were OK before coming home, also made a few visits for others.
... And then I started cluttering up the TOT galleries with 'everything under the sun' photos   
Received some wonderful restores of a few special photos on the photographic board, on and off I dabbled in a few restores for others as well.

The great contacts and friendships formed are what really makes RootsChat special for me. Like GS, my younger daughter was in disbelief when she heard I was going to stay a few days with one of my online RC friends, going back on my views I guess when she planned a trip with 2 girlfriends from school, meeting up with 3 young guys from another school across the city they 'knew' from online... worked out fine I reminded her    As did my trip to stay with Wiggy in 2011, generously offering me a room at hers while I had a few days before rest of my family got together in Melbourne for a celebration. I've met up with a few other NZ'rs also and KHP and I do an annual trip together for another joint interest.

So thank you RootsChat, Sarah and Trystan ... but a special merci beau coup to all of you lovely contacts and contributors for what I've received, plenty to repay!

  mare

[ThrelfallYorky]

I see that I actually joined in October 2009, after "peeking round the door" for some months.
I'd already had a tree that my grandfather had done, decades before, and as work pressures had eased, I had time at last to check it out - by and large it was very accurate, in what it had, but it was fascinating adding to it and fleshing it out.
As others did, googling our fairly unusual family surname quite quickly led to "Rootschat", and although I was already fairly well informed then about that surname, it was good to see that others were researching it. (My grandfather had the theory that all of that name were related, and came from the North Meols area originally)
 But then I joined, and I posted in the "Beginners" about for help on how I might trace unfindable people,on another line, after some years of trying in vain to establish where my great grandfather and his daughter, my ( long dead, but much loved in my childhood) grandmother came from. I really knew only where they had married ( and that she wasn't from that area), and when, and, from the certificate her father's name and occupation.
I got brilliant immediate help from ( among others) Redroger on railway engine drivers, Posteria and millymcb, and was awed immediately by their skills and kindness.
It was some time before I felt that I could offer any worthwhile help to others, but felt so pleased when I managed it .... and quite a long time before I ventured on the TOT and other boards,  eventually I started doing the Quiz, and even - as someone else said - a "Virtual Panto" or two! My cats also pushed me off the keyboard after a while, and helped develop my strong streak of fantasy even further than the Panto!
I've not met up with others, but am always so grateful for the help and suggestions on here. I must be addicted to it, for I usually manage to pop in if only to look around, most days....
And like others, I'm so thankful for the wonderful folk who keep us all going. Where would we be without Trystan and Sarah, and all those who keep us busy seeking and finding?
Thanks for starting this thread, Greensleeves. It's made many of us think back, in a very pleasant way.
TY