What was it that aroused your interest into your predecessors??

[Milliepede]

Finding out that great great grandfather came from Yorkshire.  Up North.  Everyone else is from Down South. 

[shume]

My husband's father in law made a common mistake when compiling a family tree. He picked someone famous here in Australia, same surname and decided we were descended from him! My mother in law refused to ask her ex husband ( ? understandably) about his family so I wrote to him and got an outline of what he remembered. This was 30 yrs ago and I have not regretted that I took the initiative for which the rest of the family is grateful. Never mentioned it to her though!
shume.. australia

[Finley 1]

1956
I had an RTA  my wonderful Nan took care of me and helped me on the road to recovery..

We spent so  much time discussing family and she told me as much as she knew and asked me then to find out what I could..

I hope she can see what I have found.. I know she would be smiling .. and so pleased.   wonderful lady ...

mind you when I found the unmarried Moms.. which really meant NAME changes   had they have married..   then she would be ..... caffudled..  ok Nan


xin

[pharmaT]

I grew up being called the interlouper, constantly told that I didn't belong, wasn't wanted and should go back where I came from.  I had always had an interest in history so set out to discover where I did come from. 

Unfortunately, I discovered that my ancestors didn't come from one particular place so I don't belong anywhere.  However, once I started I became addicted, discovering who my ancestors were and what their life was like.  I also became fascinated by how diverse the descendants of one couple could be so started working on bringing my lines forward as well.

I have found skeletons, that's part of the reason I have kept my tree private, I don't want to be shot as the messenger.

[Brickwall Demolisher]

Hi everyone,
It's interesting to see all the reasons of what started your interest. Different but all achieving the answer's from our researching.
I have had always my Grandfather's birth certificate, along with his First World War Medals and some other pieces/things of memorabilia which have always been kept in the back of a drawer. His birth certificate is a typewriter written copy of the original ( 1880's ). By not having it front of me, I think it was dated from a year of the 1940 / 1950's.
I have always found computers just awkward to work with. I have/had found them and used them greatly for shopping and other basic things i.e letter writing. Anything technical, and other than that always seems to create a problem somehow.??
My Mother was one of six children born, one died at an early age. - My father was also one of six children born, again two had died not long after childbirth.
We youngsters, post war born, had been given stories of a Great Grandfather who went to America and lived their for over 35 years before returning back to England in 1930's.
We have a name for his father, but have always had a hard time in choosing, as their are two of the same christian name.
My Great / Great Grandmother later on in life marries into the family by marrying another ( by surname ) of the family. When she marries her two children are now in their mid-teens. I can only assume from this that she was very determined to give her two sons their rightful surname.
 One of the supposedly Father's has enrolled in a Army career and goes into the conflicts in INDIA. After a 20years, due to health, and also possibly from battle wounds he gets discharged in the early 1880's.
Whether he is the Father or not, by this time my Great Grandfather, and his brother my Great Grand-Uncle? have Married and have Families of their own.
The other same named was a Widower at the time both children were born. He never see's the two boys grow up into their teens. He dies before they have reached that age.
These reasons or finding's are of what have kept / got my continuous interest into my families past.
Along with finding bigamous marriages, child abuse?, adultery, suicidal acts, and with the altering the truth as to what it should be, if unlawful?, they suffered, their family as well.
This is only from my Mother's side of the family to date, I have yet to start seriously into getting into my Father's side. I have made some sort of effort, but all in good time eh?
This / these are my main reasons for continuing my research into Family History.
Happy Hunting, Best Regards to all of you,  JUST J.

[Regorian]

In 1959, my father received a letter from a firm of solicitors in Swindon, where I now live, telling him that he was a beneficiary under the residual will of a sister of his mother's father. A lot of detail was shown and that gave me the bug. I started following it up on my own. Learnt a lot and received a lot of help from cousins in Australia more recently, two or three of which are Rootschatters. It took ten years before my father got a pay out. However, I decided I should follow my paternal line and it started at Somerset House for a few months until GRO moved to Bush House?. Ideal, as Portugal Street was round the corner where the Census returns were kept. This was all pre internet.

Pre 1837, I had to travel to Gloucestershire RO and then Cwmbran for 18th Century. Got back to c1700, but ran out of ideas. A cousin employed a professional genealogist last year to go further, but was constrained by the late starting PR's in 1695. However, a wealth of background for me.

I was very lucky, next to no pitfalls along the way. 

     

[coombs]

I knew my grandmother was born in County Durham, and her dad was from Co Durham but was told her parents met in London. Turns out he was in the army there and met a Londoner and took her up to Co Durham with him. She was born in Islington. And many of her paternal grandmothers ancestors were Huguenots from the East End. I have been hooked on genealogy ever since.

[River Tyne Lass]

Going right back to childhood I credit my Dad as being the catalyst for my interest in my predecessors.

My Dad was born in 1913 and I was his youngest and late in life child.  He grew up in Annitsford in Northumberland.  As a child he used to tell me lots of stories about his own childhood.  I had a lovely impression of a cross between something like 'Little House on the Prairie' and the Amish.  I was a bit disappointed when one day Dad took me to Annitsford and the people and place looked nothing like my imaginings, - I did think he might have got lost.  In my child's imagination, I really had expected Annitssford to have remained in a timewarp somehow.

I remember being taken to St John's RC Church and us standing together reverentially gazing down at a patch of grass which my Dad said was my Granddad's grave.  I remember being a bit glad to head off at that time as I didn't like seeing my Dad looking so sad and bereft.

I think it was all my Dad's wonderful storytelling though when has led to this interest in my ancestors.  However, my research has shown me that life was nowhere near as rosy as depicted.

I wish I had asked him more questions when he was still with us.

I quite like going to Beamish museum these days, especially visiting the miners' cottages and seeing people in costume.  As far as I am concerned it is just like  there is an imaginary sign up saying 'Welcome to Annitsford!'

[River Tyne Lass]

PharmaT, I have also found plenty of skeletons.

I think most of us will find at least some if we are prepared to dig deep enough with our spades.