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

[Marmalady]

My interest was first sparked way back in the 60's whilst watching a TV programme (I think it was Phyllis Bentley's "Inheritance" saga but my Mum thinks it was The Forsythe Saga). The Radio Times printed a family tree to accompany the series.
I asked my Mum how far back she thought we could get with our family tree.
So that set us off.
As I was doing my A-levels at the time, I had to leave the research to Mum - but i retained my interest in her findings. Doing it all long-distance and without computers it often took quite a while between finding nuggets of information.
Then in the late 80's, my paternal grandfather died and the papers he left behind sparked my father's interest in tracing his tree. With computers and the internet he made quicker progress.
So that was both sides of my family covered so I started doing my husbands tree.

Then my father got dementia so I took over his research -- which had to start with "undoing" many mistakes and assumptions he had made.
On my mother's side, her sister & brother had also got the bug so between them they more or less found out everything to be found at the time. Now myself, my sister & my cousin are also poking away at odd corners to see what more we can find

So it is quite the family hobby!

[Andy_T]

For me the interest in my family history is partly curiosity about my ancestors lives. But its more than just curiosity.
I grew up in a rural village in Derbyshire, rich in history having remaining buildings from an Augustin Abbey founded in the reign of King Stephen. Also historical cotton mill and a paper mill. So a love of my local village history extends to my family history as well.

Some ancestors had more interesting lives than others and the majority of mine were hard working, law abiding ordinary folks. There may be some colourful and more interesting distant relatives of my direct ancestors, so I look for these as well.

A cousin started researching my father's side of the family back in the days when all records were in reference libraries and hard copy books in parish churches. I was lucky that he passed some notes onto me and I try to go into our history a bit deeper and a bit farther back and present it in a way that my kids can refer to.

Someone earlier in this thread made the point that what was "normal" in our ancestors time would be frowned on today. Like the silver cup awarded for hare-coursing reminded me of a great uncle who ran cross-country for England. One of his prize possessions was the set of tobacco smoking pipes on his sideboard, awarded to him for coming first in a run!

It's a never ending job as new discoveries come along and add or change what we think we found.

Andy_T

     

[smudget]

For me..it was a visit to Ireland. Made friends with various folks. I got the usual " you must have Irish blood, you fit in so well". I said "no, no Irish connections"
Came home and decided to "Google".
I've now had many happy/frustrating years researching my Irish ancestors.

[pinefamily]

For me..it was a visit to Ireland. Made friends with various folks. I got the usual " you must have Irish blood, you fit in so well". I said "no, no Irish connections"
Came home and decided to "Google".
I've now had many happy/frustrating years researching my Irish ancestors.

I can relate to this.  For years I said that I couldn't properly celebrate St Patrick's Day because I didn't have any Irish blood. Not only have Scottish ancestors turned out to be Irish in the space of 2 generations, my recently discoveries on my maternal grandmother's line have uncovered a whole lot more Irish.
So, Guinness anyone? 

[smudget]

Sadly no relation to the Guinness family. Sláinte anyway.

[coombs]

Many Irish migrants to Scotland were from Ulster, or at least the Northern half of the country, and many Scottish migrants to Ireland settled in Ulster. And over the generations their descendants dispersed across the rest of Ireland. Both countries seem to have swapped their residents over the centuries. I have no known Irish ancestry but I do have Scottish, and it is nice to have a few ancestors born outside England.

[pinefamily]

My Scottish blow-ins very annoyingly had simply Ireland on every record. One Irish line is from County Tyrone as far as I know, the others I have no idea.
I also have Swedish ancestors, and my wife Scottish, Irish, German and Huguenot ancestors. So plenty outside of England.

[coombs]

My Scottish blow-ins very annoyingly had simply Ireland on every record. One Irish line is from County Tyrone as far as I know, the others I have no idea.
I also have Swedish ancestors, and my wife Scottish, Irish, German and Huguenot ancestors. So plenty outside of England.

I have Scottish and Huguenot ancestors. And maybe some Welsh with a Roberts line in my tree in London but it is also common in England.

[pinot]

After the death of my parents I felt hugely shocked and guilty that I had felt so little interest in what their lives had been like; going back one and two generations taught me a lot but I shall always regret not interrogating my grandparents while they were alive. BMDs and census records can only tell us so much.