Author Topic: Why family history / genealogy?  (Read 2084 times)

Offline Braindead

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Re: Why family history / genealogy?
« Reply #9 on: Saturday 12 September 20 11:46 BST (UK) »
Thanks so much for your replies. I really enjoy reading everybody's stories. Like many people, I was given a box with old documents and letters which helped a lot. My grandfather had also started a family tree which gave me a good boost. I also enjoy the social history aspects, finding out how people lived and (very often guessing) the reasons for the decisions they made. The detective work and sense of achievement when making a breakthrough is great too.
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Re: Why family history / genealogy?
« Reply #10 on: Saturday 12 September 20 12:12 BST (UK) »
When my Brother and I sat down to discuss our family we soon learned that we only knew fragments, we knew Grandparents to varying degrees even though one died in 1932.

I can never remember seeing Paternal Grandparents until I was fifteen, they were separated and one lived five miles away the other two hundred.

Researching has opened up where we come from, and what makes us who we are.

Lancastrian for over five hundred years on one side and Yorkist for five hundred years on another branch gave us confirmation of some of our roots that we partially knew.

Learning that we are a load of Cobblers, or rather Welsh Shoemakers for over two hundred years was an eye opener. 

Then finding that we go back five hundred years in Herefordshire was another surprise.

Now with DNA the tree is rapidly growing sideways and it will be a good starter for the family generations after my Brother and I when they develop an interest in where they come from.

My Grandkids and our Nephews kids already have printed Family Trees that show their Lineage all the way from themselves back to William The Conqueror.

Offline lydiaann

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Re: Why family history / genealogy?
« Reply #11 on: Saturday 12 September 20 12:35 BST (UK) »
When I was 7, my dad died (1951).  Mum took us from Lancashire to Lincolnshire to live with grandparents - my brothers were 11 and 14.  Over the years, little did I know that I was learning about family through 'osmosis'...being around when mum and grandparents were discussing 'the old days', including when on 2 occasions, a great-uncle and my mum's cousin visited.  On retirement, a name came up that I recognised and I had also recently reconnected with a cousin.  I decided it would be a good 'project' and I have brought these people into being definitive members of the family.  What I hadn't realised is how interesting families were, including my own.  On either side I have a Napoleonic hero; a man transported to Australia for fraud who eventually ended up sending for his wife and son and making a good life for himself and the family; shipping fleet managers; cottage weavers and spinners; tradesmen and carters; physicians, gamekeepers and estate agents; and 2 separate women who 'shared' their husbands with another woman and other children.  The list goes on.  Himself has fishermen, a Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, agricultural labourers and farmers in his tree - and a distant relative in Earl Haig of WWI fame.  What's not to keep one's interest?  There is something new every single 'outing' and has the added bonus of keeping the brain going!
Cravens of Wakefield, Alnwick, Banchory-Ternan
Houghtons and Harrises of Melbourne, Derbyshire
Taylors of Chadderton/Oldham, Lancashire
MacGillivrays of Mull
Macdonalds of Dundee

Offline iluleah

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Re: Why family history / genealogy?
« Reply #12 on: Saturday 12 September 20 12:54 BST (UK) »
I remember as a child playing in the village with my cousins, the farm was next door to the church and grave yard so we would often be in there generally looking for clay pipes of all things and found lots. We would read the gravestones and one had a distinctive 'family name' on it my cousins would say the person was 'their' family but not mine as I had a different surname and I would argue back it was both our ancestor ( as the surname was my mothers maiden name) you know silly child mentality..of who is most related than someone else ;D (the person turned out to be our great grandfather)

At that time I asked by gran who he was and she said she didn't know, she did but it took years before I eventually researched and it was the name of her father in law, but even then I knew people were hiding something......and that stayed with me, people were not telling the truth and that made me wonder why.

Then when my father died when I was a teenager  I felt the need to find out more about his ancestors, I knew my granddad, my fathers dad until I was 5yrs old when he died but his mum had died when my dad was only 4yrs old and dad always said  previously he didn't know her name....... in my ignorance I ddn't realise at that time all I needed to do was look at his birth certificate instead I started to research in an effort find his mothers name for my dad and faced the same problems with my mother 'not knowing' not having any records at home and telling me to let 'sleeping dogs lie'

So I started because I was nosey, because I knew they were hiding information and wondered why and what information they were hiding....then the research becomes addictive
Leicestershire:Chamberlain, Dakin, Wilkinson, Moss, Cook, Welland, Dobson, Roper,Palfreman, Squires, Hames, Goddard, Topliss, Twells,Bacon.
Northamps:Sykes, Harris, Rice,Knowles.
Rutland:Clements, Dalby, Osbourne, Durance, Smith,Christian, Royce, Richardson,Oakham, Dewey,Newbold,Cox,Chamberlaine,Brow, Cooper, Bloodworth,Clarke
Durham/Yorks:Woodend, Watson,Parker, Dowser
Suffolk/Norfolk:Groom, Coleman, Kemp, Barnard, Alden,Blomfield,Smith,Howes,Knight,Kett,Fryston
Lincolnshire:Clements, Woodend


Offline oldfashionedgirl

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Re: Why family history / genealogy?
« Reply #13 on: Saturday 12 September 20 13:00 BST (UK) »
Please don’t keep me in suspense  :o what were they hiding ?

Offline TheOnlyRogueAngel

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Re: Why family history / genealogy?
« Reply #14 on: Saturday 12 September 20 13:52 BST (UK) »
Just before I turned nine years old, my little sister was christened. As part of the christening tradition, the family tree came out and my little sister's name was added by my grandfather who had spent decades researching his family history. He showed me my name and all the names before mine and I was fascinated by the long lines of people who had been added before I had, and how we all connected. I didn't pick it up personally until I had my first child and wanted him to know where he'd come from, so with my grandfather's guidance I started researching not just my tree, but my husband's too. The addiction came quickly and with the uncovering of a family mystery, grew and grew until it was all consuming.. I've drawn up many branches of my family tree, but am still stuck on that family mystery.
Cawlbeck, Colbeck, Colbrook, Colebeck, Colebrook, Colebrooke, Coulbeck, Cowlbeck [UK, USA, NZ, Australia, Canada] Hamer [South Yorkshire, UK], Lucas [Cardiff & Gloucestershire, UK] Pennell [UK], Speed [UK], Udall, Udell [UK & USA], Webb [Staffordshire, Dorset, UK], Foot, Foote [Dorset, UK].

Offline Braindead

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Re: Why family history / genealogy?
« Reply #15 on: Saturday 12 September 20 14:31 BST (UK) »
More lovely stories! They made me think about those family legends that I grew up hearing - such as great grandma who was a daughter of the Duke of Hamilton - not true but a very interesting story nonetheless, and at least partially unravelled thanks to Rootschat. I am always fascinated by the fact that I remember meeting her as a very young child. Her father was born about 1836 and I think Wow! I've met someone whose dad was born nearly 200 years ago. I also remember, again as a child, looking through the papers her husband illicitly kept from his time as a spy in World War 1. I am very fortunate in some of the papers that have survived - the oldest being g g g grandfather's apprenticeship indenture from 1827.
There are still some mysteries and stories I'd like to tell, but can't yet out of respect to people who are still with us.
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Offline iluleah

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Re: Why family history / genealogy?
« Reply #16 on: Saturday 12 September 20 14:37 BST (UK) »
Please don’t keep me in suspense  :o what were they hiding ?

 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

My great grandfather had left his wife and children for another women, moved 3 miles away to the next village, waited a decade for his wife to die then married his other women, he is not buried at the graveyard where his headstone states he is ( along with wife)  he is buried in an unmarked grave in the next village with wife number 2...so 'shameful' at that time..... of course there is lots of other bits and pieces, such as he left only his youngest son anything in his Will ( which would cause 'family issues' involving my granddad) although he signed over the farm to his three sons years before he died. I always wondered why my mother was so 'ignorant' to a family in the village...since I have researched and found out it was the 'other womens' family.
My family still don't know I know, my mother still refuses to discuss 'family' ( more hidden things I knew within 6 months of starting research) and about a decade ago I caught her having a sneak at my FH folder I had left on the table when visiting what she doesn't know is that folder has nothing in it that 'tells the real story' just basic facts like birth, marriage ( to first wife only) and death date , so things like it doesn't state my great grandfather was born/baptised with a completely different name  and changed it, it doesn't mention 2 wife, or Wills/heirs,  it doesn't state  she married 6 months before I was born, not 18 months before that she likes people to think I see no reason to upset her ....the real FH is on my PC and printed out in another file..........

The thing is family scripts repeat and you can easily see it generation after generation, a decade ago she wanted me to 'sort out her pension' and phone 'them' which I did was asked question  after question and had to ask her as I didn't know dates etc..such as because of her name when she 'remarried' (without informing me), she sold the house and moved house and counties ( without informng me AGAIN 3rd time she had moved without telling me) ...so 35 yrs 'married' I asked her the date she married and ' I got the look' of don't ask...then she said angrily "we are not married" so I asked him 'what the story was? seems she had just changed her name legally when they moved so everyone thought they were married, not because he didn't ask her to marry him..only a few days after I left I got a letter from her telling me they got married the next day after I left, so it was all booked, all planned and not even her only child was told........
Leicestershire:Chamberlain, Dakin, Wilkinson, Moss, Cook, Welland, Dobson, Roper,Palfreman, Squires, Hames, Goddard, Topliss, Twells,Bacon.
Northamps:Sykes, Harris, Rice,Knowles.
Rutland:Clements, Dalby, Osbourne, Durance, Smith,Christian, Royce, Richardson,Oakham, Dewey,Newbold,Cox,Chamberlaine,Brow, Cooper, Bloodworth,Clarke
Durham/Yorks:Woodend, Watson,Parker, Dowser
Suffolk/Norfolk:Groom, Coleman, Kemp, Barnard, Alden,Blomfield,Smith,Howes,Knight,Kett,Fryston
Lincolnshire:Clements, Woodend

Offline Braindead

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Re: Why family history / genealogy?
« Reply #17 on: Saturday 12 September 20 14:42 BST (UK) »
Definitely agree with the part that "family scripts repeat"!
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