Author Topic: Can you ever stop doing Family History?  (Read 2377 times)

Offline Rishile

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Can you ever stop doing Family History?
« on: Wednesday 28 April 21 14:30 BST (UK) »
I 'stopped' doing Family History about five years ago because of other commitments and being unable to continue financially.  However, I never got rid of any of my documents or work.  Since then I have re-found two cousins who seem to constantly want me to continue.  They are on different sides of the family but they always seem to contact me at the same time.  Yesterday I received a package from one cousin with lots of interesting family items including letters sent from my grand-father to my grand-mother plus lot of other things.  Now the other cousin is asking me to verify information for her.  I have also received a lot of help from people originally found on RootsChat that was originally in contact years ago.  People keep sending me things and I'm not complaining at all but I wonder when it will stop.  Does it ever stop?

Rishile
Stoneham - Kent / Essex / Herts / Bucks / Devon
Pike - Kent
Pay - Kent
Swan/Swaine - Herts / London
Bissenden - Kent
Chappell - Herts
Hammond - Essex

Offline Guy Etchells

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Re: Can you ever stop doing Family History?
« Reply #1 on: Wednesday 28 April 21 14:40 BST (UK) »
I 'stopped' doing Family History about five years ago because of other commitments and being unable to continue financially.  However, I never got rid of any of my documents or work.  Since then I have re-found two cousins who seem to constantly want me to continue.  They are on different sides of the family but they always seem to contact me at the same time.  Yesterday I received a package from one cousin with lots of interesting family items including letters sent from my grand-father to my grand-mother plus lot of other things.  Now the other cousin is asking me to verify information for her.  I have also received a lot of help from people originally found on RootsChat that was originally in contact years ago.  People keep sending me things and I'm not complaining at all but I wonder when it will stop.  Does it ever stop?

Rishile

That depends really on whether you believe in life after death or not!

My interest in family history was sparked as an infant fascinated with a pedigree chart in a stem book my grandfather compiled. I have followed that interest throughout my life and here I am aged 71 still fully emerged in family history.

One thing I am certain of if there is life after death I will be in my element chasing up all the facts and details missing from what I have discovered from nearly a lifetime of research. ;)
Cheers
Guy
http://anguline.co.uk/Framland/index.htm   The site that gives you facts not promises!
http://burial-inscriptions.co.uk Tombstones & Monumental Inscriptions.

As we have gained from the past, we owe the future a debt, which we pay by sharing today.

Offline iluleah

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Re: Can you ever stop doing Family History?
« Reply #2 on: Wednesday 28 April 21 15:11 BST (UK) »
I think FH can be like any other hobby and if you want to stop you do, in so far as other people sending you things and asking you to do the verifying you can show them how to verify these things for themselves and tell them you are no longer interested in FH.

I started FH by accident really, my Dad died when I was 17 yrs old, his mother died when he was 4yrs old and he always said he never knew her name......at that time I didn't realise I could just look on his birth certificate ( even if my mother had have given it to me, which she didn't) so I started out running around in circles trying to work out how to find out until some years later a friend took me under her wing and taught me the basics of FH research...so from just wanting to find out my grandmothers name for my dad even if it was too late for me to tell him I got well and truely hooked regardless of no one in my family wanting to give me any information or help me in anyway.

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

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Re: Can you ever stop doing Family History?
« Reply #3 on: Wednesday 28 April 21 15:32 BST (UK) »
I 'stopped' doing Family History about five years ago because of other commitments and being unable to continue financially.  However, I never got rid of any of my documents or work.  Since then I have re-found two cousins who seem to constantly want me to continue.  They are on different sides of the family but they always seem to contact me at the same time.  Yesterday I received a package from one cousin with lots of interesting family items including letters sent from my grand-father to my grand-mother plus lot of other things.  Now the other cousin is asking me to verify information for her.  I have also received a lot of help from people originally found on RootsChat that was originally in contact years ago.  People keep sending me things and I'm not complaining at all but I wonder when it will stop.  Does it ever stop?

Rishile

I've had some enforced breaks over the years due to circumstances but I cannot see me ever just deciding to stop.  I am currently working through the piles of sources I have collected over the years and attaching them to my online tree.  This will take a while.  Then I will go back to working on collateral lines which is a job I can't see ever being finished.
Campbell, Dunn, Dickson, Fell, Forest, Norie, Pratt, Somerville, Thompson, Tyler among others


Offline coombs

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Re: Can you ever stop doing Family History?
« Reply #4 on: Wednesday 28 April 21 15:44 BST (UK) »
I shall never stop, but do occasionally have a break from FH from time to time. Always trying to find a document to prove a conjectured link between two families can be exhausting but I will revisit it in the future. It can be hard work trying to see if a potential ancestor is an actual ancestor, save for any unknown informal adoptions or the odd roll in the hay with the milkman when hubby was away, sad but true.
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 Rishile

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Re: Can you ever stop doing Family History?
« Reply #5 on: Wednesday 28 April 21 17:38 BST (UK) »
I think FH can be like any other hobby and if you want to stop you do, in so far as other people sending you things and asking you to do the verifying you can show them how to verify these things for themselves and tell them you are no longer interested in FH.



I couldn't say I'm no longer interested in FH - just that other things took over for a while (my husband's health for one) and I never went back to it with the same enthusiasm.  However, the parcel I have just received will take me a while to work through and add to my tree so it may re-ignite the passion.  Who knows?

Rishile
Stoneham - Kent / Essex / Herts / Bucks / Devon
Pike - Kent
Pay - Kent
Swan/Swaine - Herts / London
Bissenden - Kent
Chappell - Herts
Hammond - Essex

Offline jc26red

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Re: Can you ever stop doing Family History?
« Reply #6 on: Wednesday 28 April 21 19:47 BST (UK) »
There has been a lot of new databases appearing online over the last 5 years. Some, which were only transcriptions now have images.  ;D

I have taken breaks over the years but recently decided to add one line to ancestry... Going back over it slowly, I discovered the reason why my husband’s grandfather stopped playing football for Arsenal, at a time when the players all had other jobs.

It was pre WWI, and he was in the royal fusiliers at the time. I found his regiment had been posted to New Zealand for a year! This has puzzled me for years, we had even been to the Emirates hall of fame to see his file but there was no evidence on why he was no longer in the team.  It was nice to find this little snippet to tidy up his timeline.

I’m not trying to expand the tree any longer, but enriching the lives of the ancestors I already have will always keep me interested.

I hope you find some interesting things in the package you were sent.

Jenny
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Re: Can you ever stop doing Family History?
« Reply #7 on: Wednesday 28 April 21 21:27 BST (UK) »
I can’t imagine ever stopping!
As others have said, after the names there is all the padding, and reading of the histories of the areas/occupations etc etc.
New records being released...
Preserving family papers
Paying forward all the indexing and transcribing  that has been done in the past by doing the same for new records.
Putting the stories  into a format others might read and keep once I am gone.
Looking at and learning from people’s problems on here (which has improved and continues to improve my skills immeasurably thank you. Every day I think I learn something from someone )

With the help of the people on here I am learning how to read old handwriting. (That’s a slow one!) I read every  one that gets posted I think and have a go, then wait to see what the answer is.

at the moment I am researching a friends family.  It is amazing how different his lines are from mine and I am learning about whole new sets of records.

But I have other projects related to my families in the wings... it is the hobby that keeps on giving as far as I am concerned.

Offline coombs

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Re: Can you ever stop doing Family History?
« Reply #8 on: Wednesday 28 April 21 21:37 BST (UK) »
Also Suffolk FHS have made several of their CD parish register indexes downloadable and it has helped me a lot due to the very scant coverage of Suffolk records online elsewhere. I have bought several, and the eagerness for Suffolk archives to digitise their records has been eased a lot, as we are in for a long wait here it seems. FreeBMD is getting better for Suffolk coverage though.

Imagine the amount of un-indexed records around in archives that will have many details on our ancestors including ones we have traced.

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