Family networks

[ValJJJ]

People wrote letters!

My mother and her mother (living some distance apart) wrote to each other weekly.  Her mother would have probably written to any of her siblings who weren't local too.  When I went away to uni, my mother and I wrote to each other weekly. 

[coombs]

My Essex parents have some Norfolk blood through their Suffolk and London lines, so when they moved to Gt Yarmouth it was like they were coming home again.

I never understand why I am so into genealogy, let me admit obsessed, especially with 2 ancestors who had locative surnames in counties where they lived where the surname was not from there. But as they were born c1710, it is going to be tough proving their origins, but I shall never stop looking. There 2 men were Joseph Stillington (c1705-1751), an Essex resident man with a Midlands name, and William Inkpen (c1730-1769) an Oxford college servant and publican with a Dorset/Sussex surname.

I have known most of my cousins, and some second cousins, or first cousins once removed.

[IgorStrav]

My family history research was greatly aided by my great grandfather's notebook, where he recorded spending holidays with his relatives, sometimes accompanied by his son, my grandfather.

It is nice to think of the family connections, but also - I think - it was how he had a holiday without spending any money on accommodation.  Very common in those days (the 1920's), I'm sure!

[Top-of-the-hill]

  That is how we kept up the family network in the 50s, as well. Aunt and cousins came to our house in the country to look after Grandad, while Mum and I went to their flat in London. Other aunt and cousin came to us once a year, Mum and I went to them once a year! Our house was actually "home", as it was where the aunts were brought up.

[coombs]

I had a few tidbits of info to go on with my tree before I became a genealogist, such as I asked my gran in 2000 who her mothers maiden name was. Before that I had found out the name of my grandfather's maternal grandfather. It was not 2002 I was bitten by the genealogy bug.

[ThrelfallYorky]

I'm an only child, married to another only child. One of my parents was only child, other had sister. Next generation older, several "Aunts & Uncles to my parents, but only three bred. Of those three, two had no children. We're extinct - nearly!
TY

[Nanna52]

I'm an only child, married to another only child. One of my parents was only child, other had sister. Next generation older, several "Aunts & Uncles to my parents, but only three bred. Of those three, two had no children. We're extinct - nearly!
TY

Sounds like me except Dad was one of eight.  As with larger families some split.  As that generation died off the cousins had their own lives and didn’t keep in touch, especially with those who moved away from their birth place.  A couple have contacted on odd occasions with queries about family history, but most I wouldn’t know if I fell over them.  Not nearly extinct, getting there.  Ex husbands side closer as we only had one child and grandkids have no intention of having children.

[Top-of-the-hill]

  Our family is not going to become extinct, but the rather uncommon surname is heading that way because of a tendency to produce females! One cousin kept it as her professional name, and still uses it, but it is a rearguard action, as she only has one daughter, who uses her father's name.

[ThrelfallYorky]

Yes, my maiden surname ( what an old-fashioned phrase now, I think) is unusual except in the small part of England the whole lot originated in.
TY