RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: anniedwyer84 on Sunday 06 December 09 21:06 GMT (UK)
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We're all here on this site for common purpose...researching our family history. But I want to know, where did the inspiration to start researching for your families come from?
For me...I remember when I was young in my granny's house and just drawing out my family tree - only went to my grandparents names then. And a couple of years after that, I got in touch with this woman in America who was looking for family and I gave her some information, and she and I kept in touch until she died of cancer in 2002. My interest in genealogy and all things researchy deepened and still is a very big passion of mine.
x x
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Hi
When I was young my grandmother told me about her time as a servant and said that she'd gone into service as she didn't like her stepmother. She went on to tell me her mother had been drowned when the HMS Albion was launched on the Thames and the backwash destroyed a jetty throwing people into the river. I forgot about this until talking with my uncle a few years ago. I was determined to find out more and so started researching my tree. How I wish I'd started earlier when my grandmother was still alive :(
Jan
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For me, it is only in the last 10 years I have been interested due to never having enough time in the day. Then I realized that all the family who had the answers (or some of them) were all passing away, including my Dad, Grand parents, etc, now there is only Mum left and she is 90.
We always believed we were from Scotland, but my Rae side went to Scotland between 1820-1830 from Ireland, it has been very rewarding in what I have found in Scotland and yes hundreds of family members.
When Gr Gr Grandad arrived in Scotland his name was O'Raw, he dropped the O saying it sounded to Irish, and became Raw, then for some reason he changed it again to Rae, this was in the 1870's, I can see exactly where he change it. On the birth certificate of one of his Sons he was Raw, when I found the child had died aged 3, the name had become Rae.
One big problem with this is how do we know what our family crest is ? O'Raw, Raw, or Rae.
Trish :-\
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Oh, I wasn't inspired, I was told to do it, by Mrs. Hat!
I started earlier this year.
Nearly finished........................
;D ;D ;D ;D
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I started out years ago, by helping my SIL with it, then when she got to ill, i kept going, and going and going and going....... :D
Daizi
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I always felt I didn't know half of myself. All I knew was my paternal grandmother was English. Dad never spoke of his family, saying he left home at an early age and never looked back. I now know that wasn't true.
I tried to start years ago but got nowhere. Thanks to the Internet, I've been at it these last five years and have made much progress.
I ADORE this website and all I've met here and happily continue the research!
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I read an article in a local newspaper about 30 years ago about a small group of local family historians who were meeting at each their homes & were seeking a building at low rent. I knew I had English, Irish & Prussian ancestors but knew nothing about them so I joined the group; a sponsor let us have a building on commercial property until they wanted to sell it & the group soon grew & became the Family History Association of North Queensland Inc. It now owns it's own property & has an amazing library & research material.
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I used to feel that I had a "little" family. My Dad was an only child and I was Dads only child and I grew up as an only child (MUm was married previous and had 3 other kids, the youngest was 17 when I was born)
It was when my parents seperated (I was about 14) and Mum rescued a pile of photos, certs. etc...Dad was going to burn them.
It started me thinking about my family, and now I had photos etc.. to make them even more real.
So 22 years later I realsie I come from a "large" family, and the last couple of years I have become totally addicted to family history. :D
The internet has made searching so much easier, but I still wished I has asked so many more questions.....
Gail.
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when visiting my sister in September we found an old suitcase with a birth certificate of my older brother whom none of my siblings new anything about!
he had died very young , but cant find a death certificate, but am still working on him.
with both my parents now deceased we couldnt ask either of them
then we found out my father had enlisted in the Fleet Air Arm and lied about his age!
then we found another document about my grandmothers plot where she had been buried.
it was at that point I said to myself I need to find out more.
so I came home (Iceland) and have been trying to find out as much as I can about us ever since!
it is fascinating and I have still got a long way to go.
I am going to Scotland at Christmas to investigate more!
regards and thanks to those from rootschat who have helped me so far in my quest!
watch this space!
Elaine
;D ;D ;D ;D
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I started because I read Alan Bennett's autobiography, in which he related a story abut his uncle who had died in Flanders, and Alan gave the address of the CWGC. I knew that my grandfather had died in WW1, so wrote to them giving what little information I had, and within a week I had the information from them. As an only-child of only-child parents I didn't think I had a family - wrong ;D As a child I called lots of people uncle or aunt, and now I know that a great majority of them were really relatives - if only I'd known then, what I know now, my research would be so much easier. Then when my father died I inherited a load of papers and photographs. Unfortunately a lot of the photographs remain as unknown persons, although I do now have a photograph of my grandfather who died in 1916 and I have posted it on the Thiepval Memorial database, amongst the paperwork were the marriage and death certificates for my great grandfather, plus newspaper articles on his funeral.
I'm now, of course, totally hooked.
BumbleB
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A theme that seem to be running through this thread is "if only I'd asked". To all of those who still have older relatives around I'd say ask, ask and then ask some more ;) ;)
Jan
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my grandads family tree had been done and i knew nothing about my grannys family so i thought i would have a go
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Being the only only child in my generation on both sides of my family - all my cousins have siblings - and not having lived in the city I was born in until my late 20s, I never felt like I belonged anywhere. All my family is spread out all over the UK, plus Canada and Australia. The closest I got to feeling 'at home' was when I went over to Yorkshire to visit my dad's parents - I thought my grandfather was pretty much dyed in the wool Yorkshire... little did I know!
I was given a scrapbook by my paternal grandmother as a young girl which contained the basics of my dad's parents' family tree, but didn't really get into research properly until becoming unemployed about a year ago.
Katie
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When my father died in 1996, my mother produced several BMD certs I had never seen before. I asked her if she had any for her family. Apart from her own birth and marriage certs., she had none. I decided to have a go at finding what I could.
Until I had my own computer in 1999, progress was slow, but now 10 years on, I have her family back to 1666, and am having great problems finding my father's family further back than 1870s, all in Ireland!
Since then I have attended various genealogy classes and do occasional searches for other people.
My tree is still ongoing.I really should put it into a program :-\
Kooky
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i started about tens years ago but you could say it all started 30 years ago when i was at school we had to do a family tree the teacher said just do what you can i ran home buzzing i think my mam was just as keen as me i or (she) got back to 1826 births deaths and marrages no baptisms lol mine was the best in the class but 10 years ago got going for real then when we got our 1st computer it just took over.
neil
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I didn't think to ask either grandmother the question What was the name of your mother or anything about their childhood until it was too late, so I set about finding these names and now I'm hooked. The rootschatters are so helpful. It's nice to be in such good company while we all research our family history.
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my dad being adopted was one trigger and watching mum spend years tracing his ancestry through library fiches (no computers then !)
also listening to my mum and gran trying to figure out what happened to her father in 1919 when he just disappeared !!! so about 18mths ago i solved it for my mum just wish my nan was still around to know about it and also learn she had half siblings in australia....
so never give up that mystery took 89 years to solve :)
hopefully your missing persons turn up sooner ;)
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I am absolutely loving reading all the tales about what inspired you all to start researching your family history. Some wonderful, heart warming stories in there.
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I just had a fascination with my great grandmother, who I never met as she'd long died before I was born, and wanted to find out more. I spent hours at a time in the library as a teenager looking through the Kelly's directories and electoral registers and found absolutely nothing about anyone, so gave up after searching intermittently for a few years.
Then I tried online a few years back with no joy until I found better sites a couple of months ago.... and *bingo*!! I was over the moon to say the least! I'm so happy to have found so many family members, it's so intersting - and now my brother's got the bug too!
This site and rootschatters have been invaluable, I can't thank you enough!
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I started because I went to a Womens Meeting and the topic was 'Family History'. The lady doing the talk showed all her certificates she had collected and I found it so interesting I began to do my own.
I started with my grandad who was born in Ireland in 1870 but unfortunately I have only got back to his parents marriage certificate and I hit a brick wall. I have visited where he was from and have his birth certificate and one of his brothers but this has not detered me.
Nine years on I have eight lever arch files of research on the rest of my families and have done my husbands tree too
I am totally hooked and one day I will climb through that Irish brick wall.
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I started because someone was already researching one part of my family tree and contacted my mum, who was 91 at the time, to see if she had any info, other than what can be gained from BMDs.
I met this distant relative and since then I've been hooked. Now when I get fed up of with trying to find my elusive g.grandfather, I do research on the original part of the tree, filling in the gaps that had been missing. My mum used to talk about lots of people from her childhood and it's been very interesting to find out how these people link together in the family.
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My parents divorced when I was about 11 years old & I had no contact with my father or his family from then on. My mother was researching her family history & I started wondering about my father's side & where his family had come from, so 35 years later I started on my father's side & put some details on Genes Reunited. I always knew where to find my father's family (country town in NSW) but didn't know how they would react to me contacting them & also being a bit "scared". So only after a few months of having my details on GR, a cousin contacted me & shortly after came & visited. After that an Aunt & Uncle came to see me & about a year later was invited to the country town as an uncle was having a 70th birthday. I went & got reintroduced after 35 years to 8 aunt's & uncles & 16 cousins & their families. My father has made contact once (won't dwell on that) but I have been more than welcomed by the rest of the family & have made several visits back.
A theme that seem to be running through this thread is "if only I'd asked". To all of those who still have older relatives around I'd say ask, ask and then ask some more ;) ;)
Jan
After researching my father's side I have the "bug" for research & have been researching my husband's side for the last 2 years as we have 2 sons to carry on the name & hopefully they will eventually be interested in everything that I have found out.
I have asked the mother in law questions (as husband's father is dead) & all I get is very terse replies of NO when I ask her does she know this or that. She has even said that I am just digging up dirt! I haven't found anything that I consider "dirt" just some interesting things, so I just keep on searching hoping to find my pot of dirt !! ;D
Cathy
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I started as I knew very little about my Fathers side of the family. He died in 1977 when I was quite young.
I along with my brother and sisters lived with him as my mother left us and remarried. Upon his death she took custody and from then on I lost any real contact with what few relations I had left on my fathers side of the family although I loved them all very much and remember them with great fondness. My mother then went through the process of having our surnames changed to match hers from her second marriage.
Even at that young age I resented what was happening but was in no position to disagree or discuss.
As I got older I'm afraid this resentment turned to anger towards my mother and I was determined to get in touch with my "old family" again which I managed to do but by then many had died.
For me it was important that I discovered more about my own identity and to ensure that the memory of my father and his family live on.
:-[
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Having a little spare time after a major op I decided to find out where my 'rogue' gene had come from (I had had to pay additional premiums on life insurance). My mother and her younger sister proved very helpful, especially if they were together :) Sadly my father had died when I was in my teens - and you may guess where that gene was inherited from.
Over the past 30 years I have pursued this, overcoming several brick walls - and surprisingly the internet has NOT proved particularly helpful - it has been hard slog in the record office - in part because of Presbyterianism on the Scottish border with records are still being deposited.
The good news is that medical treatments have advanced and I am well past the age of most of my paternal grandmother's forebears. It has been a fascinating journey and it is still continuing.
Lilym
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I had no option but to investigate my paternal side of the family tree through GROS records as none of my relatives would take it upon themselves to discuss/divulge what they knew. If the subject was raised it was always met with the same answer That was in the past.
On my first attempt at the visiting the GROS approximately 6/7 years ago I made no headway. However, later through the internet research I became more aware of what records Scotlands People held & four months ago I made a breakthrough.
I have had the most satisfaction in providing my father in his later years with my grandfathers details etc. This has brought him and myself a large degree of contentment.
Further to this in the past four months my family tree research was for me addictive and I have been able to take all lines fairly easily back to the early 1800's. I find it fascinating to find out where my ancestors lived and what their employment was, military service etc bringing history alive. I even discovered I was a direct descendant of a scottish martyr, who has a monument build to him in my home city of Edinburgh. PS. I recall a number of years ago a tourist asking me on the Royal Mile what the monument was when at the time I was oblivious.
I may start my wife's side of the family in the New Year but this will prove more daunting as I have no knowledge of Irish records which I will come across after a couple of generations.
Keep searching.