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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: tkgafs on Thursday 14 April 11 08:22 BST (UK)
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I know we are all really keen to get our family trees back as far as we can, but will we kill off the hobby, as there will do nothing left for our descendants to discover.
any thoughts ?
Tkgafs
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My mother started tracing her family tree way back in the 1960's - so there is little or nothing to discover there (tho she does have one or two brick walls which have stumped several researchers
My father started doing his tree in the early 1990's but gave up when ill health and dementia took hold 15 years later - altho he always intended to get back to it "when he was better"
I started tracing my husbands tree in the late 1990's and there is still plenty to go at in there
I have recently been given my father's work and i am in the process of checking & continueing it. I have already found a marriage he couldnt trace, and discarded 4 generations of a family where he had connected wrongly.
So my advice is - do all you can, there will still be more for your descendants to do! After all there is no guarantee that future generations will even be interested.
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And even if they are not interested later - we are keeping our brain cells active now and 'meeting' lots of nice people along the way! ;)
Wiggy :)
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Well thats certainly true Wiggy, it was just something that came up last night, unusually all the children were at home for a meal, and we got talking about it, and I was interested to hear of anybody's else views
Tkgafs
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What did your children think?
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I think there will always be more to do!
As more and more sources become available - and I mean online! - many of those connections we tentatively made years ago will either be confirmed, or proved wrong.
I know that some of my early research (before internet!!) was a bit "iffy" to say the least!
And some of the "trees" put about on a certain genealogy website (beginning with A) simply beggar belief!
Lots of corrections to be done, then. ;D
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I don't know about anybody else but I'm in this for the journey - not the destination.
If I start thinking about how much more I can do, I know I won't live long enough to do it all. Also, being childless, there is nobody to pass it on to so it is just for my own satisfaction.
I think you are also falling into the trap of thinking that it will all end with you. Your descendants will be just as interested in you and your children/grandchildren as you are in your ancestors.
Rishile
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I've been fortunate .... I do up single A4 pages for different older rellies and each one enjoys reading my regular updates.... I try to write these up from the point of view of those rellies direct forebears .... I'm fortunate in that there's a definite naming pattern on several lines...
I usually include at least one picture, either a map or an image of a church that I mention in these A4 pages. They get one at Christmas, one at Easter, one for their birthday and one for either Mothers Day or Fathers Day (depending on if they are female or male) ...
They delight in any hint of a SCANDELL, of course NOT from their own generation who were all so pure ;D ;D but sometimes there's enough hint to remind them of some further oral history that I then follow up. Several bigamists, a female arsonist sentenced to death, but transported instead, a sad suicide, many infant deaths, some children fostered, a divorce in early 1900s with the wife achieving custody of the child AND the offending husband sent to prison for domestic violence AND no co-respondent even mentioned in the many (near 100) pages of the NSW Supreme Court's records... some medical history showing Breast Cancer for one line in their early 40's ... including a male ... yes a male..., many seafarers so that's being an interesting series of A4 pages to track them, some Royal Navy chaps too, and back to Duke of Wellington at Waterloo as well ... AND I've NOT YET got back much earlier than say 1750's ,,,, AFTER SOME NEAR SIX DECADES of researchings .. (err... got lots of 'romantic' pedigrees from those earlier times .... BUT not had time or patience to follow up ... too much of interest in the NSW lot ....
My generation of their descendants love these too, so the different elderly rellies now have proper A4 lever arch files with plastic sleeves and the A4 pages etc are inserted into these. Its never a burden or a chore for me, and it is a great way to continue to enjoy family history searchings.
Of course once the internet came along, and with the increasing popularity of family history research, many of the oral history stories are able to be explained by the easier access to digitised records (newspapers in particular), and so sometimes I find that the oral history that has been passed down actually refers to a different generation from the actual lore, but so far, none of the rellies have become too disappointed.
As to the intense development of the hobby through the advances in technology, thus causing perhaps future generations to have nothing left to look for, well I am sure that they can always re-validate my own research, and of curse AS I AM NSW BASED, then there's always the opportunity for those future generations to finally have access to the CLOSED records held here. (NSW Births are closed for 100 years, marriages closed for 50 years, deaths closed for 30 years) .... that's four generations of records that will become available !
Cheers, JM
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Lots of good stuff here
I have been researching my own tree off and on since the 1980s I suppose, but I only really started seriously 18 months ago when my wife gave me a copy of Family tree with an ancestry subscription as a Christmas present.
I find the most satisfaction in the journey as well, I love the puzzle of being able to prove a particular relationship, the final breaking of a brick wall etc, although as with everyone else some walls will remain indestructible.
Our children (although they are all adults now !!) seem fascinated when you actually print it out as a big tree on lots of bits of paper, and lay it on the floor, which brings home to them how many peoples blood fills their veins, and thats just the one we know of.
They are also very interested in the geographic movement of people, in my case my mothers family seem to have started in Yorkshire and moved North west and my fathers in Ireland and moved east eventually settling around Galloway and Cumberland. I'm thinking of trying to plot this on google maps but havent quite qorked out the best way to do it yet.
and yes any touch of scandal or misdeed is manna from heaven.
Old wills are another source of fascination, and copies of documents written in someones own writing brings it alive, yet the legendary "his/her mark" excites as well.
I wasn't suggesting we stop and leave things unfinished, I just wanted to hear other peoples reaction to an idea like that.
best wishes
Tkgafs
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Just make things as difficult for future generations as you can from now.
Get married and divorced a couple of times, change your name whenever you feel like it, lie about your age and move about a lot.
Give 'em something to worry about.
Elin
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:o :o :o :o
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
8) 8) 8)
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Just make things as difficult for future generations as you can from now.
Get married and divorced a couple of times, change your name whenever you feel like it, lie about your age and move about a lot.
Give 'em something to worry about.
Elin
and if your maiden name is smith marry someone called smith
and call all your daughters jessie no matter how many there are
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...and don't forget to change the spelling of your name on every document
...and why not disappear for a few years - preferably a census year.
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and if your maiden name is smith marry someone called smith
and call all your daughters jessie no matter how many there are
and your boys too, that will throw them off the scent.
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Or make sure that your children have the same names as your brother's children (or a family with the same surname) - and peferably they all marry someone with the same forename! ;D ;D
Ever come across multiple John/Ann couples in the same town!! ;D ;D
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Oh yes KGarrad
And don't forget to have your children within a month or two of your brother's children with the same name and born in the same town. If possible, do this three or four times with each of your brothers.
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Great replies - I agree with the others on here, this will be a never ending hobby really - and will continue and grow into all directions, lands and sea's.
;)
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...and don't forget to change the spelling of your name on every document
...and why not disappear for a few years - preferably a census year.
We have one woman who dutifully appears in every census but is always born in where she was when the previous census took place, we think she answered the question where are you from with where ever she was last time !!
She has absolutely no idea what her age is either its utterly inconsistant
We have also have a grandfather who when he was registering a death seems to have used the first name that came into his head as a parents name, curiously this has actually been helpful in making links we would not have made, but makes searching difficult
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Or make sure that your children have the same names as your brother's children (or a family with the same surname) - and peferably they all marry someone with the same forename! ;D ;D
Ever come across multiple John/Ann couples in the same town!! ;D ;D
I have a brother & sister called Thomas & Ann. They both married their cousins (same surname) also named Thomas & Ann.
Care to hazard a guess at what the children from both marriages were called?
Thats right -- Thomas & Ann
Dread to think of the confusion around the dinner table when they had a family get-together!
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I too am on a journey and as I like the experience of investigating family members beyond my main lines (i.e. sisters & brothers, uncles & aunts - particularly if there was something of interest going on) I don't think I'll ever run out of things to search.
I've also been able to connect with a few distant relatives and am now planning trips across the seas to meet/visit them. The doors keep opening - and I will keep going as long as I am enjoying going through them.
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My research will be left for anyone who's interested.
Some may be pleased a major part of it is just there, ready to read and learn about.
Some may prefer to ignore it, and want to start the whole process again, just for their own enjoyment.
Some may want to just ignore it, because they simply aren't interested.
I can never leave the whole story, because there will always be something else to be discovered, or corrections to be made.
None of the above bothers me. I started it all initially because my parents knew so little about their family history. What I've discovered so far, and been able to share, has been so rewarding. It's also opened up communication with some of the wider family on both sides; really brought family members together.
I'm just going to carry on doing it for my own enjoyment, but may leave it all in my will, in a big box, with a huge warning about how addictive it can be!
Mrs. T.
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One note Mr. T said flagged something for me. I have made USB backup of the old photos I've recovered and store it in my safety deposit box with a page that is paper-clipped to our wills. The process can be repeated, but the photos are precious. I've also attached written explanations for some of the more difficult sluething / findings / documentation that I've completed so that anyone else that looks won't encounter the same brick walls. (Both pics and stories, of course, are a work in progress that I update and store from time to time.)
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As an American researcher whose ancestors came from many areas in Europe and the UK between 1619 (earliest found) and 1871(latest) I can't imagine ever running out of avenues to pursue. Simply connecting those who immigrated in the early 1800s, or before, back to their origins is a huge challenge. I have all my 2x great grandparents and all but one couple of my 3 x greats, but after that it thins out considerably.
What I have found is that if I can find a direct link back to where they were living overseas (for example with the more recent emigres), then I can do a pretty good job (with help from other RCers, of course) of tracking them back a few more generations. But if he came over in the 1680s, and suggestions from old records are that he came from either England or France (yes, he has a French surname, but nearly all the other people on headrights lists with him have typically English surnames) then where does one begin? Do I travel to England, or do I learn to speak better French? (These two questions are rhetorical.)
So I don't think I'm doing too much. My question might be are some people doing too little? For example, when I find a tree, or a book, etc. that purports to take one of my lines back to a 9th or 10th great grandfather I don't take it at face value. I do whatever I can to verify each connection for myself. This happened recently in one of my Scottish lines and I was able to prove to my own and others satisfaction where there was a leap of faith that led to a wrong conclusion.
Nick
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Yes more cousins to marry cousins, different branches of the surname to marry and live in nearby areas. Have big families with different generations of the surname around the same area. Keep swopping your middle name and have several smith lines and also in the same areas as others and keep the same surnames amongst the generations in the same area, e.g. thomas son of thomas.
I am trying to get as many photos from relatives as possible. from my direct line and sidelines, Who knows what we will find. I am storing them on different media. I like using memory sticks for storing photos.
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I like using memory sticks for storing photos.
My son's been telling me for ages he thinks that's the best way to organise & store them. Guess I'll have to listen to him now!
RedMystic - what great ideas - and how organised you are!
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Well I think I may have put a small spanner in the works for anyone in the future looking at the 2011 census here in Ireland.
I, feeling very smug, and claiming to be the resident family expert insisted that I filled it in.
One of my sons was christened Michael and his birth cert, passport etc confirm this. However, he is known by everyone by a different name (long story - also my fault ::) ) One guess which name I put on the Census.
I think I might have got my Mums birthdate wrong as well.
OH is doing the next one ;D
A really not smug anymore Icicle