RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: guest225400 on Friday 04 July 14 17:01 BST (UK)
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Hello,
I've been doing my family history for over a year now. but I don't know where to go with my research.
With all of my family lines I've got very far back and can't seem to go any further, and I have explored many family lines. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas of what my next move should be. What do other people do when they reach the end?
Thank you,
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There is no end :)
I have been doing this for 6 years now and still have a long way to go, so I am curious to know how you have managed to cover everything in a year.
How many lines have you researched and how far back have you got?
Have you no brick walls where a fresh pair of eyes might help you to go even further?
Have you followed the lines back down again to find "cousins" at various levels?
Have you looked into the stories behind the names, dates and places?
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I wasn't aware there was an end. I started mine 40 years ago ,still going and still have 2 brickwalls.
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I've got back to about 1740 with my main line, and around 1800 with my others. I've had a look at a range of people many of whom aren't directly related to me. I've tried to get further back but it just seems impossible to find any solid proof that 'this' person is the right person.
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I'm a relative newbie at 12 years and I too am surprised that you say you are at the end of your research. I still have many unanswered questions and those I call "the disappeared", folk missing from census who appear, disappear and reappear, or who seem to have simply vanished into thin air. I regularly re-visit websites in the hope of new information.
Have you thought about putting the "flesh on the bones", research your ancestors occupations, the houses, towns, villages, streets or cities where they lived. Then there are the causes of death, other Rootschatters will find you many more reasons to keep searching.
Suey
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I am sorry but you dont seem to be digging deep enough.
Have you FOUND every possible ancestor, Paternal and Maternal lines.
Mothers - siblings families - Gt. Gt. Gt. grandmothers siblings and families and families..
Fathers ditto...
It doesnt 'end' till its finished.. and after 20 odd years -- I still have oodles to research thank goodness.
What it sounds like you MAY be saying is that you have taken the Paternal line as far as you can and not branched out into siblings and cousins and 2nd, 3rd 4th 5th cousins etc..
these are or can be very interesting... and all go into making your Family what it is
have a look again, and change the 'end' to a .nother ... branch.
xin
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I've research a lot, and I understand that I could go further out to the side rather than up. I do find it very difficult because I'm not a paying member of any website and I've had to try and do this all for free. I feel bad for asking people for help because I can't look at it.
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The concept of a "main line" puzzles me. You start with 2 which develops to 4 then 8 and so on.....
I am up to 51 end of line names for direct ancestors now and am looking forward to adding to the list when I find parents for each of these and discover where and how they lived their lives.
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My main line is my fathers line, however I've have been doing my mothers as well, it's just that I've focused more on more on my fathers
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There is an amazing amount of information out there for free now, so even if you cannot subscribe to a pay site there is always something new being added to the record sets. Some of the good free sites include familysearch, freebmd, freereg and freecen.
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There is an amazing amount of information out there for free now, so even if you cannot subscribe to a pay site there is always something new being added to the record sets. Some of the good free sites include familysearch, freebmd, freereg and freecen.
Maybe your local library has access to Ancestry or FindMyPast. I also have access to newspapers online to view at home through my local library using my readers ticket to access.
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I feel bad for asking people for help because I can't look at it.
I don't think you should feel bad about asking for help. There are loads of people here who enjoy helping simply because they enjoy the thrill of the chase.
Also, you can learn a lot even without membership in paying sites - online newspapers and Google books, just for example. If you don't want to go further back, or if that proves impossible, go wider or deeper. There's no end to the interesting information, especially if you're a naturally nosy person.
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How about your fatherīs mother and all the new lines that will lead backwards from her? Same thing with following both sides for your mother, then following both sets of parents for all grandparents, then for all great grandparents. All of these folks go into making you, not just your direct paternal line and your direct maternal line.
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How about posting what you know about your oldest (furthest back) direct line male ancestor and see if it means anything to anyone and if there is any help out there.
Also if you live in or near the area where your ancestors came from then you can visit the local archives for free and see what they have that may help you further.
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I too am amazed you are at this point in a year!
After 30 years I dont consider my research complete!!
But then I havent just done a pedigree (2 parents, 4 grandparents,8 ggrandparents) etc, Ive researched the family of each person fitting them into a tree that gets wider as it goes down (as opposed to a pedigree that gets wider as it goes up, if you see what I mean!) Thus producing many trees of that style for each "name" from my direct line.
E.g Grandad Edmonds married grannie Nellie Green, so I have a large Green Tree (green tree! Pun not intended) fitting Nellie in with all her siblings, then back to her parents and their siblings and descendents, and then as I got back a generation further, amd found the siblings of that generation I could follow each of them down, and so on.
But then great grandad Edmonds married a Farrington, so there is then all the Farrongton research in the same way, producing a Farrington tree as far back as I can go, following each person forward.
And so it goes on, for each generation back on my pedigree, and and has done for last 30 years.
Havent even started on my Mums ancestors yet!!!
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The whole point of rootschat is about asking for help, fresh eyes to look at what you find and there are so many people on here, who given the opportunity and love to help and share their knowledge.
Researching FH can be isolating and you can miss things even if you are looking at the parish books in the church or records office, someone else can see what you have missed and can often suggest other records you haven't even thought of or knew about.
I have never paid a subscription to a website, if I wish to use one it is a trip to the library to do so and although everyone's research is different the fact is that ALL your ancestors are equally related to you in both paternal and maternal lines and I don't live anywhere near where my ancestors did so it isn't like I can go and look myself at records.
My ancestors are 'boring' compared to some of their siblings and researching them has not only enabled me to research in different countries and find so much more as well as learn so much more they also go back to the same direct ancestors and that enables you other record opportunities from a new perspective
An example my grandfathers brother migrated to Canada, his wife died in an accident out there within weeks and he returned home however two of his adult sons decided to stay and although I knew they did I had no knowledge about them apart from their names, no knowledge about their mothers death, it was just said in the family " she had an accident" like it was some sort of secret or something to hide, by researching not only did I see an image of her death certificate on a Canadian Government website so know exactly what happened ( thanks to a question I asked on rootschat for help/advice) I also made contact with a descendant of my great uncle who sent me photos of our joint ancestors, my great grandparents and their children which included my grandfather aged 8 years old which none of the family here had seen before and I have been researching 35 years and still lots to learn and find.
So many lovely rootschatters have gone out of their way for me and took photos of parish records, taken and sent photos of grave stones, and share their own resources , do look ups or sort out confusing information and I have done the same many times for others
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I've got back to about 1740 with my main line, and around 1800 with my others. I've had a look at a range of people many of whom aren't directly related to me. I've tried to get further back but it just seems impossible to find any solid proof that 'this' person is the right person.
The thing about family history is there is never solid proof of anything.
All family history is a balance of probabilities.
Not even DNA can give solid proof.
I suggest you build up the "evidence" by using as many sources as possible to build a picture of the family from today back in time, never be content with just one source look for other "evidence" to add weight to the argument.
For example tie birth certificate in with census and school records & college registers and eventually death, burials & wills.
As you get further back tie in baptisms to the birth registers, look for other sources such as tax records, manorial records, property records
Look for other types of records to build a picture not just of the individuals but of the family and its place in the society (village, district, town) it lives in.
If necessary work other families bearing the same surname to rule out children with the same forenames.
My research was started about a hundred and twenty years ago, by my grandfather, I got involved in the 1950s (eventually inheriting it) and it still not finished, more sources become available as the years go by.
Private sources inaccessible become available as the holder dies and their successor is more amenable to the public access to family archives.
I hope my grandchildren and their grandchildren find researching the family history as exciting and interesting as I have.
One thing is certain it will never be finished.
Cheers
Guy
PS the bulk of my research has been done pre internet, however the internet bring easy access to resources such as newspapers.
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I have been researching the paternal side of my family for about five years, and while I consider that I have achieved a lot, I am always finding loads more to do, and love going off down one or more 'branches' to see what I can find. I also like looking at the neighbours on the Census returns, because most of my family comes from small Somerset villages, and I can see where friendships, and some marriages (and also some rather interesting 'relationships' :o) have come from, and can surmise why people were witnesses at weddings for example. I only subscribe to GR, and to offers from other sites, and have found most of my info from the free sites, and from County OPCs and local family history groups. So..... I don't think I will ever 'finish' my family history, and if I did, whatever would I do with my time??? :D
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"I also like looking at the neighbours"
I also sometime take a quick look at neighbors, colleagues, adversaries and other such figures, not because they are part of my family tree, but because they are part of an ancestor's social environment. So curiosity leads me to wonder why gg-uncle James might have split up with his law partner, for example.
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I agree with all the comments that have been posted here. The journey never comes to an end. After much soul searching I purchased a subscription to a newspaper site as my local library doesn't subscribe (but many do). It has been one of the most fascinating and enlightening things I have done in my family research. I have read about family incidents I would never have known about otherwise, good and bad, and it has given me a much deeper understanding of, and respect for, my ancestors. Why not try your local library to see if they have a newspaper library subscription?
Similarly, I have learned a lot from reading wills. My ancestors were all in fairly humble occupations but many of them left wills. I was surprised to find, for example, that a 6 x g grandfather born in the 1740s who left home and started from scratch in a neighbouring county as a blacksmith had left not only a thriving business but also a number of substantial properties in the same village (which I have since visited). Wills can also identify family members and clarify relationships.
Many county records offices also have online catalogues. These can contain a vast array of documents including bastardy records, property transactions, criminal convictions and many, many more categories. It is well worth a search for some of your family members.
Once you've been bitten by the family history bug there's no going back, you just have to keep finding out more.
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Hi Reece
I have been doing Family History for 15 years or more and my tree is wider than it's long, I am not interested in seeing how far back I can get as I am nosy too and soon get sidetracked. I am lucky that I live in an area which has 3 Local Archives within a short distance from where I live so I can spend hours looking at Archives, microfilms and not forgetting all those books on Local History, it's surprising how much there is in printed form as well as the internet.
I recently looked at some old School records and some of the comments wouldn't go down well today.
I found one of my ancestors reason for not attending school just said DEAD. Another reason I saw for 1 boy (not one of my ancestors) TO DIRTY TO SIT WITH ANYONE
My search at the moment thanks to FindMyPast is looking for Family members in India so it is never ending.
So there is always something new to find
Mo
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I agree with what everyone has been saying - I'm doing both my family and my husband's - and wish I'd been better at record keeping over the years. And have probably been working away for about 30 years - have mostly got back to around 1800, though back further with my own name. I thought i'd come to a halt with my husband's Wiltshire clan - and suddenly I realised I was missing a child - not only did I find her but her grandparents as well, who she was staying with. It has really opened things out - and yes I've come to a halt again. But sooner or later you have a good idea and follow it, and make a hole in the brick wall - and it's brilliant when you do.
Regards Derby Girl