RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: gill baker on Friday 26 February 16 19:53 GMT (UK)
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Thanks to all on this site who helped me with posts etc.
Decided to stop genealogy having found out all I want to know.
best wishes from Gill
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You could hang around & help others.
Just a thought.
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ooo how -- doesn't seem possible to have 'found all you want'
I know I will run out of time, before I come to that decision.
still far too much to do and discover -
Good luck with your next venture, but as Jim says - we love Help on here :)
xin
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You could hang around & help others.
Just a thought.
Good idea. I don't think I could ever say that I've found out all I want to know as new records and information are being released all the time.
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Depending on what you were looking for in your research, but as others have said there is always something new out there. I've been dabbling for about 36 years on and off, and still find more.
But as I said, it depends on what reasons you had for starting out in family history.
Good luck with wherever life takes you! :)
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I thought I was at the point of finding out everything. Ive traced most of my ancestors and followed their linage to living relatives I never thought existed. But probably not far away from finding out everything that is available for long gone ancestors.
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I don't think I'll ever finish it all in my lifetime though like most I am more interested in some lives than others.
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Best of good fortune Gill ... drop in now and then and say Hello.
Joe
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Good Luck and it's so nice to have a Thank You
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I'll never finish either. I was going through my tree last night trying to work out what I don't know and the list is very long though I didn't get through the whole tree in one evening.
Do pop in from time to time.Even if it's just to the common room.
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I think some people new to this wonderful hobby get disillusioned to it as it does not all fall into place the same as it does on the TV programmes. If you hit a brick wall early on in your searches it can Throw you off from continuing. It also depends on how much information you have to start with. Another factor to take into concise ration is the cost and time involved. I have been doing mine for over thirty years and still enjoy it just as much. I still get excited when new sources are released and I can pad my tree out more.
The beauty of this hobby is you can return to it when ever you want.
Regards panda
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I've sort-of finished for about the last 10 years, as Irish records run out about 1780-1830 depending. But then I started to follow distant cousins forward (usually courtesy of Rootschatters!).
I'm hooked, so need my daily fix on this site, and I also took up recording graveyards - my friends think I'm demented about graveyards, but you lot here will understand!
Good luck, Gill, with whatever you do next! Enjoy!
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As already said by others, it must depend on what you are / were looking for, I only started because my niece wanted to know about my late father in law (The Grandad she never knew) and wow! it just grew from there. I don't think I'll ever be at the end as there's always something.
Best of luck and my good wishes in all that you do in the future, drop by sometime :)
Frank.
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Many years ago I told my mum that I was going on a coach trip to the FRC in London,she said "But I thought you'd finished all that genealogy lark " !!!
Just because I'd managed to put her in touch with her 10 cousins,she thought that was the end of my search. ::)
Over 30 years later I'm still searching and desperately hoping to go farther back into the 18th century on all my lines,but have massive brick walls...........no one being baptised is one of them ;D
Carol
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It's impossible to "finish", once you've been bitten! I can't seem to get any further on most lines, after all the time spent on it, but I live in hope, and still keep pottering around records / Ancestry. I'd like to say I can help a lot of others - but compared with the real experts on here, I'm still going "Goo-goo - gurgle gurgle" - but it's nice to try.
Gill, can't believe you've "finished"
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I've recently managed to get back to 1710 on one of my lines, much to my surprise, but I'm now up against a brick wall on this line, as I so want to push it back even further and just can't find the baptism I'm looking for. Obviously looking in the wrong place... 8)
Not so long ago, I got really cheesed off and dropped it for a bit, to concentrate on other things. But now I'm back and raring to go. Look out ancestors. I'm coming for you! ;D
No, as others have said, I don't feel that I've even started with this genealogy lark and I've been at it now for about 8 years. The end is nowhere in sight... :D
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When I started in the 1950s I only had to record my family but then I married and had another set of ancestors to record, then my sons got married and that brought more and more lines to record, now my first grand children are nearly old enough to have partners and the tree will expand yet again.
That plus further research into my original lines means my family history is nowhere near being finished.
Other people take up genealogy for a more specific purpose and complete their research in a few years. That is their choice, perhaps they will leave it forever but perhaps they or their children might take up where they left off and carry on for more years.
That is one of the joys of genealogy we can do as much or as little as we like.
One thing I have noticed is how it all comes round in a circle, when I started much of my genealogy was done at home writing letters and waiting for replies, when I became a teenager and an adult my research changed to visiting more archives and libraries etc. rather than writing to them, now as the years go by I am again doing a high percentage of genealogy at home and waiting for the internet to supply the results (albeit far quicker than Royal Mail did in the past).
Cheers
Guy
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I had the same idea as Gill. I learned we had a WWI casualty and felt so guilty that I hadn't known there'd been one in the family that I set out to look for him. Once I'd found him I told myself I could get on with other things in my life.
As you can see, I'm still here because old family stories kept popping into my mind and out came the notebook and off I went searching in dark corners to see if any of them were true. They were, but I still didn't stop because around every corner there's a big surprise waiting to be discovered.
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I started out about 8 years ago and haven't stopped since. It started out simply to trace my dad's roots, which I have mostly accomplished, traced OH's maternal side back to Holland, my paternal grandmother's stories turned out to be true, dug up two well buried skeletons, found two new cousins and now seem to have uncovered a bigamist, my first "bad boy".
Next project is to see whether my maternal grandfather was really the descendant of an earl and to find OH's paternal line.....
Genealogy is never done................... ::) ;D
But that is the fun of it, you can do as much or as little as you choose, how big you want to grow your tree and how many branches you want it to sprout.....................
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Well
I have now got 3 step siblings to look up!!! and work on...... after I had filed that part of the family - as a maybe I wont touch that line, THEY got in touch with me....
Now they are NOT blood line, so really should stay in the box ... but Their Father was my Step Father, so... why not see where it leads..
xin
who knows....
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Well
I have now got 3 step siblings to look up!!! and work on...... after I had filed that part of the family - as a maybe I wont touch that line, THEY got in touch with me....
Now they are NOT blood line, so really should stay in the box ... but Their Father was my Step Father, so... why not see where it leads..
xin
who knows....
It might not be genealogy but it is certainly family history as they will have an influence on the family.
That is why I like to be aware of the people who lived in the same village as my ancestors as they all influence the actions and lives of our ancestors.
We act and react according to our situation and surroundings to a greater or lesser degree.
Cheers
Guy
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I was really lucky, as I got a bit of a head start with mine, as my maternal grandmother had kept a box full of BMD records, including her own, my Mum and her sister's, my grandfather's, plus her parents marriage, my dad's birth, and my parents marriage as well. Scottish records, so good detail. loads of very old photos! I was very spoiled.
Didn't start straight away though, it was a request from my nephew a good few years later that started me off. He was getting married and wanted to wear a family tartan, so started delving a bit, and after a while, caught the bug, big time!
And still going, but I did take a break for a year or so after I had a computer fry - demoralised, and lost a lot of info. Had to save up for a new computer! Fortunately I had backed up quite a bit with paper copies, and kept a family journal etc but it was a massive task getting started again! Once I retired and stopped working full time it was much easier.
As others have said, everyone has their own expectations re what they want to know, and that's cool!
I know many people, including myself at times, who decide - right - that's it. No more! Got enough!
But time it right, wait till subs run out, and don't renew! Go back to those only if and when you feel like it! 🌺
And it can be very expensive too! Tough if one is on a limited budget!
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I have managed to link a very large number of people in UK and Australia who are all related but did not know it because of an errant person who sowed his seed in many places.He was a cousin of mine and it resulted in visits too and from to meet each other.
There was a lot of excitement........... at the time ..........but now it has reached a stage where they have all wearied of it and want to get on with their own lives.
A son of one of them,a second cousin to me,has downright taken me to task for opening a can of worms and he is quite correct.
I have learned my lesson and will not dabble with people who are still alive.
Joe
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I shall never be done with my family tree. I am like a terrier. More and more records are coming online, making genealogy much easier. I cannot be 100% sure I will find the parents of Sarah Coombs (Nee Unknown) born c1790 and died in Feb 1851, but I am sure as hell going to keep plugging away at it to see if I can do so, ditto for James Smith born c1791, died 1849. And I will do what I can to track down any ancestor siblings that seemed to vanish after a certain census. Some of those in the past were later accounted for in far flung places.
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I don't think it's possible to finish in a lifetime, I know I won't and I started in the 70's. As others have said I suppose it depends how far you wish to go with it. Best wishes to you whatever you do.
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I always feel that it's like a jigsaw without any edge pieces - and all the top bits missing/mislaid
. . and probably bits from other jigsaws in the box, confusing things!
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That is a nice place to be at Gill and it's good to hear Rootschatters have been helpful.
Enjoy your next venture.
I have enjoyed my journey thus far, still working at it. I do now have a greater sense
of being and respect for my forbears.
;D
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I'm too addicted to the research to ever give it up ::) :P :-X :-*
Good luck Gill with whatever you do in your future.
mab
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I am a one person team when it comes to researching my family tree, if I go into a Record Office I look up what they have then look through the microfilm and microfiche plus all the good books on the shelves which can be transcriptions of PRs and electoral rolls. I did mention a researcher who was a bit of a con artist, picking surnames at random and not finding what I wanted. That is like a farmer or drayman who finds his assistant has put the cart before the horse and the horse will have to push it rather than pull.
So now I do all the research myself either online or in RO's.
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I wish you well, I do understand. This genealogy can be as big or as small as you wish, it is also addictive ( as in my case.) I love the discovery of my roots, and the mystery of what was here before me , the what ifs, If she had gotten married, and finding one or two skeletons. I started because my family seem to have been Pottery folk for generations, so I wanted to know a time when they weren't.
It followed a short investigation into my partners roots, he was adopted during the war. He has found out all he wanted to know, and he says similar, he is with the now.
We can t all be the same, which is why we are here, and you are moving on, ;)
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Good luck Gill for whatever you decide to do now.
I am no where near as experienced as most of our other Rootschatters as I only started serious research a couple of years ago. Amazing what I have discovered so far didn't think it would be possible. Have researched my mum's birth family and dad's family, My late husband's for my kids (with very little to go on), My present O/H for his kids and my mum's foster family who were very important to her. Feel I have achieved so much and still have more to do than I will achieve in this lifetime. I can't imagine life without genealogy now. HOOKED
Lovely helpful people here who now feel like friends (not meant to be soppy) even my O/H asks now "what are those folk talking about today?. So many topics covered.
Please look in when you have time Gill.
Dorrie
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Think you've hit the nail on the head there, Dorrie. Even if I stopped adding to my tree, I'd still have to look in on Rootschat. I've made too many friends here to just stop.
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If people have done a good job at researching their family history and have acquired skills in the process it would be a shame not to use those skills to help others who are less advanced.
Blue