what made you search for your roots?

[Skipworth]

Deleted

[Webby]

My father one day started to tell me about his school days and some of the trouble he got into (and expelled once.....he didn't tell me why?) and then I realised that I knew absolutely nothing about where he went to school or for that matter anything about his parents.

So I asked him did he remember his grandparents and he replied that yes he was a teenager before they passed away.  "What was their names?" asked I....................he thought for a moment then replied.................grandmother & grandfather!!!!!!!!!.  He never knew their names!

So I got interested, and then proceeded to bombard him with information until he sadly passed away a few years ago..........still waiting for him to contact me with some answers from a couple of brick walls!!! 

Still waiting Dad!!.

Webby

[Skipworth]

Interesting story Webby - my father didn't know his grandparents names either but then they died fifteen years before he was born.  He had 9 aunts and uncles - some he never met. So sad - he has said many times since I have started searching 'how I wish I had taken notice of mother when she talked about the family' - I guess we have all been guilty of that when we were young

I also have a 90 year old uncle [my dad's brother] who when I tell him what I have found 'oh I knew that' - so annoying and then I find out that he has a family bible and hasn't said anything to me about it   I am just waiting for the 'right' moment - after all my dad is the eldest in the family and I think he should have it My dad thinks I have found out much more than is in the bible as he doesn't think it goes back very far.

Hope you brickwalls start to crumble

Cheers
Skipworth

[debi-robo]

I started researching after my husbands Gran showed me a photo of her Gran and i found myself looking at the spit of my own Gran who is still alive.

My Gran and my husbands Gran have now met and husbands Gran admits that they are identical.

So i thought there must be a link here somewhere, am still looking, though to be fair Husbands tree has sort of been brushed aside as i got carried away with my own.

Debbie

[nort]

mine started with the release of the 1901 census online as i had read about it in some newspaper and i had just recently bought a computer but then that website crashed and it was months before we could view it again.So i asked for a lookup in the 1881 census and the reply amazed me so much i had to find out more and it seems to have become a never ending quest!

Steve

[kerryb]

Steve

I remember the first time I got an answer from someone on Rootschat, to a lookup I requested.  The answer was so quick I nearly fell off my chair!!!!

Kerry

[Nick Carver]

I started because apart from my immediate family, I didn't know any relatives with the name Carver. Now I am in contact with several distant cousins, but still haven't found a picture of my grandad who apparently looked just like me.

[aspin]

I always wondered if my maiden name McKenzie was Scotch or Irish

How ever I am Scotch

We had been on a tour to New Zealand two years ago and enjoyed it very much I was always told my granda McKenzie was born on a ship one mile out of New Zealand (as his mother liked to travel ) being little I never thought about people travelling in those days

After New Zealand we flew to Australia to my mums cousins where I was shown the marriage certificate of my grt grt grandparents (mums side )

I found out a genealogy class had started in the village so I went along and have done so well

Alas when we were in New zealand at Dunedin we had a day to ourselves we just wondered the streets and looked in the shops

It wasn't until I sent for my grandas birth certificate that I found out he was born in Alva Street Dunedin and his brother was buried there

Some day hope to go back and find these places

Elizabeth

[Emmeline]

Reading through a genealogy magazine I saw that the reason one lady was hooked was because  as a small child she used to fill in the the forms required to keep track of her grandfather's pedigree cows. Finding out which cows were related to each other !
From then on she was hooked into finding out about her own generations......