Average Age of Family History Enthusiasts

[Ceci]

I'm 48 and started looking at my family history when my father died 6 years ago and I came across documents and old photographs that I didn't know existed before. They raised lots of questions and provided clues to get me started and I've been hooked ever since. I think it would have happened whatever age I had been at the time.

[kevan]

Hi,
    I am 45 approx. I went to my twin sister-in-law's 40th Birthday a couple of years ago, and saw an amazing family tree by my mother-in-law which had been carefully hand drawn and went back forever, much on the female line.
   So, I spent the first six months trying to find my grand father in the census for 1891, even though I had his birth certificate (born 1889). Then miraculously, I discovered the Ancestry 1891 on-line index and bought loads of resources, and a couple of years down the line, I have three web sites on the subject, covering just about everything you would want to know about Essex & Suffolk.
  Some call this hobby mad, I call it censusology, or is it cenlusology; perhaps we all want to be private detectives, as I do not care whose family I am researching. I just enjoy finding useful snippets of info that are often obvious, but need a few extra bits of the puzzle to get there.
Best
Kevan

   

[buttercup]

I feel so young when i read your notices!! But then im helping my father find info on his family

So im 24 and got hooked when my father showed me a labor certificate belonging to my ggrandmother and then the photos my father "rescued" from my grandfather who passed away just under 2 yrs ago.

The silly thing about the photos was they had names but no last names or dates so we were forever asking "who's this?" Shame on those who never write dates on photos!

Anyway to all a very merry christmas, and happy hunting!

BC

[landvaettir]

23   
 

[Arranroots]

  Hurray, I'm the most popular!!  (First time for everything)

Have been interested in names generally for years, but all this internet business makes it so much simpler to access info on relatives who didn't stay still in one place.  The Severn Bridge was built for my lot!!

Do have to try hard to balance my interest in dead people with the requirements of the living, however, especially ones that seem to need feeding more than once a day. Lol.

Arranroots

[Miriam]

I'm 20, so definitely one of the younger ones! I've been researching about a year because I wanted to find out who all these people were - http://www.villagephotos.com/viewpubimage.asp?id_=8741229
I'd wanted to know for as long as I can remember, I never really thought I'd go ahead and do it though. Quite a few people seem to have got into family history through wanting to know more about old family photographs...

[Amy K]

23 and 10 months... and NO! I'm not here to use the toilet!!!

(see...http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=16631.msg58956#msg58956)

[RachelK]

I'm 23 too Amy.

I only started in October but it's something that I've ALWAYS wanted to do. My mum says I was even interested as a child. I really wanted to start now, because my nan (last remaining grandparent) has been very ill. Once they're gone it's too late to ask!

My friends tend to get a glazed slightly bored look when I talk about genealogy, but to me it's very interesting, and I think knowing about your ancestors and where you came from isn't something that should be taken for granted, as it often is.

[Ladkyis]

I am 58 - I think - I started researching when I was recuperating from surgery and needed something to exercise my mind. My father was doing his family, my mother had loads of stuff on hers so my husband said "do my family, I don't have many relatives." that was in 1994, he now has around 1000 names on his family tree and only this week on another thread he found six generations from his mother's maternal line and went back to 1737 - now all he has to do is confirm the sources but for a man with "...not many relatives" he isn't doing too bad. I have now inherited the research done by my father and I too am trying to confirm sources.
Ann