Why genealogy?

[kerryb]

I started about 5 years ago because I found some details of my great and great great grandparents in the old family bible in the loft of my grandparents house.

My gran had filled in the details of their names and deaths but no births or marriages and I wanted to fill in the gaps.  However I couldn't just stop at filling in those gaps. 

Kerry

[silv]

after G.Gran died, nan [her daughter] gave me a family bible handed down from G'Grans Mother, and there were names and dates in it, and nan told me who was who, and i never forgot what she told me, by the way, i was about 11-12yrs old then [now 56] since then i've always wanted to do it, then 5yrs ago i got my PC, [never had one before!] and i got going! and never stopped!!!!
chris.

[silv]

by the way-----i still have that bible and would never part with it.
Chris.

[silvery]

One of my aunts did a tree of all the descendants of her mother, in 2000, and sent it round to everyone.

It seemed to me that we should know who we descended from.  so I started with that grandmother.  Her father was the only one with the surname in the 1901 census.  Actually there were a couple of others, but they were mistranscribed. They were of the same family though. Name is very rare and all the ones I can find are related to the one original family, and I can't get any further with it.
I can't quite remember what I did from there.  I wish I could.

[Roobarb]

A bit like Kooky, I started after my mother died. Unfortunately that was after my father, stepfather and all my aunts and uncles except one aunt, had died. I think it's quite a common thing to start researching when everyone has gone. I was prompted by a newspaper article which referred to the recently released 1901 census and it gave some other website addresses. And the rest, as they say, is family history!
                                        

[Guy Etchells]

Why not, to me genealogy or family history was something you learned just like walking, or any other normal everyday activity.
It is something I have been involved in since infancy even to the extent of tracing parish registers whilst learning to write.
Of course those were the days when one could lightly paint a register which had faded entries with tannic acid to magically make the writing appear.
Imagine trying to do that today!.
Cheers
Guy

[willow154]

I thought about it years ago, in my teens - I'd always liked history, especially local history and social history. There was also an interesting
gentleman in my husbands's family, who was the first Sanitary Inspector in Nottingham - we had a copy of a report he presented which made really interesting reading.which made me curious to find out more. So, it was always at the back of my mind, but jobs, time, children, etc all put it on hold.
Then, when I got talking to a friend in my village he showed me his family tree folder (he was so enthusiastic) and asked me if I wanted to go to the next meeting of the local family history society with him and his wife. At this time I was generally just feeling bored from sitting watching, or escaping, sport on tv + repeats of various programmes I wasn't interested in, that I thought why not! Time to do something for me.
Love the quest for knowledge/information, mysteries, characters, etc , etc - not so sure about the brickwalls, though
Well that was about two and a half years ago, and I've never looked back - love it!
Paulene

[AnneMc]

I have always been interesting in history and can remember as a young girl listening to stories told by my grandmother and her sisters when the got together.. They told of things the did as young girls.  Then we moved to Canada and then when I had my two children I realized that they were the first generation to be born in Canada and that is what got me started but I had been thinking about it.. I really did not get going till about 1994 when I went home to Yorkshire on holiday with a friend and we went to the record offices and I got my mum's cousins to look through the old pictues and we found lots of old pictures, which they let me make copies of.  Since then I have been on a quest to find out as much as I can about my families.  I am having a wonderful time doing I have met lots of wonderful people over the years and some have become very good friends.


Happy Hunting everyone.

Cheers
Anne

P.S I  must say we now have a second generation born in Canada my little grandson Daniel.

[MarieC]

That's amazing, Guy - tannic acid! 

For me, a cousin decided to find out something about a very little-known part of the family.  She wanted help, and cajoled me into helping.  I was quickly bitten by the bug, and now every twig of the family is fair game! 

Do wish I'd asked questions of some of the oldies before they passed on, though! 

MarieC