My sister doesn`t want me to do the family history.

[kiwihalfpint]

I to have been in the same situation as Maeve, where someone contacted me, and when I refused to give them more information, especially all the notes etc  that person demanded the addresses of my living relatives to get the information of them.   One of my ancestors spouses spent 30 years doing one of their trees, they did all the leg work long before the internet became available, gave it to a family member, and this person published the tree and took all the credit for themselves, needless to say the ancestor never trusted a person when giving the tree out.

I have learnt to just give out the bare bones, leaving out all the exciting bits, because I did a lot of work myself.  The tree came to me by the abovementioned, and until she could trust me, wouldn't give me any more, and when that trust came, I received quite a bit, and help in ways of looking etc.

I too have a few skeletons with a past, but hey, that was long ago.  It becomes a nine days wonder.  My OH is always asking "when are you going to be finished?"  "NEVER!"

Just keep digging away, and raking up all those twigs and leaves.

KHP

[kiwihalfpint]

PS.   I reckon if there weren't any skeletons in our tree, it would be pretty boring, and its the excitement of finding something, we are like dogs with a bone, always digging away.

 

[LizzieW]

download free, PAF from Family Search.

I've got a Legacy de luxe program which I downloaded for a cost of about £15.  I back it up fairly regularly and my husband has now downloaded, to his PC, the free more basic, but still very good Legacy program and copied my latest back-up to the program, so that he could work on his family tree, without having to type in all the information I had already found out for him.  Obviously, I've no problem with that, it is his family after all. 

Lizzie

[Barbara.H]

I've come late to this thread, but now I know I'm not the only one..

My partner has a huge mistrust of genealogy per se - he seems to think that family historians are all fascists who want to prove their blood line, racial purity etc (I know, loopy theory, but there it is) ... He is deeply uncomfortable with my doing it - except, strangely, when I try to uncover his father's army service records, that's OK apparently.

Then he says he worries that I'm becoming obsessed and spend too much time on it.. well yes, he has a point there     He's given me some help, but sometimes I almost feel I have to do the research  in secret, and that's really sad. 

Anyone else had this problem? What do you say to reassure them?

  Barbara

[LizzieW]

My husband just thought it was a hobby and didn't really take much interest, although he was happy to go to France to photograph war graves for me, but then someone contacted us with details of some of his ancestors and that was it, he's just as obsessed  as the rest of us now, has downloaded the Legacy family tree program (see my previous post) and bought over 100 microfiches of Births, Marriages, Burials, Monumental Inscriptions etc for the area where his family lived.   

Perhaps that's the answer Barbara, try to do a bit of research on his ancestors.

Lizzie

[drodgers34]

Obsession is just part of the human condition. You just have to accept that,

It explains religion, filling your house with junk, sports fanatics etc.

[bigmagicdog]

You can please all of the family some of the time.
You can please some of the family all of the time.
You cannot please all of the family all of the time.

Keep researching. Never mind what the others think. My lot a split down the middle. One side merrily gave as much info as they ccould with the encouragement. The other side thought I was nuts 'dealing in dead bodies' but they still gave the info.

Better than walking the streets......

[johngirl]

Hi everyone,

                     Johngirl here,when I started this thread I thought no one else would have my problem. Its good to see that I`m not the only one and because some of you have been through it you have given me the encouragement to go on with my family history. bigmagicdog my sister also can`t understand my obsession with dead bodies. Well at least the ancestors that have already left us can`t have a moan about us doing our family history. Its a shame about the living ones that don`t understand our obsession with it. Hopefully my sister and anyone else that dosen`t like our obsession with dead people will get over it one day and let us get on with our little hobby.

   Johngirl

[drodgers34]

The local freebie lifestyle magazine noted the surge in interest in family history and noted "maybe dead relatives aren't as annoying as living ones'

I've neve been one for searching out and contacting reletives, except for recent joint solving of genealogy

I think a lot of people are like me and its the solving  thats the key - I describe it as similar to enjoying crime stories or crosswords. Its just that these 'puzzles' lead you into social history, local history. 1700s seems a long way away in terms of 250 years but in terms of 8 generations its not so far.

I found an account of a fracas between a (possible) poacher ancestor and his cronies and a team of gamekeepers (a crime was committed) and made a mental note to investigate the participants one day when I have time