How long have you been researching your family tree?

[charlotteCH]

About a dozen years- and I thought I had a reasonable knowledge of it then... never underestmiate what you will dig up

charlotte

[Aulus]

Started in the '80s on my dad's family, when a distant cousin of his passed on a tree of his mother's family drawn up in the 1920s-30s.

It was hard going back then without the internet and databases, and there were quite a few mistakes made back then, which thankfully I've now corrected.

Didn't do anything in the '90s, but restarted a few years ago when a cousin emailed a link to ancestry announcing free trial access to US immigrations/shipping records.  Not stopped since then.

With hindsight, I wish I'd done more while my mum was still alive, as it's her side where I've made the greatest discoveries and got the furthest back.

[Cas (stallc)]

About approx 10 yrs, I started after my dad died.  It was always something he wanted to do, but never did, no comps in his day...  After he died I decided I would try do it for him.  My grandmother kept a family bible, that had been passed down from her father in law.  My dad always wanted it to come to him, but after she died it went to his eldest brother.

Quite a few years, and a lot of research later, I tracked it down and asked to borrow it, for a while. After the eldest brother died it went to the youngest brother (my dad had gone then)

I sat there and held it and felt my dad with me...it was as if he knew... It was one of those huge Welsh family bibles, with history mostly written by my G Grandfather. There was a lot in it I had found, and also information after 1901 that helped.  Could not keep the bible, but copied all the pages and now have the info next to my dad's records....so he got it somehow in the end, bit daft I suppose, but it felt like the right place.

Cas

[Annette7]

For me it is 27 years.

First did my maiden name (Grist) as we were the only ones in my home town and my line goes back to Lavenham, Suffolk (1600's) but the name can be found in various other parts of the country.   Then 2 years later started on my maternal grandmothers family of SCOPES and ended up within 3 years with a one-name study.   All Scopes today ultimately descend from Suffolk.  Once Scottish records were on-line was able to work on my Scottish half too.

Annette

[genjen]

My parents started doing their families about thirty years ago and I always kept up to date with what they were doing. I started researching for myself about six years ago, when we got our first computer. Found that some of what mum and dad found wasn't right, though mum would never accept that. I have almost come to a standstill now because I need to visit Records Offices, graveyards etc, all over the UK and I simply don't have the time or money for that. Luckily, there is Rootschat and a whole load of very helpful members.

If I get too frustrated with my own lack of progress, I work on my partner's family and some other friends' families too.

Addicted.

Jen

[kerryb]

I've been researching for 4 years now, and sometimes it feels like I've done very little else 

Its great to see those who have been doing it for years and years and I hope that one day I can say the same and will have got a bit further than I am now. 

Kerry

[madfan]

Its been just over a year since I started, although I had often thought about it before then.

I was watching an episode of WDYTYA one day which I had seen before when I thought to myself stop watching them finding out about their family again and go and find out about yours! A quick phone call to my mum to get any names she knew, I went on the 1901 census and BINGO found a g grandma and her family, that was it, I was hooked 
A few months later discovered Rootschat and the rest as they say is history 

Zoe

[ScottishAncestry]

Thank you all for your replies; I have to say I thought more would have started recently. I thought a lot would have started after watching who do you think you are and other programs like that.

I started about 7 years ago just before I got married because my husband was already running his own business researching family trees. So now we work together.

What got me thinking though was that I came across my great uncles grandson on Ancestry the other day and he was researching the same line. It seems to be every family has somebody interested in genealogy and I wondered if it was because of TV programs but as this poll shows many of you have been researching much much longer!

Thanks again for all your input it’s really interesting hearing how you all got started.

Emma

[pinefamily]

I'm probably about the same as a lot the others; on and off for about 28 years. Started after watching Roots on television, asked my mother a couple of questions, and the bug bit. Come on, admit it, this hobby of ours is very addictive!
Darren