What Inspired you to start....

[BumbleB]

I started because I read Alan Bennett's autobiography, in which he related a story abut his uncle who had died in Flanders, and Alan gave the address of the CWGC.  I knew that my grandfather had died in WW1, so wrote to them giving what little information I had, and within a week I had the information from them.  As an only-child of only-child parents I didn't think I had a family - wrong    As a child I called lots of people uncle or aunt, and now I know that a great majority of them were really relatives - if only I'd known then, what I know now, my research would be so much easier.  Then when my father died I inherited a load of papers and photographs.  Unfortunately a lot of the photographs remain as unknown persons, although I do now have a photograph of my grandfather who died in 1916 and I have posted it on the Thiepval Memorial database, amongst the paperwork were the marriage and death certificates for my great grandfather, plus newspaper articles on his funeral.

I'm now, of course, totally hooked.

BumbleB

[groom]

A theme that seem to be running through this thread is "if only I'd asked". To all of those who still have older relatives around I'd say ask, ask and then ask some more 

Jan

[mjac]

my grandads family tree had been done and i knew nothing about my grannys family   so i thought i would have a go

[netgrrl79]

Being the only only child in my generation on both sides of my family - all my cousins have siblings - and not having lived in the city I was born in until my late 20s, I never felt like I belonged anywhere. All my family is spread out all over the UK, plus Canada and Australia. The closest I got to feeling 'at home' was when I went over to Yorkshire to visit my dad's parents - I thought my grandfather was pretty much dyed in the wool Yorkshire... little did I know!

I was given a scrapbook by my paternal grandmother as a young girl which contained the basics of my dad's parents' family tree, but didn't really get into research properly until becoming unemployed about a year ago.

Katie

[kooky]

When my father died in 1996, my mother produced several BMD certs I had never seen before. I asked her if she had any for her family. Apart from her own birth and marriage certs., she had none. I decided to have a go at finding what I could.
Until I had my own computer in 1999, progress was slow, but now 10 years on, I have her family back to 1666, and am having great problems finding my father's family further back than 1870s, all in Ireland!
Since then I have attended various genealogy classes and do occasional searches for other people.
My tree is still ongoing.I really should put it into a program
Kooky

[NEILKE]

i started about tens years ago but you could say it all started 30 years ago when i was at school we had to do a family tree the teacher said just do what you can i ran home buzzing i think my mam was just as keen as me i or (she) got back to 1826 births deaths and marrages no baptisms lol mine was the best in the class but 10 years ago got going for real then when we got our 1st computer it just took over.
neil

[taffess]

I didn't think  to ask either grandmother the question What was the name of your mother or anything about their childhood until it was too late, so I set about finding these names and now I'm hooked. The rootschatters are so helpful. It's nice to be in such good company while we all research our family history.

[newby dee]

my dad being adopted was one trigger and watching mum spend years tracing his ancestry through library fiches (no computers then !)
also listening to my mum and gran trying to figure out what  happened to her father in 1919 when he just disappeared !!! so about 18mths ago i solved it for my mum just wish my nan was still around to know about it and also learn she had half siblings in australia....
so never give up that mystery took 89  years to solve 
hopefully your missing persons turn up sooner 

[anniedwyer84]

I am absolutely loving reading all the tales about what inspired you all to start researching your family history. Some wonderful, heart warming stories in there.