Our Ancestors Lives all Done in a Flash!

[karrienz]

Hi All

I was wondering after reading a lot of different posts on these boards, and other sites, how other people mayfeel when looking up the records online; especially the UK census, and like me in a few short hours, a whole lifetime of one person or a family can be viewed and sometimes if I've had a really 'good' day; in say 4 hours, have gone from birth to census' then to burial etc .  Sometimes I feel a bit like I've desecrated their memory - my ancestors' lifetime coping with poverty/politics/religion/employment/child bearing/child birth etc of the times all condensed, abridged, indexed.

I started my research 20 years ago and it was quite a slog then with writing letters; visiting archives; librarys; peering at microfilm etc., screeds of notes, joining the history societies to get the magazine to get the 'surname interests etc.   It also took time to 'digest' the info gathered - some of it vague and some of it irrelevant and sometime a success.  Nowadays I can download/upload/copy/paste and wham - done and dusted!

Anybody have similiar thoughts?
Karrienz

[Guy Etchells]

You may have done the genealogy of the person in a few short hours but have hardly touched on the family history.
You mention " poverty/politics/religion/employment/child bearing/child birth etc of the times" have you researched the specifics of your ancestors' experiences of those?

As an example have you researched where each ancestor lived, i.e. their house, how many rooms it had how it was heated, if it had running water etc.

There are thousands of details that put the bones on families that are not contained in online records and it is doubtful if they will be digitised in our lifetimes.

I also doubt if family reconstruction pre 1837 can be undertaken in a few short hours. In many cases it means reverting to written registers as they have not been digitised and where one register has been digitised it may not be the original register for that parish. Some parishes have three evolutions of a register plus a Bishop's Transcript. To research comprehensively each copy should be viewed and compared.

When searching registers pre 1751 are you sure you have the correct year for the events of January, February and March do these months come at the beginning of the year or the end?
Cheers
Guy

[karrienz]

Hi Guy

I appreciate your comments; I was only suggesting that because of technology today it can be quite an... let's say... 'emotional experience' to be privy to basically someone's whole life from birth to death in a few hours - that's really what I was meaning.   

I've been researching quite a long time now as I mentioned and was just trying to see how other folks felt about the way family history research is able to be carried out today and how it makes them feel.

I have so much in the way of notes; books; files; photographs; diaries; correspondence and other reference material garnered over 20 years and transported back to NZ from the UK and it's all precious and I continue to research using the NZ archives and also because I'm in New Zealand of course I can't visit the PRO in Kew anymore (used to live down the road) or GRO but have to rely on google and the Archives online and sometimes the websites like this one online and FHS memberships overseas etc.

I've enjoy using the internet for the British History websites (all the archaeology websites etc too) learning about all sorts of 'social history' specifics (as you mention) of my ancestors and their families' lives - it's a great tool.  I lived in London for 15 years - I do miss it.  Anyway thank you for reading and commenting.

ps: I only meant 'done and dusted' as a reference to what appears to be what many folk are doing these days - as I described in that sentence...upload/download/copy/paste ....it's not for me.


regards
Karrienz

[Guy Etchells]

Yes I thought that was the way you felt, I was really using your posting to show others that the internet still only scrapes the surface of family history research.

Unfortunately many new researchers think that if it is not on the net it does not exist.
Cheers
Guy

[toffeebear]

I agree, it is much 'easier' to access lots of records, but I don't get the same sort of satisfaction as when I used to trawl through the microfiche indexes at our library for a whole morning or afternoon. But then I don't have the opportunity to do that really. I know that my research is something that grows at different rates at different times in my life. I look forward to putting more flesh on the bones as time goes by.   

[clayton bradley]

 I started off going to Record Offices and looking at microfilms but became ill a few years ago and have since been very grateful for everything on the internet. But my most special experience was sitting in Lancashire Record Office, reading the life story of my 6xggfather, Abraham Broadley from the Petre accounts (DDPt1). He was born about 1693 and died in 1760 and became the carter to the Dunkenhalgh estate, so there are hundreds of references to him. claytonbradley

[toffeebear]

[quote author=clayton bradley link=topic=650508.msg4969990#msg4969990
my 6xggfather, Abraham Broadley from the Petre accounts (DDPt1). He was born about 1693 and died in 1760 and became the carter to the Dunkenhalgh estate, so there are hundreds of references to him. claytonbradley
[/quote

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Ooh, Clayton, I have Abraham Broadley in Lancashire too! Not got back thst far though, the Abraham I have was baptised Oct 1811, son of John and Ellen, living in Clayton. My direct ancestor is this Abraham's brother, Hargreaves. Any link?
Toffee

[Winterbloom21]

I do know what you mean Karrienz and have felt very similar emotions.     So much so, that in the binder where I keep all my BMD certificates I have posted a poem in the front sheet which says this beautifully, and gives me a little lump in the throat whenever I read it.    I don't know whether or not you know it, but it's by a late Victorian poet called Ernest Dowson.   It reads:

They are not long, The weeping and the laughter, Love and desire and hate.  I think they have no portion in us after We pass the gate.

They are not long, The days of wine and roses, Out of a misty dream Our path emerges for a while, Then closes.....

As you can see, it's the source of a well known saying.  But it really does give pause to think about how short and, if we're lucky, sweet it all is.

[karrienz]

Dear Toffee, Guy and Winterbloom

Thank you very much for your posts; I'm glad I'm not alone in feeling the way I do sometimes.

Guy - I had a friend who had 100's and 100's of 'names' in their 'tree' - I couldn't understand why it mattered so much to collect so many and they just used the internet more and more as their primary resource without even thinking about how anyone lived their lives or what the occupations for some of them really meant.  I do have 100's of names in a database for one family so that I can disseminate the info I find and use it to help other people researching that family; but that's a one off - and it's turned out to be an interesting exercise in how family names and locations and dialects etc can influence things.  Imagine a Danish person and a Prussian person marrying in New Zealand in the 1800's and the Irish registrar (with a scrawl) having no idea how to spell a birthplace - took me 3 years to eventually find it! 

Toffee - I'm overwhelmed - that poem is beautiful and 'so right' - I would love to do what you have done if that's ok with you (copy your post and put it in my folders) - something to add to the meaning of what my research is about.  And I'm glad my post here meant you and Clayton were able to 'connect' too. A real bonus.

Clayton - how special to be able to read about your ancestor's life and so long ago; I've come across a few references here to some of my NZ family in our newspapers from the late 1800's and early 1900's - my own wee grandfather (aged 5) and his brothers singing at the Temperance meetings in the local hall and even his mother getting a wee prize for her spelling at school aged 6 - not so long ago as yours but never the less precious forever.

regards
Karrienz