How many people can boast a perfect set of named gt-gt-gt-grandparents?

[marionjl]

Hi Keith  (and Paul)

Thanks for the welcome.

In the days when we started tracing our FH, a fair old while ago, you travelled to see the original records, still embellished with the parish dust and mouse droppings!  A session with the books left you feeling very grimy!


Marion

[Nick Carver]

FWIW, I just found out that our parish records (until about 20 years ago) were stored in cardboard boxes under the stage at the village hall. Not the best conditions to preserve 400 year old documents! At least the activity spawned by our hobby is preserving many records that might otherwise have been lost.

[marionjl]

In the 1950's a Bristol firm of solicitors who had been working with the CATER family for a very long time deposited 27 cardboard boxes of family documents into Bristol archives.  In the past we've been lucky enough to actually look through these boxes and found all sorts of gems including MI transcriptions for graves that no longer exist, family letters, draft documents and maps relating to the family, but since they have never been indexed, they are no longer available for viewing.  At least they are well cared for now, and we did get a lot of information from them, but its sad to think that anything we missed in the rush will remain tantalisingly out of reach!

Marion

[Amy K]

I have 28 out of 32, but I am missing the maiden names of 3 women. Not too bad, but I have a feeling the other few will remain a mystery for years to come. 

[Clare Fowler]

Hi all,

I am only researching my maternal line, but I have 24 of 32 of my mum's gt gt gt grandparents (so 24 of my 64 gt gt gt gt grandparents), of which I am quite proud    and have a few names of their parents as well!  So for some branches of the family I have managed to show details of 7 generations before me (back to around 1800).

The stumbling block is with her paternal grandmother, as she was an orphan from Ireland, so I have no idea how to even start researching her line. It leaves a big empty gap in the pedigree chart just now 

Cheers,
Clare

[RachelK]

All 32 ggg grandparents? Hell no! First obstacle - my grandad was illegitimate, second one, my g grandma was also.

I only have 6 definites with full names. It's always fun to have more to find though. All are on the paternal side except one couple.

[trish251]

I had to double check all my names - I swap so much between my family and my husbands family I manage to confuse myself quite often. For my husband I have the 32 (only one Irish family and fortunately others have researched this family).

For my family, I am missing 4 - My father's Irish roots. Given that my gg grandfather swaps his birthplace from Dublin to Cork and back again, and his wife's information generates a different birth year on every document where her age is given, this is my strongest brick wall. Then again, one has to leave something for the descendants to research.

Trish

[Jenny Wood]

I am lucky enough to have all 32 (but am slightly cheating as my grandparents on my mothers side were second cousins so I really only have a possible 30 to get with one set duplicated).  I also benefited on my mothers side (dutch) from a thoroughly researched and documented tree to start with (only the female lines to fill in and the research to check) and one male leg of my father's right back (1700), so for the next layer I am even luckier to have 54/64 (or 50/60 if I exclude the duplicates!.).

On my husband's side, I also am lucky enough to have 31/32 with an Irish connection causing a missing mother... Again I have been very lucky in that they weren't hiding from me and lived in places that kept good records and had families that supplied correct information (scottish and australian records - useful death certificates!!), but the next layer is much much scarcer and has a lot more Irish lines which I have yet to crack.

Jenny

[Paul E]

I'd be much happier, though, if I had a set of perfect gt-gt-gt grandparents!