Calling Fellow Young Genealogists!

[Jool]

Hi AT, I didn't start until my early 40's, by then my grandparents had passed away and there are so many questions I would love to have asked them.  It is unusual for someone of your age to take an interest in their family history, so well done to you.  You have the fantastic opportunity to talk to your older relatives, I am sure us older lot are all a little envious of that  .  Sometimes you get little gems from older relatives if you just let them tell you their memories rather than grilling them for info.

So sad about your cousin, it's good that you are keeping her memory alive on findagrave.

Jool

[Jane Masri]

Hi AT,
I started my research when I was about 21 after I was given the family bible.  Being of a curious nosey nature I set about trying to find out more.  Back in the day it was a case of much letter writing to vicars & then a visit to the church to trawl through the registers, usually not knowing what I was looking for    All of those letters & replies still remain with me to this day!  You're lucky to be beginning your research in the days of the computer & online information.
I've uncovered some interesting stories over the years & hope to find more!  I would love to have my parents & grandparents around to share my findings with.....or maybe they do know about them  .....
Here's hoping you enjoy your hobby for many years to come,

Jane

[Guy Etchells]

It can sometimes be daunting to start family history young but there may also be advantages.
I never really started but was born into family history. I was given the family surname as a forename to "keep the name alive", my uncle the last of the male line was killed in WW2.
I was then taught to write tracing original parish registers in the early 1950s and washed tombstones during holidays.

As others have said it may be possible to talk with older members of the family before they die, but don't take everything you are told as gospel and facts get confused and possibly exaggerated in time.
One suggestion I would make is to keep a daily diary, I never did but reading my mother's diaries has brought many memories flooding back.
Cheers
Guy

[sharonmx5]

I started in my 20s.  It was made easier for me as my Mum was doing our tree so I first got involved helping her.  It also helped that she worked at the local Record Office so going in there for the first time was not as daunting as it could have been.  It's good to start early as if you have long gaps when other things are happening in your life you still have plenty of time to pick it up again, at least that's what I've found.

[groom]

"I wish I'd started earlier," probably something that a lot of genealogists say. By the time I became interested in, and had the time to devote to tracing my Family Tree, most of my older relatives had died. A chance remark by an elderly uncle, reminded me of the story my grandmother told me when I was much younger, about how her mother had drowned when the HMS Albion was launched on the Thames. I started up by following that and it opened up a whole new world.

My greatest regret, as Jane said, is not being able to share my findings with my parents and Grandparents. I often wonder if they knew they originated from Liverpool, Suffolk and Germany and not London as I'd been led to believe.

Enjoy your journey through your family history AT, and, as others have said, get as much information from your family as possible. Don't be left saying, as most of us are, "If only I'd asked."

[lisalucie]

Hiya, I started when I was 20 (through boredom actually as I was on maternity leave waiting for my daughter to make an arrival - she was late, as she always is now too!).
That was 10 years ago now x

[ThrelfallYorky]

I had a brief dabble when I was in my teens, because we found a Family Tree my grandfather (dead by then) had done quite a bit of research on. Then, sadly, like almost everyone else I did nothing until all the ones I ought to have asked were no longer there to ask.
I think what you're doing is great, and I do hope that all your relatives - even the distant ones that are only heard of via a card at Christmas - pile in and help you. Actually, I'm still trying to find out who was the person behind some of those cards my last parent posted off without fail each December - I know at least 2 she'd had no word from for ten years. I wrote to all the addresses in her address book when she died, explaining that she'd died, and mentioning that I really didn't know who/what the connection might be - I got no reply from many, and a "really not interested - we are related but I can't be bothered to tell you" from another. Don't get discouraged, but keep digging.

[UpstairsDown]

I started when I was 16, but didn't get very far, then in my final year of University decided to research and put together a family tree for my grandad. I had one name and two dates to go from. In 3 months got a very long way back and was able to give my grandad a 40 page booklet on everything from surname origins to letters from his gran to the Army records office as she was not given her sons belongings for some 2 years after her was KIA on the Somme. The highlight was 2 photos showing 3 generations of his family, including his father as a young boy. It eventually led to two phonecalls with a cousin he had not seen since the war and a visit to the house where his grandmother was born . The house was still owned by a distant cousin and turned out to have been in the family for over 300 years. He had known none of this as his father had been very close lipped about his family.

[sirsimon]

I started when I was 17 years old

I am now 22 and still doing research after five years. I have accumulated 350 pages of research and have gathered information on about five hundred relatives

I have traced the majority of the lineages to the late 1700s, the earliest lineage I have traced dates back to 800 AD