How did you get into researching?

[Mercia118]

Just being nosy 
I started to try and solve the family legend of a coat of arms, and then started veering wildly down random tree branches.. and I still haven't solved the mystery!

So how did you all come to start researching?

[philipsearching]

I started with the question: was my late father literally (as well as metaphorically) a b*st*rd. 

[Mart 'n' Al]

I had always been fascinated by the name Sedcole, which I found, on my Grandmother's memorial plaque. It was the middle name of her late husband. Many years later, as an adult, about 4 years ago, I attended a reunion of my partner's family, and saw this amazing 120 ft long family tree. It gave me the inspiration to finally find out about Sedcole, which led to me finding that he was actually my great grandfather and not my grandfather, because they had lied to my father about who his mother was.  Then I just got addicted to trying to find things out about people that their families didn't know about.  Apart from the fascination with the name, as a child I showed no interest in my ancestors, and I realise that this is fairly normal. We only become interested when it is too late to ask the questions.

Martin

[Pheno]

I started when I was 14, many, many moons ago.  My granny who came from a little village in Essex where half the population was related to the other half, would come to stay occasionally and talk non-stop about all these relatives in her village.

I got so fed up with hearing that I decided to find out who they all were and to try and draw a tree!

Pheno

[panda40]

I had to do a project at college covering education through the ages and link it to my family tree. My dad gave me photos of all my great grandparents and the rest as the say is history. I was hooked. Thirty years and a bit later I still have the very first family tree I drew for the project.
Regards Panda

[Lisajb]

I went to my ancestral villages show one summer, about 15 years ago. My mum dragged me into the village hall because “there’s a man there who knows all about us.” He sent me the gedcom which formed the basis of my tree.

[andrewalston]

The impetus was the release of the 1901 census, and my mum's desire to find out whether the stories she had been told as a child were true.

She was told that her Marsh ancestors were descendants of George Marsh, born at Deane outside Bolton, and who was burned at the stake in 1555, becoming St. George the Martyr..

There was supposedly a George in each generation in his honour. I have found only three so far.

Records for the first half of the 16th century are few and far between, so I have not managed to trace a link to any of his children.

Needless to say, that has not stopped others speculating. Ancestry has trees with children born at random places round the UK, such as "Somerset, Cornwall, England". One online tree has George dying in Suffolk rather than just outside Chester. His 'brother' William apparently married, aged 71, in 1591 to a time-travelling woman who, born in 1520, had already given birth to George in 1515, and, despite having died in 1552, went on to have children as late as 1858.

[Guy Etchells]

Just being nosy 
I started to try and solve the family legend of a coat of arms, and then started veering wildly down random tree branches.. and I still haven't solved the mystery!

So how did you all come to start researching?

Short version:-
I was born.

Longer Version:-
I was given my mother's maiden name as my only Christian name ; I helped wash family gravestones during holidays, I learnt to write by tracing parish registers, I was given a pedigree to amuse myself with when bored as an infant.

All in all I did not really start researching family history, research was simply part of my daily life like eating or drinking and it still is nearly 70 years later.

Cheers
Guy

[sandiep]

When my father in law died in 2002 we found a number of old certificates including a baptism from 1820 and we didn't know who all these people were so that was when I started.
It is so addictive and I love the research and some really fascinating things about both sets of families have come about and as more records are now online more things come about, and has meant I have started on other family members it never stops