How did you get into researching?

[Pheno]

Isnt it interesting that out of 9 replies so far not one of us has started researching for the same reason.  I hadn't realised that there were so many different motivations for us all to do the same thing.

Pheno

[lmfamilyresearch]

I wanted to find out what made me me 

[Annette7]

The seed was sown when I was a teenager - my paternal grandmother often told family anecdotes and I was the only one of her many grandchildren who actually used to listen.   My maiden name was Grist and our family were the only ones with that name living in Ipswich - wondered why and finally got round to start doing research in 1981 and quickly 'hooked'.   Still at it but no longer just my own family - besides helping on here when I can I also do research for extended family, friends, friends of friends, and colleagues when I was working (now retired).   Not for any monetary gain I hasten to add - be it my own or someone else's family just enjoy the 'thrill of the chase' as it were.

Annette

[Rosinish]

So how did you all come to start researching?

I could write an essay on that question alone as I have multiple reasons although this always bugged me, how could I prove it?!

When I was at primary school we were given a project, a family tree, I was laughed at & felt humiliated in front of a whole class being told this was impossible (paternal line)!!! ...

                                                                     Annie                                                           
                                                                      1961
                                                    Father 1915                 
                                                 G/f 1888        1882 G/m
                                        G/gf 1866                       1864 G/gm

You decide whether it's possible/impossible?

Annie (with all the certs.) 

[Mart 'n' Al]

Much of my career I was working at the leading edge of computer technology. The work I have done in the last 3 or 4 years has been far more interesting and challenging than anything I did in the pursuit of money.

I probably had a hundred interesting days in my career, and yet I've had 1000 in the last 3 or 4 years.

Martin

[oldohiohome]

When I was at primary school we were given a project, a family tree, I was laughed at & felt humiliated in front of a whole class being told this was impossible (paternal line)!!! ...

                                                                     Annie                                                           
                                                                      1961
                                                    Father 1915                 
                                                 G/f 1888        1882 G/m
                                        G/gf 1866                       1864 G/gm

You decide whether it's possible/impossible?

Annie (with all the certs.) 

I can imagine you you felt. Here's mine, if it is any consolation:
                                                        me, 1948
                                          mother, 1914
                                   grandfather, 1874
                              gr-grandfather, 1821
And my brother is considerably younger than I am.

As to the question of the thread, which ties in to the diagram. It didn't hurt my interest in family history that my mother made her children memorize the Irish townlands of her parents. Or that, on rainy days, she would suggest we get out our gr-gr grandparents family Bible (on my father's side) and see if we could 'figure out who those people are.'

But what got me going was an email from my sister saying "did you know we are related to Clark Gable?" [as in the American actor, Gone with the Wind, etc.] Well we aren't, but I did find my ancestors in Ireland and I now know who 'those people were' in the family Bible.

edited to add: and my father was considerably older than my mother

[barryd]

Joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Then became a Boat Person and landed in Florida. Well actually it was the late SS Canberra on the second leg of its Round the World Cruise. Southampton to Madeira then Madeira to Florida.

[Jang]

I used to think it was being shown photos of my Scottish grandparents that got me started but now I think about it, it was actually the release by the LDS of the 1881 census on DVD in 2001 that got me going. I was attending a conference and one of the participants had just bought a set. When she found my gg grandparents in Dundee, I was hooked!

[gazania]

As a curious child I listened to the family stories from 3 of my grandparents who had migrated to OZ from the UK and who had accents different from mine.  Many years later a Family history Society opened where I was living.  I fronted up and on my first foray I was kindly advised to search for the relative who had the most unusual name on their newly purchased microfiche.  I duly placed my great grandfather's name and there he was with most of his forebears in Yorkshire. I became the centre of attention and some envy as the members crowded around me.  I was hooked.

But the forebears of my OZ born great grand mother were proving difficult. On my last day of work after being made redundant from a job I enjoyed, I got a brainwave that perhaps her grandfather was a convict.  I could barely wait for 5pm to arrive so I could scoot across to the public Library before it closed at 5.30pm.  Yep, he was a convict and I have been occupied for the past 30 years fleshing out the story, the hardships putting my redundancy  to the back of my mind.

And special thanks to the wonderful people I have met along this journey.  Gazania