Genealogy Chat

I don't have to go far to see where my Gr grandfather arrived in NZ.. he turned 4 on the way over from Glasgow... his family settled there, where they were given plots of land by the government of the day.

Passengers from another ship the Resolute arrived a few months later and on that was a little girl of five; twentyfour years later they married.

This is a plaque of the landing of the Viola and a bit about the voyage.

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM90YP_Passengers_on_the_Viola_Clevedon_New_Zealand

Persie

I've really enjoyed reading people's journeys on this thread, well done Joy.

My paternal grandfather Billy died the year before I was born and dad's side of the family didn't talk much about the family. All I knew was Billy came from a place called Ballyhooly in Ireland and his parents had a pub.

By the time I got round to starting family research all that side of the family was long gone and there was no one to ask. I'd pieced together info from certificates, and found the family on the Irish census (in the pub!) and got some baptisms, etc but it didn't mean a lot, it was just paper.

A couple of years ago I decided on a whim that I'd go to Ballyhooly (which is in County Cork) just to see what it was like. Well, my first surprise was that the great grandparents pub is still there (it features on pubs of Ireland posters). Dropped my bags at the B&B and went straight to the pub. Explained to the (extremely old) landlord why I was there and I got the second surprise - he had known my great grandmother (who died 1934) and he knew my grandfather's brothers (all long gone) but he hadn't known Billy as he'd "had to leave Ireland". He told me many tales about the family.

Word got round that I was in the village and someone came to the B&B with a book for me in which the family were mentioned. They were well known for their political affiliations, apart from having the pub.

I got to go to the church where my great grandparents married in 1875 and where the children were baptised. I found my great-grandmother's grave, along with those of Billy's siblings. I sat on great gran's grave and had a good chat with her, telling her about myself, my brother, my father, etc.

The few days I was there has given me a whole different perspective on that part of the family, they are now real people to me.

Ballyhooly is a beautiful place and it was overwhelming walking along the Blackwater river bank knowing billy and his family had walked there too.

Not only did I walk in their footsteps, I drank in their pub!

One's personal journey of genealogy / family history / call it what you will, can contain such a mixture of facts and varying emotions; of sheer joy and excitement, and of tears and grief, for one's self and for others.

I have experienced all of that; at times from reading books and magazines and from exploring sites in the internet, at others from discoveries that put absolute joy into my mind and heart, and from personally treading in their footsteps.

Oops! I must first apologise as I said that I would write about the importance to me of Fingrinhoe in Essex and did not do so.

Fingrinhoe is a small place in Essex England. My maternal Grandparents lived there for many years, during the second WWband left when they needed to be near to my mum and family.

Fingrinhoe is a very old place and has a very church which is worth visiting. The Vicar is always so helpful as are the locals. There is a school next to the Church and my older sister went to school there during WW2 and her and our mum lived with our grandparents. My mothers' only son died 4 hours after birth due to him being so premature. Because he was not Babtised he could, at the time, not be entered in holy ground, but the vicar allowed him to be buried next to the side wall on the left hand side as one walks to the church from the road.

Last year a person who lives in the same place as me in Spain went to Fingrinhoe to visit his daughter, told her about what I have just written and he spoke to the vicar who gave him a copy of the death and burial. People are so kind.

Re maps. I spent hours yesterday googling for maps for my family tree as it was dreadful weather here. Wow what a fantastic thing to add.

Bridget :-)

It is good to be able to use online maps and images to see how it is now and imagine how it used to be once upon a time. :)

have also followed some of OH's family in the area where his father grew up .......

................. the family had been there for a couple of hundred years

I agree Cynthia, the Google facilities, especially street view, are a really useful way of looking at those places we can't get to.

I can't get to my ancestral roots at the moment as they are 'down South'!

However, google map comes in very useful if I want to see a certain area.

Not as good as the real thing I must admit.

Like Karen, I've re-visited and walked in my own footsteps


In 2001, we went back to the UK, and visited my aged aunt ................ and then went the extra 3 or 4 streets to see the house where I was born and lived until I was 11, and my grandparents house, just across the street.

That little area was really very much different to what it had been the last time I visited, back about 1975 when we visited the uncle who was still living in grandfather's house.

I took photos of "my" house, hoping no one would think we were casing the joint!!



In 2008, we had another trip to the UK, and went into Wales .................... we tried to find the smithy where OH's grandmother was born, but failed. He thought he knew where ti was from childhood visits ................... but it was in such a small village that it wasn't on any of the maps we had.

It was a spur of the moment side trip ......... we shall be better prepared if there is another visits.

Glad you gave this a nudge Cynthia, it's so interesting.

Have recently found a branch of my maternal grandfather's family. Took me a while to find a gt gt gt aunt's marriage.

I only take my family to the 1911 census usually. One of the lady's (gt gt gt aunts grandaughter) in the early 1890s married someone with an unusual name, I told my husband I'd been at school (infants/junior) with a boy of that surname. Thought I should follow the boys of this marriage.

Guess who the lady's great grandson was. He's a distant cousin, wonder if he remembers me. ;-)

nnn

I visited the grave of my gt gt grandfather in St Andrew's cemetery Newcastle at the weekend (dragged my two mates up there after a weekend away)


I guess one of the the last people to stand on that piece of grass would have been my great grandfather.................still don't know where he is !!

I've also been to Berwick upon Tweed and Alnwick to see their old stamping grounds

J

On the previous page I made a promised to come back, did not mean to be away for so long. Just a week ago some on An...try I found my fathers parents and a few other family members. He was born in 1912 in Dublin and I always believed as he did
that he was not a member of the family he lived with. He was told that he was adopted unoficialy. OH NO HE WAS NOT!! Now I feel how said that he never really knew who his parents were when they were so close to him.

When I am next in Dublin I will visit him in the Cemetry and leave him a message and then look for the rest of the family.

He was the person who brought me up, he really was my father, although he told me that when he met my mother she was already pregnent and had left her husband. He cherished my mother, he did everything he could to keep her happy. He adored my younger sister and my mothers first daughter.
God Bless you Dad.

Mothers first husband and My dad we're very similar in height, their manner of talking and became reasonable friends. So I believe that I was very fortunate to know them both.

I Am always walking in my family, from Dublin to Scotland, Swisterland, Germany, Denmark, Spain, England, and others! ,

Not so long ago I trod in my own footsteps!!!

Unusually, I happened to be quite near to the place where I was born, and to my first home, so took a detour to visit the place I'd last seen when I was 4 years old. I'm so glad I did it. The street and house looked exactly as I remembered, only much smaller of course, but so full of cars, there wasn't a spare inch - it hadn't been like that in the 1950's!
I took photos hoping the people now living in 'my house' weren't thinking I was casing the joint!
It brought back some very happy memories.

A few years ago I took mum back to her childhood home and surrounding villages and towns (W Lothian & Lanarkshire), somewhere neither of us have been for at least 35/40 years. We both had a fabulous time - for mum it was great to reminisce, and for me it was a fantastic opportunity to jog her memory in order to glean more family history info, visit family graves, and take photos of mum's various homes, churches, schools etc while she told me the accompanying stories!

Thank you for sharing your journeys :)

Most of my family came from Walsall.

As a child all the family seemed to be about 2 miles from our house. We were on our own over our side.

From young children we walked into town and out the opposite end to visit the family.

My sister in UK was interested in my efforts to track the family down. We were both very surprised at my findings.

Findings - granddad at one time lived opposite my sister's friend. 2 streets from us. Gt gt aunt had lived next to my school friend in the next street 80 years previously. Over 30 families lived in the streets I walked as a child. 3 relatives at least worked at the factory I lived next to.

2 of mum's 2nd cousins via her mother's side lived near us in the 1950s, one about 5 doors from my friend Ann. We may have seen the other one daily as she lived opposite our infants school. She lived almost opposite where my grandfather's aunt and uncle had lived and their children went to the same juniors as us. That aunt and uncle lived 3 doors from our school.

The earlier addresses come from the census, the later, I was very lucky because many of the family had wills, probate documents show the address.

I didn't need to go very far to be in their footprints, I spent 18 years doing it. The others well I'm still trying to get over how much family history was all around me in my chilhood. It's been a shock, we thought we were the only ones when in fact over 100 lived within 4 streets of us.

Pat :-) :-0

Being a York girl & before I left the City I have over the years often been able to.... "tread in the footsteps of my Ancestors"... visiting the many streets,addresses,churches,etc where most of my ancestors (mams side) were born,lived & died.
However the most memorable for me was when I returned to York in 2006 to become a Freeman of the City, which came about as a result of discovering that my 2 x grt grandfather & grt grandfather became Freemen of York back in the 1800's,& I was able to do the same through birthright.
Sitting in the very same Guildhall,swearing the same oath etc as that of my ancestors was so special & quite overwhelming for me.

Joan.

Treading in the footsteps of ancestral family

i seem to be doing this every day as most of them lived only a street away
and i even have one that live in the same street as i do now

My Paternal Grandfathers (Robb) Family were from Fife. My Grandmother was from Rotterdam. I've visited all of the churchyards in Fife over the past few years and got freezing cold and soaking wet. As I commented to the Vicar at one churchyard on a frosty Sunday "You could catch your death out here!"

My Mothers side (Purves/Rutherford) were from Kelso district in the Borders. I've also prowled the churchyards there and visited the farm where the 1820's generation started.

Something I have realised is that the development of Railways combined with the agricultural recession in the 1850's started the move of people off the land and i've discovered some of the old Borders Railways stations which they would have used. The Purves family all ended up in Leith where my parents married.

Visiting the houses and area where your Genes came from adds a whole dimension to your perception of the Family Tree and the individuals in it.

My OH and I were both born and raised in a "New Town".
Like everyone else around us, our families were incomers from Glasgow who moved here in the 1950's.
When I started on family history, I did OH's side first and discovered that he had come full circle, and his family originated in this very town in the early 1700's.
His ggg grandfather, married in the town and moved to a neighbouring parish only a few miles away.

I then did my own family research and discovered I have very little Scottish ancestry .
The last time that two Scots entered into a marriage was 1815, as the next 4 generations had an Irish spouse, ending with my own parents.... even my mum was Irish.

Oddly, my Scottish ggg grandparents who married in 1815, also originated and lived in that neighbouring parish.....I later found their grave and also the one for OH's.... in the same churchyard!