General Chat

See below.

My Dad died in 2002 and thought i would search and find the history of his family now i'm hooked Lil

oh started hers so looked at mine

I did the same after lsoing my Mum and coming across lots of old certs - I became hooked but have now lost the will to do anymore as I have hit a brick wall and just can't get round it or over it or smash it down Joanne

On Monday I have to give a presentation for my college course which I'm doing on genealogy. Now it's only 20 minutes long but involves a question and answer session after it and I just know I'm going to get the above question and probably why others are doing it too so thought I'd ask lol. Especially interested in adoptees answers as from something my tutor mentioned in my tutorial I think I'm going to get that question too. btw I've no intention of naming names just want to be able to give a few reasons that may be different to my own. Thank you in advance :-) Juliexx

To find out about my Grandad Ives -Still no wiser but have trees for Thompsons ,Shearwoods and Faulkners

That was quick lol Thank you all of you :-)

Cheating here - this is copied from an article I wrote for the Suffolk Family History Society magazine:- ''History was one of my favourite subjects at school, and still fascinates me. People I also find fascinating. One thing I love doing is ‘people watching’! So from reading about history and watching people, it seemed a natural progression to investigating and discovering the structure of my family, who, where and when they lived; not just names and dates of being ‘hatched, matched and dispatched', but learning how they lived, what was happening historically, the social living conditions, and geographically where they fitted into my world. However, I should have started much, much earlier, while my parents and grandparents were alive ... how many times have you heard that said?! My parents died in 1983 and 1987. I knew when and where they were born; but I hasten to add that I had to send for a copy of my father’s birth certificate because I only had the ‘short’ version! I needed to know the details! My grandparents died in 1969, 1971, 1980 and 1982 (one of whom lived to the age of 100 and a potted biography of him is in The Newsletter and Journal of the Friends' of the Metropolitan Police - ‘copies are in the PRO Kew, SOG, Guildhall City of London and Metropolitan Record office (old GLRO) and other places’ I have been told). I knew three were born in London and the other in Buckinghamshire. In November 1999 I paid a brief visit to the LDS or Mormons Family History Centre in Poole, Dorset, for my first insight into the world of microfiches! I have learned to appreciate that the FHCs are staffed by volunteers and, therefore, some would be open longer hours than others. The time had come to start searching the GRO indexes for the marriages of my grandparents’ parents! Now the fun began in earnest! The following spring, my husband and I travelled to London for the first of several visits to the Family Records Centre, where we experienced the excitement of ‘finding people’, the backache later after lifting many of the heavy books in order to do so! the frustration of ‘not enough time’. And, as you will know, the pieces of the jigsaw come together as more births, marriages and deaths are found but, as so often happens, one puzzle solved usually leads to another question to be answered, and that is all part of the fun and pleasure of the detective trail!!'' Apart from that - a few years ago, there were articles in a newspaper about (a) the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website - in which I saw the details about my great-uncle who was killed in action in 1918 and (b) there was an article in a newspaper about the Mormons website .... and one thing led to another. :-)

I started because my half sister did our mums tree...then she did her dads...that got me interested. I'm not really researching enough tho....too much time spent messing around...lol

Thanks Joy :-)

There was an argument on my Dads side about a family name .Grandad always said my GGGrandmothers maiden name was Robertson, his sister said it was Mackintosh. So I decided to find out and settle the argument. That has yet to be completely settled as I have been distracted by other branches. I'm just about to order the marriage cert which will prove once and for all she was Robertson.

*waves to Nick* That I can believe lol Teresa that's really interesting (hope I don't sound patronising cos I don't mean to) Let me know will you pls........for my own personal curiosity lol or equally tell me to stop being so nosy lol

There's more .................. ............. and I could write pages and pages more why ........... some of it you can see in my trod in their footsteps thread.

My father died in 1987 and my mum in 2003. I knew a lot about my mum's family but hardly anything about my dad's family. I have traced back to my paternal gt gt grandfather.I now have to work foward on my dad's siblings and their families as I do not know anything about them at all. I began to research after my mum died in an attempt to find living relations from my paternal side. Viv

Julie, I started becaise my father told me that my grandfather had a secret but my father wouldn't tell me.He said that it was grandfather's secret anf would go to the grave with him Of course being female, I wanted to know the secret but I still dont know it. June xx

June and Viv thank you :-)

As I have 'itchy feet' and have moved 34 times, my parents were the same. I wondered had I any gypsy blood in me.Up till now sadly not. Its really dissapointing as it sounds like a romantic lifestyle. Denise.

I grew up never knowing any of my mum's family cos my (not very nice) father had made her lose touch with them all. She had 4 sisters & one brother. All my life I dreamt of finding her family for her. It took years to persuade OH to get a computer, then on my first day on here in January I found an aunt, my mums surviving sister! And two cousins! In April I went to meet them, but my mum wanted to leave things as they were. My sister & I have hoped & prayed she would change her mind, and recently I found out she has written to her sister! And her sister has replied! They are reunited!!!! That's why I started but of course it is much more than that already! Denise

I started searching cos my sis in law was doing it. I took me a few months after to start doing it, but I thought this is my tribute to my mum that died 10yrs ago in Nov this year. I'm so glad I have done it. I just hope my mum is looking down on me feeling proud on what have achieved. This is all her family and I'm going if it kills me to see her grandad's grave in France. catherine xx

When I was in college, one assignment was to watch reruns of the film 'Roots' and write about each episode. A couple of months after finishing the class I decided I wanted to find out about my own family. I've been researching on and off ever since. Unfortunately, we bought a computer about 4 years ago and now search just about every night. So much for free time now, eh?