General Chat

That it would be refreshing ( or nice even ) to see some posts from people from France/Belgium/Hong Kong/Germany/ Outer Mongolia etc etc etc. I wonder why we don't get any. They must be able to get GR from where they are and be interested in genealogy, especially if they have British roots.

I wonder what websites they use for their genealogy.

Moan as we might about GR, it is still a starting point and useful at times and we don't 'always' have arguments...just seems like it sometimes :-)......still a place where other countries can search or chat/discuss, as we all do.

Any posts about people who cause arguments keeping them away wouldn't be entirely true because there never have seemed to be many from aboad, arguments or not. ( just to get that one out of the way:-) )

PS...this is a question for all nationalities...not just us British.....I am sure even the x pats already on here and our across the pond friends may also have pondered on the question.

Dear Susan

Yes, it would be very nice to have contact from some other countries
as well, then we could exchange a lot of useful info.

I was trying to find polish records for a GR member,
there were very few contacts to help.

Hope some of our World cousins are looking in!

Best wishes.
x

Hi Elizabeth,

I very often come across a query regarding, say, European or asian countries etc, and would have loved it if there had been someone on here who lived in other parts of the world, not already accounted for, who could give us the benefit of their experience, or stories even. I feel we are missing so much.

Fine, Soviet Canuckistan isn't good enough for you ...

I know what you mean, though. The Australian corps does deserve special recognition!

Hi Janey,

I have no probs with our Australian, Newzealand and Canadian members and often think we could take a few lessons from most them. I also know of the members in Spain, Portugal etc...... But why aren't there more?

Certainly didn't think you had any problems with us auslanders!

I guess I was meaning that the Australian corps is an example of the kind of interest one might expect to see coming from some of the other former colonies at least (you mentioned Hong Kong, and there's India ...).

I know I found one cousin in England here, descended from common grx2 grandparents, who kind of brushed me off (after first disclaiming the connection -- why does nobody want to know their Canadian cousins??) -- he was far more interested in his father's French side of the family and not much bothered about the English side. Well, he's not getting my discoveries. ;)

So maybe people in far-flung places with mixed ancestry just find their UK side boooring!

Me, I got no choice. All my sides are English.

Tsk! janey.....I didn't think you thought I thought that anyway....sheesh!...what time is it lol

I think some of my lot are boring too. A bit of scandal seems to be the only way we know if they had a real life or not, being as it got reported somewhere....Perhaps some of them hid their wrong doings well ( the rotters) :-))

Don't be bragging too much about having an English anscestry.....you could be related to moi Lol

On retrospect......are you saying us English are boring?......how dare you! ;)

Er ... no ... I find you all utterly fascinating, to a one. Especially the specimens in this particular petrie dish. ;)

Such condecending utterances could only come from an Ancestry such as yours....Ok...you pass Lol

Well I can tell you British history is NOT boring. Being an ex-pat, previously married to 2 Canadians (not at the same time lol) I have learned a lot of very interesting information which my own tree didn't produce. My children's father is a descendent of Thomas Rogers (Mayflower), Sir Thomas Hyde and part of his tree we can get back to King Alfred the great. My tree is interesting but quite tame in comparison, except for the brother of an ancestor who emigrated to grenada and fathered 26 children. despite being divorced I continue to work on my ex's tree for the future history info for my children and grandchildren. Having investigated his tree I am now looking at info from the USA, Holland and France in addition to the UK.
My other ex's info taught me about Dr Barnardos child emigrants.
The world is shrinking, and we are part of it. I welcome info wherever it's from.
mary

Well then MaxiMary --! I'll raise you an ancestor who restored the monarchy after that spot of Cromwell bother!

Well, I would if I could figure out whether my weird gr-grfather had any legitimate claim to the name. ;)

It's interesting to observe people in the US with their genealogy chatter. The US population is a very different makeup from the Canadian -- we're hugely Brit (all kinds, except not much Welsh) up to the 20th century, and now have twice the immigration per capita the US does, much from "non-traditional" sources. On the other hand, the US had loads of European immigration early on -- you wouldn't believe how much of the population is of German descent! -- so their family histories are amazingly diverse.

I've met people with Spanish and indigenous ancestors from Mexico married to Irish on one side, German and English and Dutch on the other, and so on. With some French by way of Canada thrown in. A cousin in the US whom I met through this site (shared grx2 gransparents again, on a different side) is of course all English on our shared side up to the post-WWII emigration, but German and assorted other things on the other side, her father's family having been in the US much longer.

Now, that's "interesting", but I'm happy with my ploddingly much of a sameness lot. I suspect we all find our own ancestry fascinating, whatever it is. ;)

Oh -- I've got a Barnardo's boy in the tree -- my mum's mum's sister married one about 90 years ago. Apparently about 10% of the Canadian population is directly descended from a Home Child!

They are interesting trees you have there Mary and Janey :-)

Yes would love to see peeps from other country posting.

My Grandmother was Dutch and passed away before i was born ~she had family but once she had gone the link broke ~would dearly love to hear from or see my family.

Valen Dank.

x

Susan,

It could be that they have no interest in posting on a forum where they don't speak or understand the language so well.

Or they use websites in their own countries and language. Or maybe they just hate the English.

Or they are just flat broke and prefer the free boards.

Who knows..? Any or all of the above!!...lol..

Lindy ;)))))))))))))))))))

My gran always said she was descended from the same line as Cromwell... haven't proven a thing yet, well to be honest, haven't even found a link!! lol She died when I was 12, and I don't know which branch of her family to follow first!!

I suppose people who have their lines firmly placed in their birth country, wouldn't need to access the records that Ancestry, GR and others provide... I suppose they would be much more interested in the archives held by their own country.... maybe they would only join in here if part of their line had emigrated to uk, or America, for instance.

Love

Daff xxxxx

I haven't seen John in Japan post on here for a long time; maybe he didn't renew.

Daff,

I found out that Gran's tell big fat lies especially mine, and what a whoppper, she invented a non existant Scottish line down to details because she did not want to be from German descent, had me chasing my tail for awhile.

Then discovered Mom's tell even bigger lies. When I opened the cupboard I was nearly knocked over by all the skeletons inside....sigh...

So we just keep digging!

Lindy ;))))))))))))

Yes I have wondered.

Both grandparents on my mother's side were Lithuanian, and so I join in on a couple of Lithuanian message board sites for English speakers. Unfortunately, helpful though they are, it's only to a certain point because the sites are nothing like the set up GR has.
Nevertheless, I have often wondered, that if I can do that, how come they're not using GR!!
Perhaps overseas folk just don't know of GR. Plus they would have to have a pretty good command of the English language to be able to understand it all, and to be able to participate . And God help them if they unsuspectingly got caught up in one of those "not so friendly" threads which crop up from time to time!!!!

K

PS If you've got any dead rellies from the desert, I can't help you, I'm afraid. My Arabic isn't that great and anyway, they'd think I was completely bananas, it's not something they bother about like we do.

Good evening and thank you for your interesting posts; and thank you also to those who live abroad who have posted :-)

I have found that more 'foreigners' have a better command of the English language than we have of theirs. And what of the other Ex pats? there must be millions of them. I still think it seems strange not to see more on here over the years. I do take your point Karen but can't see it as the only answer ( see initial post :-)

Hi Janey,
You're a little unfair to infer that we in the UK don't want to know the Canadians.
I thought that we had established that my wife and yourself are related and we've shared a load of info. on the Dennises etc.
I'm sure that on another thread you were telling us about your OH diabetic crisis. So sorry to hear that but glad he made it through.
I haven't got his details on my tree so far, maybe we'll catch up again soon and fill in some more gaps. I haven't done much on that side recently.
Did you ever make contact with the Owen Sound branch that I gave you details for?

You might have seen that our daughter had a hospital mishap three weeks ago. She got back to work today, but it certainly makes you realise how thin a thread all life hangs by.

Take care, God bless you and your (and in a sense, our) family.