What's in your past?

[lovelace]

Apart from the obvious things like having the kids etc,   the best thing I ever did in my life was to trace my family tree.   I started it because we had no information whatsoever on my Scottish mother's background,  but it took over my life.  I'm known for being obsessed with it for the last 25 years & I can't imagine a time when I won't be doing a bit of "treeing"  every day.

You have to be prepared for lots of surprises,  good & bad.      I've gone back to the 1300s on some branches.   Among the famous people we're related to are,  in no particular order ;     The King of Denmark,   Henry Fonda,  Robert the Bruce,  William Hartnell,  Louisa May Alcott,  the Osmonds,   & many more I've forgoten.       The others were mostly "ag labs"!

    I've made huge family tree charts for people in other countries (for nothing,  just because I enjoy it)  .     These days I haven't got the energy to do much of it.

To anybody who's always wanted  to to do theirs,  I would say definitely do it,  make a start & you'll be hooked.    Draw out rough charts,  write things down,  don't trust info to the computer,   & you'll have something to refer to  and it all makes sense.      Go for it,  your family will be amazed at what you discover.

[lavery549@yahoo]

5 hours ago, Bellatrix said:

As the designated black sheep, I've never been much interested in the family backstory.  But as people start to shuffle off with increasing frequency I thought it was time to have a wander through the archives, or at least the ones that've been digitised by Ancestry.com.

 

Apparently I hail from Birmingham, and Stratford-Upon-Avon, though we were solidly in Sheffield by the late 1800s.  Really surprised by that. 

 

I've traced one side back to the 1700s and the other to the early 1800s, so far.  We have lots and lots and lots of labourers in the family: agricultural ones at first, then industrial.  We have railway workers, steel workers of various types, knife hafters, saw makers and other tool and cutlery makers.  The women were largely 'unpaid domestic workers', though there are a few machinists, tailoresses and cutlery workers in there too.

 

Another thing: lots of siblings.  It's not unusual to find eight or nine offspring (they would have disapproved of me bringing this side of the line to an end).  As a consequence we feature in family trees of people with unfamiliar names that I had no idea existed.  One lot emigrated to Tasmania, though I think that was a stepbrother/half brother thing. 

 

Absolutely fascinating stuff.

 

My other half has a master jeweller in his, and a mysteriously lost family fortune and estate.  Damn.

 

What's in your past? 

I did Ancestory years ago & found loads of fascinating people . Now I am on Find My Past , & am finding even more , Miners  , Farmers ,lots , it is addictive though 

[lavery549@yahoo]

2 minutes ago, lavery549@yahoo said:

I did Ancestory years ago & found loads of fascinating people . Now I am on Find My Past , & am finding even more , Miners  , Farmers ,lots , it is addictive though 

My maiden name is Wragg , which we know is Norse . Found lots of Vikings in our tree . My Grandma on Dads side ,has Irish roots , & have now found some .

5 hours ago, Bellatrix said:

As the designated black sheep, I've never been much interested in the family backstory.  But as people start to shuffle off with increasing frequency I thought it was time to have a wander through the archives, or at least the ones that've been digitised by Ancestry.com.

 

Apparently I hail from Birmingham, and Stratford-Upon-Avon, though we were solidly in Sheffield by the late 1800s.  Really surprised by that. 

 

I've traced one side back to the 1700s and the other to the early 1800s, so far.  We have lots and lots and lots of labourers in the family: agricultural ones at first, then industrial.  We have railway workers, steel workers of various types, knife hafters, saw makers and other tool and cutlery makers.  The women were largely 'unpaid domestic workers', though there are a few machinists, tailoresses and cutlery workers in there too.

 

Another thing: lots of siblings.  It's not unusual to find eight or nine offspring (they would have disapproved of me bringing this side of the line to an end).  As a consequence we feature in family trees of people with unfamiliar names that I had no idea existed.  One lot emigrated to Tasmania, though I think that was a stepbrother/half brother thing. 

 

Absolutely fascinating stuff.

 

My other half has a master jeweller in his, and a mysteriously lost family fortune and estate.  Damn.

 

What's in your past? 

I did Ancestory years ago & found loads of fascinating people . Now I am on Find My Past , & am finding even more , Miners  , Farmers ,lots , it is addictive though 

[lovelace]

It is,  no doubt about it.   You really need Ancestry or FMP to get anywhere though.      And the freebie sites are worth checking out.     I use my holidays ( if I'm on my own ) to go to relevant places where my ancestors lived or where they are buried.     It's a strange satisfying feeling to  stand looking down at a grave of someone who was just a name on paper,  you feel the connection.

I would say I've learned a lot from doing this research and gained some skills.      I've learned how to look at a problem sideways to get the answers ,  & I'm a whizz at deciphering old illegible handwriting, such as Census returns.     I'm not ashamed to say  it's been my main purpose in life for a long time.           Still it's better than playing Bingo.

[cressida]

Myself & my sister had to go to ballet classes whe n we were 9 and 11 respectively  would rather have learned ro play rge piano like my brother did,

the only plus was looking foward to a ham barmcake and a drink of lemonade

[Bellatrix]

2 hours ago, hackey lad said:

Same here . My Dad always thought it was a Scandinavian surname but it turns out it’s from the Huguenots

There are three ways to pronounce my surname.  The correct way is on the face of it the least probable.  One of the other two sounds French if you make a bit of an effort.  I suspect that's the origin of the 'French heritage' story, but you never can tell.  I might find out soon, though I suspect the only body of water I'm going to cross is the Birmingham and Worcester canal.

[hackey lad]

8 minutes ago, cressida said:

Myself & my sister had to go to ballet classes whe n we were 9 and 11 respectively  would rather have learned ro play rge piano like my brother did,

the only plus was looking foward to a ham barmcake and a drink of lemonade

"breadcake "  

[Bellatrix]

1 hour ago, lovelace said:

You have to be prepared for lots of surprises,  good & bad.

I was hunting around my maternal grandmother's line this evening and found a potential deportation to Australia!  Will certainly investigate that further.

 

1 hour ago, lovelace said:

don't trust info to the computer

And don't necessarily trust information on the computer.  I've come across not only the inevitable transcription/OCR errors, but also errors on the original census documentation. 

 

In one case an 'Ann E' becomes 'Annie' with no middle initial ten years later; and in another my great-grandmother's name has been recorded incorrectly.  It's an unusual name, for the time, and one that sounds like a much more common name, and that's the one that was recorded.  I have the birth and death certificates for her, which show her proper name.  Unfortunately, she appears on several people's trees with the wrong name.  I've submitted a correction, which should filter through.

[cressida]

32 minutes ago, hackey lad said:

"breadcake "  

ok

 

[Bellatrix]

49 minutes ago, lovelace said:

I'm a whizz at deciphering old illegible handwriting

I've been looking at the 1861 census.  What do you make of this?:

 

 

It's an occupation for a man in his 30s.