Genealogy Chat

HI, Just a year now, and totally hooked. As well as the normal connections through mother and father, I also have a step mother whose line I have been investigating. Oh, and then there's my husband's side, my son in law's side................ Addicted? Well and truly!! Quite a few brick walls to knock down, but loads still to research as well. Thank goodness for the internet, and great family tree software to make life easier. I've started to repay my debt to others by becoming a transcriber for Free BMD - just started 2 weeks ago. Good luck all. Pauline in Cornwall

I can understand everyone being addicted, I've only been here for a week and finding it really interesting. I'm hoping to receive my first birth certificate sometime this week and if its the right one - can carry on with my search and hope to get almost as many names as some of you here! thanks Elaine

I started in February of last year, when I found a photograph of my mother as a little girl in 1913 standing in the doorway of her father's bakers shop in Blackthorn Street, Bow. I thought it would be nice to try and find reference somewhere to the family living at that address. I now have over 500 names on my tree (not all on GC just in case anyone checks and things I'm fibbing), have taken one branch back to the mid 1500s, been claimed by three previously unknown cousins on my father's side of the family, and have just made contact with a cousin on my mother's side who lives in Canada. And yes, I did find the family in Blackthorn Street. Jan.

Hi Elaine my brother started about 20 odd years ago and to date he has about 500 names.i put some of our tree on this site about a year ago and just before christmas i heard from my g/fathers, sisters gg/granddaughter

I started at the beginning of November last year - so just over 4 months... am well and truly hooked ! Started because due to some personal issues, I was finding myself with too much time on my hands and needed something to occupy my mind - and family has always been important to me. Didn't have much to go on, my parents didn't know a huge amount abut the previous generation, so it's been hard work ! No major problems or breakthroughs yet, no celebrities in the family, just find the whole thing fascinating.

Hi Elaine, I've been tracing my family for the past 25 years. My mum was adopted, and desperately wanted to find her roots. It's easier now, with so much information available on the internet. I remember having to travel to London to see the BMD indexes, and making numerous trips to various vicarages to look at the church records they'd not yet deposited at the local record office, or walking round the graveyards etc. Then gradually, as the record offices started to obtain more and more, (and hubby was available to pick the kids up from school!) I made endless trips here there and everywhere, coming away feeling victorious if I'd managed to track just one person down! I'd be on cloud number 9 and couldn't wait for my next visit. I hope you get as much pleasure from this 'hobby' (more like an obsession) as I've done. You'll be surprised as time goes on and you get further into it, how much you can find out about people from all the different records there are out there, building up much, much more than just a list of names and dates. Best wishes and happy hunting, Carole

hi elaine, a couple of years ago my mother [who lived in st helens] asked me to have a look into hers, easier for me cos i still lived in yorkshire. there wasnt much on the internet then compared with now. sadly she died a year ago , and i popped what i had done into a drawer[ where it still sits] i soon realised i actually missed doing it, so about 6 months ago began 'doing' my fathers. finding lots of brick walls/much more info on the internet/more people involved in it/ and it takes up far too much time, mainly because of this site. its absolutely addictive, its just wonderfull to hear other peoples problems, solutions and advice. maybe when i have got [if ever] a little further with my fathers i may feel ready to blow the dust off the other one, and start all over again, sue.

I started yust a few months ago and the people on this site are always so helpful

i started my family tree about a month ago i need a hobbie and was intrested in doing my family tree. i went on to friends reunited which i had not been on for a long time and het presto i found GC and that is how it all started for me

I started looking because of a piece of schoolwork, scarily it must be twelve years ago now. Been at it on and off since then, really seriously for the last year. The reasons why? I always wanted to know more about the people my Nan told me stories about. And morbidly whether the names on gravestones in our local churchyard were related to me. Too curious I suppose! Sarah

Just coming up to 4 years. What started me off, well my father had died and a year later my Uncle, my cousins wanted his ashes near the grandparents. we knew where they were buried so a visit to the Local records office to find out the details. While there I looked for my grandparents marriage (Mum's Mum). I never met granddad as he died in WW1 but to touch the page he did touched me so much as it was the original book. Being busy at the time it had to wait a few months, but I have never looked back, parts of the family back to 1600's, others late 1700's. Travelled to Wiltshire, Somerset & Hampshire, in our quest. Met 2nd cousins and been in touch with my cousins over the seas. Found plenty of 3rd and 4th connections. Some even lived quite close but we didn't know. I have even found I am now living near were some of my ancestors lived. Last year I started on my husbands family although I had some information I had collected on my trips to London while searching for my family. I still feel the same execitment I had when I found nan and granddad's marriage 4 years ago. I never stay on one line, if I come to a brick wall, I put it aside and do another, from time to time I will try to knock it down, like last week on my husband's g granddad. The whole wall came down. Now another visit to Somerset. I would rather do this than watch TV, to boring now well most of it. Irene

I started "doing" mine about a year ago, started off pretty much blind as I'm only dong my dad's mum's side and I haven't got any living relatives on her side! Luckily the names on her side aren't too common so they're pretty easy to find on censuses etc. Dread to think how much I've spent tho, what with all the certificates, censuses, parish records and the fact that I now live in Perth, Scotland and her family originate from Halifax, Yorks. Don't know what I did before tho, as this seems to take up all my spare time! Rachel

on and off for about 6 months, or so, but keep hitting brick walls and get so frustrated and give up for a while, then i venture back again, but at mo, i've hit another brick wall, and am considering giving up again, june

I started 27 years ago, although I stopped when we had our children and stopped and started throughout the years. During the past three years I've spent every night researching on the internet (with the exception of the past three weeks, due to a family emergency) and have learned more about my ancestors in the past three years than I did in the prior 24 -- thanks to the wonders of the internet and the wonderful help received from GC people!

Started September 03 to look for my fathers mother's side of the family. Found them within 3 months and met up earlier this year. it was the first time my dad had been with his cousins in over 50 years. Since then i have got the bug to see how far back i could trace my paternal line and i am now back to c1786. it ia amasing on how diverse the family can be and what coincidenses can come up. i grew up in wales and moved to london 6 years ago, when i got my great grandfathers birth cert he was born 100 yards down the road from where i first lived in london, it sent a small chill down my spine .

Hi Elaine, I started ayear last March and enjoying every minute of it, mind you I don't get anything else done, it seems to take over your life. Sue........................

Since about age 15 - on and off - that would make it about ooo 6 years ??!!!! Maz XX (older than I sound, younger than I look!)

Fifteen years ago I ended in a wheelchair looking around for something to keep my gray matter working I remembered my father had said when he retired he would like to trace his family tree.....by the time I started all who could have helped me had gone and I only had family stories and my fathers birth cedrtificate ........two of the stories were about lost branches.........I have kept coming back to them over the years and Thans to Genes connected finally have joined with the two daughters of a lost cousin....so keep on hunting...... Ihave five generations down to me and three generations down into the future........so when I go hopefully I will have completed eight generations fully......still have one lost branch.....to complete I think Genes connected is the best site I have come upon.......and the internet is a lot easier for me than travelling on a train to sit in a library in a far away town and sometimes not finding anything at all......... Hope you all get as lucky as I did

I started in the winter of 1998 to keep me occupied. I did it the hard way in those days driving 12 miles to the LDS centre as I didn't have my computor. Have found quite a lot of relatives but am still stuck on my brickwall of my great grandfather on my father's side, which is what started it all off!! My cousin in New Foundland wrote to me asking me for any info I had on our deceased relatives and I just got curious, now it seems to be very addictive!! But I love it lol. This sight is great though and I am very grateful to all the people who have helped me with people I have got stuck on, including my hard to find great grandfather, bless him!! Margaret

Since October 2003. Long enough to feel quite comfortable on here, but short enough to realise how very little I know ! Rick.