Genealogy Chat

same as you michele,my nan gave me a bible when i was very young,it has births and deaths in it and she told who was who and i've never forgotten what she told me. it belonged to her nan.ever since then i've wanted to trace my family tree.nan died when i was 18,she would be so proud at what i have found so far,i just wish she was here to see it all. chris.

I like lists. Give me something I can put in chronological/alphabetical/any sort of order and I'm happy. It's not what got me started but it's why I kept with it.

With me it was my son's homework!! One of those Junior School things where they have a topic for the term - it was trees. Homework was to draw up the family tree. I told him what I knew, made a few phone calls and was hooked! That was 14 years ago. Thank you Mrs Manners!!

I had always wanted to attempt my family history but never got round to it until I saw GC a month ago. I recognised a couple of names when I did a search, wrote to a lovely lady who happened to be a distant cousin and is living in the US and after establishing the connection, she sent me a 'tree' from my father's side going back to my gt granddadx3! Now I'm pretty hooked and working my way through the rellies! Aileenx

I wanted to leave something worthwhile to my children, something that can be continued when im no longer around.

Asking my Mum why she had been bought up by her Auntie, and my having to live with her as well, but never getting a proper reply. Then when my Mum died, had to find answers, but that led me to asking more, and more, and more........... Well in 1758.............!!!! Kim

Being left in the dark and brought up as an only child with no cousins either. I knew I just had to be related to someone else out there. Well I was right and haven't got round yet to counting the living relatives I've found and contacts related to my family by marriage who have been able to fill in some missing bits of family stories. I'm still looking - any Hunslet Woodmans out there?

The main thing that started me off was wanting to see a member of my family on the 1901 census. When my mother gave me family names that were old enough I remembered a conversation with my Grandmother when I was about 10 - she told me her father was 20 years older than her mother and had been married before and had 4 children. I wanted to know what had happened to these children and was basically brushed off. I guess at the heart of it was nosiness. Funnily enough my Gt Grandfather although I found him on the 1901 census first try is the one who I'm stuck on!!!

The death of my dad I wanted to find out about his family as he knew very very little about them but instead I've found out more about my mums side, funny that. Sue

As tracing your ancestors is now one of the fastest growing hobbies, i wondered what gets us interested in the first place? I became interested at 11 when my nan gave me a bible that had belonged to her nan, it's got death dates of some family members, along with this nan gave me her fathers birth & marriage certificates. If only she knew now what she started.