Genealogy Chat

When you discover someone in your tree do you try and find out every single piece of information about that person before you move on to the next or do you tend to do a bit on this one and a bit on that one etc. I have gone back to discover my gt gt grandfather and his wife and am trying to decide whether to start finding out everything I can about their children or try searching for parents etc. I was just wondering how you experienced researchers went about it? Many thanks. Jo.

I've been doing this for about 3 years now. I think it all depends on what you want to do, its your tree. I tend to find out all I can and then move on, but I go back to people on my tree all the time and discover I never killed them off, or found out where they were on the 1861 census or whatever. Quite often I will do some research, find a new source of info and move on to other relatives who might be featured, forgetting what I was originally checking. nell

Hi Joanne I try to do research on that family first, then if I hit a brick wall move on to the male rellies. Obviously easier with the male rellies. If you know what I mean? catherine

I rarely have only one line of research going at a time! I usually try to keep going backwards, but when frustrated (or simply hit someone who looks interesting) end up going sideways. Recent sideways jumps have been because of - a wife born in the village where my Uncle currently lives (got him off reading headstones, etc!) - a juicy looking scandal - a GR contact where we wanted to sort out the link - another wife from a Bucks parish that hubby had loads of info for because of his tree. Also if visiting Records Offices/Libraries, I end up doing a lot of indirect stuff, simply because I tend to trawl the records for al lreferences to my family and then sort them out rather looking for specific individuals. Linda

Joanne I admire you if you can be disciplined enough to simply follow one individual at a time! I adopt Linda's approach, collecting all references to any names I am interested in, from one Parish Register for instance (saves going back another day to do another branch). I then have great fun for days after, sorting out everything I have found, making sketch trees etc.and noting what I still have to look for. I also get sidetracked very easily and often find myself trying to sort out a mystery that is nothing to do with me!!! I do it this way because I am a butterfly brain, not because its the best way to do it! Olde Crone

I think when you first start you have so much information coming in from every direction - its very exciting and also very confusing. Whatever you do, at this point, write down every single source of info you are getting in. I think most of us start this wanting to see 'how far back we can go' so I think probably at first most of us concentrate on the line going back and when we hit brick walls and you will, yes you will, then give that a break and go back to looking at siblings etc. I think there can be nothing less satisfying than a tree with just names of couples going back. Putting real flesh on these people is the exciiting and satisfying bit. They will become real people to you. But, you are in the first flush of excitement, so its understandable to want to move on. But please do get some proper record books and put down every single bit of info you find and where you found it - you will be grateful you have one day.

I'll be honest, at the moment I am doing more name-gathering than anything else, not through laziness, but because now my living rellies have found out what I am up to, I am getting information left right and centre. So I have the sketch tree(s). By the way, there is nobody on my tree on GR that hasn't been verified, some through family records, some through historical references, (not as grand as it sounds), and some through certificates kept by various family members. However, I went to see my mum yesterday, and she came up with an old tin full of papers, always known as the deeds box! She had never had a really good look through it, so we did so. There were birth, marriage and death records going back three generations, a great aunt we never knew existed, and photos of people we have no idea of their identity. Then she decided to look in her Great Grandfathers Bible, and there were more records in there, memorial cards, births deaths and marriages recorded etc. Poor Mum, I have left her with the task of cross referencing them all, from the various papers and the three Bibles she has in her posession, while I concentrate on breaking down a brick wall or two.

i've downloaded the free PAF software family tree from www.familysearch.org I imported the GR tree I have here into it and found it easy to use. I religiously add every scrap of information I find onto it (and make regular back ups) even if my paperwork isn't up to date. Its very easy to see on screen what needs to be done - ie in pedigree view I can see that I haven't got the name of a gt X2 grandmother for example. nell

Teresa - You are very noble - what if she gets it wrong? what if she forgets something? what if she loses interest? OMG give me the tin!!! :-) Keith

Keith, I tried to wrestle it off her yesterday, but she has already got her teeth into it! She is now slowly expanding on the tree I printed for her. I don't think she will be handing it over just yet! :-(

Teresa You are so lucky with having that much info to start with. Mine consisted of an envelope among my deceased Mum's belongings marked 'Pam' which contained the mar.cert of my father's parents and an invoice for a funeral in 1890 in Liverpool. Mum knew that one day I'd start this quest. Two years on, I would reiterate Nell's advice to note the source for every piece of info you find, as I'm having to double back on the heaps of stuff I found in my initial enthusiasm! Pam

Sorry, should have been Heather, not Nell ! P.

I am finding this an exciting and yet emotional journey. In the last few days I have found out that my gt gt grandfather had 6 children so far and in Jan 1895 they lost a 4 year old, a 2 year old and in March 1895 a 7 year old. They also buried a 33 year in Jan too but I don't know what relation he is yet. I know in those days it was considered normal to lose children but when you think about it how can people cope with these things. I'm really starting to think of them as real people and not just names and dates. Its such a wonderful feeling to think that I'm paying my respects to people who until a short while ago were gone and forgotten. Jo.