Genealogy Chat

I am so glad that I always keep notes and information no matter how unrelated they seem . See below

ELEVEN years ago I placed an entry in the readers interests pages of Family Tree magazine and had a response from a lady with a shared interest in the Hobbis surname. I hadn’t got far with that line and we couldn’t see a link at that time but she kindly sent me a package of information which was added to my boxes full of unrelated bits and bobs and almost forgotten. A few weeks ago I finally tracked down my 3xgt grandfather’s baptism in Berkshire and so found his parents’ names. Since then I’ve been adding that line to my tree and searching out other references to the family in 4xgt grand father Toby Hobbis’s home parish and lots of the names seemed to ring bells….. Eureka! I searched out Sheila’s info and he is part of the family she had researched. There in the package of papers she had sent me were a copy of Toby’s mother’s will, a photo of the church where he was buried and another of his uncles’ memorial stone. I took a chance that this lady was still at the same address and still interested in her family tree and wrote to her on Thursday. Yesterday she phoned me and we had a lovely long chat and promised to send each other Gedcom files which will fill in gaps in each of our trees.

Patience and persistence are vital in genealogy! I've sometimes made notes of people with relevant surnames in the same area as my relatives, and am able later to make connections, showing that they are cousins, or in-laws, after further research. Never give up! and well done on the find. nell

Congratulations! - very satisfying. Christine

Well done, Judith!! Fantastic and clever of you to follow up ''recognising'' the names! I have said this before, but in 1958 a distant rellie wrote to my grandfather asking for his descendants info. Said rellie mentioned that he had been doing his tree for 60 years!! I first saw the letter in 1985 (how it was saved when so much had been thrown away - (don't ask) - I do not know)...... It took me from 1985 to 2001 to trace the descendant of the family genealogist; his granddad had died aged 93 after doing his tree for 63 years!!....His grandson had a book with a massive ''tree'' in it of about 2000 names. One quarter of these were my direct rellies!!! It was amazing to see information this man had collated first hand, that I could now match with census info that would have been restricted at the time he was compiling it. Much of his data (distant to him) was lacking in exact dates, but amazing to see responses to his letters written from about 1900-1960's asking elderly aunts about their forebares. Well worth the 15 year wait for me to find his grandson, as during that time I had covered the same family history ground, so whilst the book didn't really give me much new info, it was an amazing piece of work! Lovely to see that we had reached the same answers, too! Merry

Hi, Having traced a line that I thought was mine for 12 months, I was devastated to find that they weren't mine after all. I was ready to bin the lot, and give up altogether, but after weeping buckets, and a short break, I decided to store the info, and start again. Eventually I found that they were rellies of mine, but were the line of a brother of my 4x g. grandad. I have now found a relative that is a descendant of that line, and been able to send her the data I had. I`m so glad that someone has been able to use the certificates and info at last. So do hang on to info, you never know. Jay..

How's this for a 'time lapse' then?! 24 years ago my husband replied to an advertisement in the local paper asking for information on my GGrandfather born in 1847. The lady replied thanking him for the info and sent details of his siblings and parents. I 'filed' all the info in my Grandmother's photo album and thought no more about it as genealogy didn't interest me at that time. This September I joined the Genes site and guess what, that same lady is a member so we've been in touch ever since! 23 years ago a lady sent me a letter asking about my Great Uncle and his Wife. I'm ashamed to say I didn't reply as my Mum had just died but I kept the letter, again in Grandma's photo album. This year I'm in touch with the lady's brother! I'm very fortunate in that I kept Grandma's 'Daily Comfort' book in which she recorded the births and deaths of her friends and relatives. That, combined with the fact that I have her picture album with photos of her parents, her siblings and a myriad of other relations has been a total joy to share with my recently 'discovered' cousins!

Judith Will you please let me have a letter addressed to my family, stating that, because of the circumstances you have outlined above, I am now perfectly within my rights to keep and amass every reference to my family surname, no matter where or when found! Olde Crone (with suitcases full)

A while ago I had a package of information sent to me from a lady in Queensland about Lewis Thacker, as I thought my ancestors name was Edward Thacker from Walsall I thought it was of no use to me!!! well now I have the census from 1851 onwards guess who my ancestor was Lewis Thacker I could scream, as now I can't find it!!!!

Hi all, I hope some of the newbies who feel downhearted when they hit 'brick walls' after a few weeks at this hobby have read some of your responses to my thread and taken heart that they will eventually make that breakthrough - though it could take years. Old Crone - how about telling the family that ,contained within all the suitcases of ESSENTIAL notes, are the clues to the family fortune - you don't have to tell them that for us the fortune is finding a snippet of personal info about a long gone ancestor :-)

If theres one thing I've learned over the past twelve months its that family history research is not often straightforward! When I hit my first brick wall I started to copy all the info I found about this particular family into a Word document. Eventually I had alot of census, birth and marriage info - most of which is most likely not related - but you never know. By doing this and eliminating things that don't match I think I have finally found my Grandad's family. He wasn't born where I was originally told he was born - thats another tip - don't always take for granted what your relatives tell you! Hope this has been helpful to some, Annette

When I started this lark, a few (ahem) decades ago, my great aunts told me, amongst other things: 1. Their grandfather was brought up by his aunt 2. He trained to be a surgeon, but lost a patient on the operating table, so became a chemist instead 3. His father was an admiral This year (so several decades later) I have 1. Found gggrandfather on the 1841 census - with his aunt! 3. Discovered that his father (merely a lieutenant!) served under Michael Seymour, a glamourous and dashing captain, who won the Naval Medal and went on to become an admiral. Yesterday 2. I was sent a copy of a letter, dated 1878, where gggrandfather is described as a surgeon! What is fascinating about the letter is that I think I could actually put the correspondent right on one or two aspects of family history - nearly 130 years later.

Back in the 1960s I was in correspondence with a distant cousin and we shared what info we had. About 3 years ago I came across his letters and decided to reopen contact, only to hear that he had died about two years earlier. I was told that he had traced the family back to the Battle of Agincourt, and had Willed his research to an Archive. Trouble is that I can't find out which Archive!!!