Genealogy Chat

I've got to the stage now where I've traced most of my lines back to the early 19th century (some much further). I'm not really bothered any more about finding dates and names, but am interested by the people my ancestors were and the lives they led. Every time I look at my ancestry chart I'm fascinated by the fact that every single person has contributed genes to the person I am today. Does anybody else feel like that?

I think that's probably the reason most of us go into this family history malarky. Who we are is partly a product of the lives our ancestors led and the choices they had to make. Everyone is interested in themselves, genealogy is just an extension of that. nell

Yes and I would love to have met my great, great grandmother who died age 34 leaving 5 children. Where she was born is still a mystery . Rosalyn

It takes your breath away when you see how many children your ancestors had...and how many stillbirths/child deaths there were. I moan about my two children, but the thought of 15 (as a couple of them had) puts the whole thing into perspective!

I think there are two sides to this question. I agree with what has been said so far. I have got totally caught up with the lives of my ancestors. I have pictured my self walking down 'iron mill st' or giving birth to hundreth child. However when I read this question I thought it meant, what does it say about me that I am interested in family history. I think it has brought out a bit of obsessive compulsive behaviour, it is an excuse not to do house work, gardening etc because when I am on a roll it totaly occupies my mind. Having done just about all the searching that I can do on line I have started collecting names for a one named study. So what does that say about me??? A bit nerdy?? Probably!!

A bit nerdy, Jeanie A????!! Oh, go on then! I'd say that family history appeals to those of us who would have liked to have been a detective or something similar. If we are good at lateral thinking and interested in social history, that helps too. I know I must be in the same boat as Susan who posted the thread. I too have got back to the 1700's on most lines and further on a few. The very fact that I have the fiche for a parish with the next few generations on it, but 'can't be bothered to sort them out' proves to me that I have moved on to the next stage (after about 10 years or so), where I enjoy helping others to find out the same as me and also want to 'pad out' the details for those already found, but finding more names, with nothing more, is losing it's appeal. It must be that I don't like having bony ancestors (prefering padded ones?)??!! lol Sarah

Doing this research has certainly shown up some of my shortcomings. My filing system is basically, stick it in a plastic folder and file it in a ring binder. Trouble is that I confuse myself so much as to what goes in which of my 20 binders. Also I am cr*p at record-keeping. I should keep a note of exactly what and where I have searched. No chance! I keep trying another Parish Register only to finally remember that I had searched it 10 years ago. I currently get more enjoyment from studying families which other previously unknown rellies have supplied me. Most of them have full notes listing events in their lives & even their wills in some cases.

I think you also have to be interested in people which some people aren`t. I like to chat to my patients in the surgery and try to remember things when they come again. As someone once said I`m 'a people person' as I was talking to everyone at a party recently and others were still in the same spot when they went home! Or maybe we`re just nosy and other people don`t want to know their past in case they find out things they don`t want to know. Rosalyn

I think I am like the others that have replied and have got quite a way back on several lines. I do not stick to the two main branches of my tree but tend to include all the little twiglets whenever a new surname rears it's head !! Just plain nosey probably. I have been doing this off and on for about 20 years and I don't know about you others, but the names are now so familiar to me I actually feel I know them as real living people !! How sad is that ? 'However, I will keep at this compulsive pastime until I have exhausted all avenues available.

I agree with a lot of what Jackie says, I find my self interested in things I never used to be interested in, and I also wonder why I am like I am in certain things and I usually find the answers in some of the things my ancestors did, for example I always wondered why I love to sing and feel I missed out being on the stage and acting and stuff and my family couldnt understand this till I found out my ggAunt was in the music halls dancing and singing and also in theatre and film, so I now think I must be like her! and the more I have learned about her the more I feel thats where I get it from. Now my dad for instance is so funny and people always say he should have been a comedien and yes sure enough my ggAunts brother was a comedien in his time so there defintely somethings past down in are genes!

Another thing - look how all this knowledge is useful in ordinary life! Previous to family history, I could hardly take you to the post box at the end of my road - Now my knowledge of UK geograpy is getting pretty good! I do have a bad habit when being introduced to someone, of thinking, 'that surname is familiar' coz I have so many surnames on my tree lol Who's going to confess to reading something about some person in a book or newspaper who lived in Victorian times, and then rushing to find the person on the census??? I read Cider With Rosie (Laurie Lee) and was very pleased that I could find his parents and grandparents on the census (he only gave snippets in the book, so it was a challenge, wasn't it?? Do you think I'm hooked, or maybe need psychiatric care? Sarah

Jackie, I was also wrapped up in the History of London series (I even gave up Corrie for it!!). It certainly held my interest more as a lot of my rellies lived in London at the turn of the century. I have taken my tree back to mid 1700's and am quite happy with that for now. But now I'm totally obsessed with tracing all the lines forward so I can find living rellies who can supply photo's and more personal info not found on a census return. I have been very successful so far and have met some lovely people along the way and also some that were of no help at all and didn't seem very interested but you have to take the rough with the smooth as they say!!! I now have very little sleep, don't do what I should be doing around the house, ie Iron Mountain has taken over my bedroom. Now to top it all I am also addicted to this message board!!! Enough of my waffle, got some rellies to find!! Carol x

I am fascinated by the way they lived and what they did. I often wonder what they would make of me if they could meet me. Are some of the things I enjoy doing a result of what they did - how they bought their children up ? Has it been handed on to me in a watered down way? Do I like gardening because of all the ag workers I have in my tree - no or we all would! lol! Even 5 or 6 generations back I do feel some sort of link with them - where they lived, what they did - etc. And i must admit to feeling a large lump in my throat when I saw my 5xggrandfather's grave. But I think five generations down the line i have a romantic image of them . I recently found an ancestor out of the blue with the same job as me - I wonder if I got a large proportion of his genes? Alice

I am a people watcher. I agree with that description now. I never did earlier in life when others told me that's what I was but how right they were. My fascination with finding my ancestors is only surpassed by my fascination with what they did, where they lived, how they coped with their lot. I have been amazed at how many children each generation produced and saddened by how many of them lost children to whatever diseases befell them, childhood illnesses that, today, we more or less expect our children to get and although we worry when they are poorly, it would hardly enter our thinking that they might die. We take for granted the advances in medicine that we are lucky enough to benefit from. Children mostly went into the same trade/profession as their parents whereas today our young fight off that notion and want to 'do their own thing' - at least when they first start out. Strangely, I've found that my g.g.grandfather, once retired from the army, is recorded on the 1901 Census, at 70 years of age, doing the same job as I am doing now. Nowadays, there's an upper age limit. So what it tells me about myself is that I should be a bit more open to what other people tell me - they could be speaking the truth LOL. Jan :-))

My tree fascinates me, I just can't seem to get away from it, even at work, we develope photos there among other things and when I ask people their names and they say what it is I cant help hoping its one of mine, and if it is I have to comment, my relations were a very mixed bag, from rich to poor, but so far no villains, I find myself holidaying near to where they came from (thats weird), but I do feel drawn there, Whatever you think of genealogy, its like a magnet, you're continually drawn back to it.