WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE ?

[smallworld]

Hi,

am very late on the board tonight cos following tonight's episode of this series I have spent a couple of hours trying to get further on with my family tree.

Is anyone else fascinated by this subject ?

I was initially started on this search for my ancestors because I was sure we had a jewish ancestry (don't ask me why, I just felt it !?)

I was right, and have managed to get back to the early 1700's in Pomerania ( no, I'm not a poodle !) and Portugal (my favourite place )

Now I'm stuck, and without lots of cash or a bbc film crew, I can't investigate further

Fortunately, my ancestors made a much earlier exit from eastern europe than Stephen Fry's, it was a very moving story,

 

wac

Edited January 26, 2006 by waccoe

[Kathryn]

I haven't seen any of these episodes Waccoe but family history does interest me. You could write a book about your family - even just for your own children to read.

 

My paternal grandfather wrote a diary whilst he was serving in WW1. It's fascinating stuff about his experiences in Cape Town. My dad donated it to the Imperial War Museum. On my mum's side there is a bit of a mystery as my gran was adopted. I often wonder which famous person I might be related to...

[UltraMum]

I have had a go at my family tree on genesreunited. I was doing it in order to see if I could find my father - I did but that's another story. I also discovered a brother I knew nothing about too!

 

Turns out on my father's side that we come from German Jews - I can't get much further back than mid 1800's. Interestingly enough I discovered one of my great grandfather's brothers was resident in the "Southwark Home for Indigent Blind" when he was twelve - 20 years later he's working as a piano tuner and has a wife and family ... it's fascinating

[Tez]

I've been watching these. All the celebrities that have been featured so far have been incredibly emotional about what they've discovered.

 

I would love someone like the BBC to fill in the story for me. I have managed to research many lines of my family and my husband's back to the 1700s but I would like to have more details about their lives. There are so many unanswered questions. We were discussing this the other day, not sure I should admit to this on a public forum, but I discovered that my Great-great-grandfather went to prison for stealing a gold watch. He was only a pauper and would have had no where to sell it on to, wouldn't have been able to use it in public, so why would he have stolen it? My husband was speculating that he was autistic and attracted by the shiny metal as my son would be. The autistic strain in the family clearly came down this line.

 

This same relative also spent 12 days in prison for manslaughter before being released as it was felt that he had intended no malice and could in no way be held responsible. It makes me wonder what happened and how it affected his life.

[MumTee]

I find family history fascinating too - the best present I ever got was a book from my nan, she got frustrated with everyone looking at the male lines (we have some sportsmen going back) so decided to investigate the female line including everything she knew about her relatives and her story of being evacuated during the war - she gave a copy to all her grandchildren and I'm hoping this will now turn into a family tradition as its just so special -

[DaisyProudfoot]

My husband's tracing his family tree - he's got a really strange surname which we believe may have Romany roots. He's tracked down relations throughout the UK and Canada and was once dubbed "Keeper of the Family Name" by other folks doing tree work.

 

My own family history dates back to the Border Reivers (a nasty bunch of cattle rustlers on the Northumbrian border).

 

What heritage eh? Gypsys and cattle rustlers - it's no wonder we both wanted to be Travellers before the kids were born and responsibility came along.

 

Actually I'd still be a Traveller today but it's hard to be free when the police are turfing you off every piece of waste ground going.

 

Daisy

[phasmid]

I'm very lucky, my family tree already exists and goes back to the 10thC. I have tried to search some of he branches with a little success but am hampered by the fact that this has led me abroad. That said I have found new relations I didn't know about. There are lts of websites around where you can post messages. Off hand I cannot remember the addresses but type 'geneology' into google and you'll soon find some.

Edited January 26, 2006 by phasmid

[smallworld]

No wonder with a name like 'phasmid'

Seriously, I have found the whole experience fascinating but it's really difficult to find out anything about the lives of our ancestors.

that's where you need to put in some serious research, and if you have a fairly common surname it's even trickier,

my grandad is 90 is the last link to provide info on his family but unfortunately he's quite guarded about the past, and his memory of his family.

It can be a difficult topic for families where one branch is never spoken about etc., I haven't uncovered any skeletons yet !!

The Mormon church has a fantastic database (because Mormons trace their ancestors so that they can post-humously baptise them into their church )

 

wac

[LKS]

I'm really interested in this too but have never got very far. I found out that my grandmother was adopted. On her birth cert. it had mother's name but father's name unknown I managed to find out that my nan was born in a workhouse in London. Her mum went in 2 days before the birth and left about a week after. The baby (my nan)was taken in by a local family who already had children so don't know why they did this, but she was well cared for. Can't find any trace of the mum after leaving the workhouse. Reading some of the entries of the people that were in this institution on these days was heartbreaking. I really wanted to try and find out some more for my mum as she is an only child but I came to a bit of a dead end without any money.

[adamsmum]

I would love to do this. my Dad left when i was 3 my mum said he was mentaly ill. I would love to find out more about my family. I know thers a lot of jewish blood in us my mum said a lot of family died in camps in war. She wont speak of it much it upsets her. Eny ideas wher i should start

[smallworld]

Hi,

I started off with looking at the online census for 1901, I could use this cos I knew exactly where my great-grandfather was born ( on Harley St. )and roughly when, then you can see the head of the household/spouse/children etc. and their occupations. I spent about a tenner to look at various details.

I think that 1881 and 1891 are online too ?

For searching previous to this I used the Mormon archive.

I knew that my great-grandad had fought in WW1 but I am finding it much harder to trace his military record. I think I need my grandad's help to get any further,

 

wac

[Tez]

I use Ancestry.co.uk I did pay the subscription for it because it worked out cheaper but I believe that you can currently access many of the census and birth, marriage, death records for free and they are nearly always offering a 14 day free trial.

[DaisyProudfoot]

I would love to do this. my Dad left when i was 3 my mum said he was mentaly ill. I would love to find out more about my family. I know thers a lot of jewish blood in us my mum said a lot of family died in camps in war. She wont speak of it much it upsets her. Eny ideas wher i should start

 

Interesting what you say about dad being mentally ill - is there an autistic link there do you suppose?

 

Daisy

[UltraMum]

I knew that my great-grandad had fought in WW1 but I am finding it much harder to trace his military record. I think I need my grandad's help to get any further,

wac

 

Have you tried the National Archives website? They have a lot of miltary records.

[Richt]

I got quite obsessive about mine, back to 1600s,

 

couldn't find out enough, so more interested in going forward, where are they? how did they turn out? Not quite so obsessive now, just an hour or so every now and then, I 've got loads of time, last in my line.

 

r

[littlenemo]

The first thing I found out when I started researching the (unusual) family name was that we are extinct!

As a Scottish clan we all died out over 100 years ago, apparently!

So I went further back and discovered that the name means 'field of the stone' and managed to find a farm of the same name outside Kilmarnoch with a field with a standing stone in it.

There was something very odd about tracing the family 'roots' to a field

 

Good luck in your searches

 

nemo

[Suze]

Love family history, on my dads side we know quite a lot.His ancestors were nordic(our family name is nordic)...........they came over and settled in Ireland.Then moved to Liverpool in the early 1900,s.They set up a removal and haulage company.Many of my dads family still live in liverpool and the haulage company still bears the family name.My mums side is full of illegitimate children ...........and my grandfather has olive skin so we think the roots go back to southern europe.Both me and my mum have a deeper coloured skin and go very brown in summer.

[DaisyProudfoot]

There's a guy in our office who was advised to use this site:

 

http://www.1837online.com/Trace2web/HomeServlet

 

He's adopted and he's trying to find his birth mum. It has births, deaths and marriages on it as well as census details

 

Daisy