How it Started, How it's Going

[Chiddicks]

Inspired by a recent post by a friend, what first got you started with genealogy and researching your family tree and what continues to inspire you to carry on with your research? Here's how I started

https://chiddicksfamilytree.com/2022/01 ... its-going/

[Guy]

When people ask me how I became interested in family history it is easy to answer;
“I was born.”
That may sound facetious but in reality, my destiny was determined from day 1.
I was given my mother’s maiden surname as my only forename, my brothers each had two forenames and my only sister four forenames, to even ask why I was given only one forename and why the one I was given automatically involved family history.
By the time I was 4 years old my father had deserted us and was living in Canada, my mother had a small annuity from her father, enough to scrape through on with the help of a part-time job at a chicken farm. This meant I as the youngest enjoyed the luxury of hand me downs clothes, toys, bike, books etc. in a similar way to many others at the time.
One of the books I was given to amuse myself was a stem book (family tree) of the Guy family assembled by my grandfather. This was a bare bones book of family wills & other records and incorporated a A0 size family tree diagram folded into the front cover, I spent hours before I could read or write tracing the family lineage on that tree.
One way or another it seems I was destined to comply with the last paragraph in my grandfather’s book:
“I trust that my children and their children will not allow this family record to be lost, or to come to an end, remembering that, even if it does not interest them, it may be valued by those who come after them.”

Cheers
Guy

[Chiddicks]

Thanks Guy for sharing such a beautiful story and like you say, fate decreed that you would always be destined to research your family tree, it's your legacy. The last paragraph in your grandfathers book is so poignant and emotive, your path was chosen for you.

[AdrianBruce]

In my case, I must have been about 8y old when we went up to see my (great-)Uncle Bob, who was a GP in Wilmslow, for Sunday tea. He'd spent some time investigating the family tree and told us several stories such as how we were descended from John Peel, the huntsman of the Lake District, and how his own aunt (my G-GF Bruce's younger sister) had emigrated to New York to run a milliner's shop on Lexington Avenue.

To this day, every time I see Scotch pancakes, I remember Uncle Bob spreading jam on one for his tea - this was the one and only time I met him, as he died not long after.

The stories were filed at the back of my memory until over 30y later when I saw that FamilySearch had indexed the Ellis Island records and I wondered if his aunt could be found in there. Since her name was Augusta Bruce - fairly rare - maybe there was a chance to pay tribute to him by finding Augusta's entry details. From memory, the Ellis Island records had 5 arrivals by an Augusta Bruce at that time. Three were an American citizen from Boston(?) so not her. Two remained possibilities. It seemed unlikely that they could both be her as there were 13y between the 2 arrivals but only 2y difference in their ages. At first it was just a little exercise in logic trying to find out enough details about my GG-Aunt to see if she matched either - naturally, I got hooked on the logic puzzles (I can't play cards and sports-wise I have two left feet - so genealogy it was). Spoiler alert - they were both Augusta - I think that the age on the second trip should have read 38, certainly it was 38 on her outbound trip (found much later). There were just enough differences from Uncle Bob's story to keep me investigating further - for instance, Augusta was in Kansas City, not New York.

Without the Ellis Island records and, I think, the ScotlandsPeople site (or its precursor) I'd never have even looked.

John Peel? Ah, well. That was an Uncle Bob story that went the other way. According to him, the link came through the Pickstocks of Cheshire but I think that I've traced them and all their wives' ancestral lines back past John Peel and certainly nowhere near the Lakes. There is one possibility of an explanation. GGG-GM Pickstock was born a Hickson and I once talked to a chap doing a One Name Study of the Hicksons (& variants). He told me that there was a story that Sir Robert Peel (the PM) married a woman whose grandmother was a Hickson. Last time I looked, the published genealogies gave out immediately before the crucial name... But... had my story got twisted and Robert Peel become John Peel? Sir Robert's Hickson connection might not be true but the story of it might explain our Peel story. One day I might look it up...

[Chiddicks]

Fascinating story Adrian and thanks for sharing it. Sometimes it's the smallest of clues or stories that pique your interest and they sit there festering away in the back of your mind until something catapults them to the front and curiosity gets the better of you. The spark and inspiration sometimes comes when you least expect it, but once curiosity has got the better of you, you are hooked! Like the snowball effect that I mentioned, once you are researching the urge and desire to continue can be overwhelming and also so rewarding and fascinating at the same time.

The story regarding your ancestor John Peel/Robert Peel is very interesting, I am a great believer that there is always an element of truth behind every family legend, in fact, I am investigating a family story that we should have inherited a Lancashire Cotton Mill, which I have been looking into for a few years, but I think like a lot of these stories, they get confused over generations and years, I'm sure as in your case there is an element of truth there somewhere, but it's only ever family folklore until you can prove otherwise!

[meekhcs]

I thought long and hard before replying to this post, mainly because it brings back to the fore issues I am still trying to deal with.

I came to Family History later in life after both my Parents had passed away. Although I knew a little about my Mum's Family I knew absolutely nothing about Dads, apart from "knowing" Nanny and my Uncle and Aunts. Although I had asked a couple of questions Dad was never forthcoming. So, when I came to early retirement, I decided to find out more.

Speaking to Mum's Family helped map out the Family, but Dad's were very tight lipped, which of course made me even more determined to unravel my Tree. I thoroughy enjoyed researching and getting to know my Ancestors.

Things that have come to light since (nothing really awful but personal), have explained their reticence. It was enough to shake me, and knock me off my stride, and made me have to face up to things I did't want to face up to.

It has taught me one important thing, no matter how many primary/cast iron sources you think you have for a fact, it still doesn't make it true.

[Chiddicks]

Thanks for sharing that meekhcs, a lot has been spoken of recently in the genealogy field about DNA testing and what you might uncover or discover, but that is also true about researching your family tree. You just never know what you might discover and of course some of these things can be life changing. I always say to friends who are con sidering researching their tree to be mindful of what they might discover, you can't "unlearn" something once you have made a discovery.

[paulr1949]

I only got started in family history by accident! After my father died in 2006, I was sorting through some paperwork and found the executor’s files of my maternal great-aunt Flo who had died in 1987. Most of her will was fairly straightforward, but I was intrigued that, after various small bequests, she had left two-thirds of her estate to my mother and one third to someone I had never heard of – a Kenneth Baker. A couple of years later I was able to take early retirement and started doing a little detective work. There was not nearly as much in the way of records available online at that time, plus the 1911 census had not yet been released, so I didn’t get very far. I had a trial membership of “Ancestry”, and was able to find records of my great grandparents but not much more. The situation was complicated by the fact that my mother’s mother died in 1924when my mother was just 2½ years old, and my grandfather re-married a couple of years later. My mother’s step-mother and my mother apparently didn’t get on for a while, and a lot of her childhood was spent with said great-aunt. This explained why my mother (and us children) went to Nottingham a number of times and why great-aunt Flo visited us quite a bit. I can remember visiting their house in Arnold, Nottingham, when my great-grandfather was still alive (so it must have been before 1956!) and again probably 2 years later when my great-aunt was still living in their house – a fairly big one which had electric power but gas lighting, which always seemed strange. The house was still there, but there was no-one at home when I visited a few years ago.

When the 1911 census became available I took out a full subscription to Ancestry and was able to find the family living in Arnold, plus great-great grandparents etc. I discovered that my great grandmother (Elizabeth Bryan) had been born in Ireland. This wasn’t good news – one thing I had discovered was that nearly all Irish census data was destroyed in a fire. Her parents were John and Isabella Bryan, he had been born in Nottingham but she was from Hawick, in Scotland – another twist! The linking factor was the textile industry. John was a framework knitter – they used machines to knit stockings. The textile industry was strong in the Scottish Borders and I assume that he went to Scotland to find work. As far as I know, they married in Hawick – I have not been able to trace any records, although Isabella already had an illegitimate daughter who was living with her parents. Their first child was born in Scotland and later became a miner but again I have not been able to find a birth/baptism record. They then moved to Balbriggan, Ireland, which, at the time, was known as the silk capital of the world, and had 4 children there, including by great-grandmother Elizabeth. Finally in the late 1870’s, they moved back to Nottinghamshire. They had 4 more children before John died in 1888 of Bronchityis and Epileptic Vertigo.

In 1895, my great-grandmother married Henry Lamin, a cabinet maker. However, in June 1893 she had given birth to an illegitimate daughter – Maggie Elizabeth Bryan. I suspect (but do not know) that this was the result of a liaison with Henry, as Maggie Elizabeth was accepted into the Lamin family and was later known as Maggie Elizabeth Bryan Lamin. Having said that, she was living as Maggie Lamin with the widowed Isabella in the census records. In 1917 she married Cyril William Baker in Nottingham and they had a son, Kenneth Baker – who was the person named in my great-aunt’s will.

It just grew from there. I've done quite a lot of my wife's family as well. It will be nice to be able to go and visit a record office soon

[Thunder]

It started when my Brother started it looking when our grandmother died in 1980 and she had not been given a fair bequest when her mother died in 1954 and the will was contested unsuccessfully in the High Court at Lincoln, only for the main beneficiary dying a few months later. I then took it further looking at our Dad's side and my first of many visits to the General Register Office for Scotland in Edinburgh (where my Aunt admitted our grandfather was illegitimate) and I was amazed by all of the registers on the shelves, this is all before digitisation and you were allowed to see three entries every 15 minutes. I am still trying to find our great-great-grandfather's first marriage in Edinburgh in the 1820s, I just need to find the church. I am awaiting the Scottish 1921 Census to come out later this year and hopefully I will still be around to see the 1931 Census.

[Guy]

This raises a very interesting point, have you tried to access the 1921 Scottish census if the filming has finished and the transcription phase has started the census should be back and the National Records of Scotland and be open to inspection as 100 years has passed.
There is no legal reason to prevent your access the old fashioned way of visiting the archive and viewing the paper copy.
It may be worth a try and if you suceed I can assure you it will mean far more to you than seeing the images on a screen.

They might of course bluster and say you cannot access it as they are working on it but they have no legal right to prevent your access.
Cheers
Guy