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  • What do you do?

    I've got to a point on my tree where I've traced most of my blood ancesters back through the censuses apart from a couple of annoying ones. I've got them and their siblings on my tree. I've got a couple of lines going back to the 1600s but most stop at 1841. I really need to stop myself getting bored of my tree. I dont really want to keep travelling around the country annoying church registrars asking to view parish records.

    I keep thinking the only thing I can do is trace the siblings forward in time and mapping their families but as they're not in my bloodline I dont have much interest in this. So what have you done at this point?
    Hail Spode!

  • #2
    trace the siblings forward in time and mapping their families
    Exactly what you say you are not interested in is what I do lol!!

    I haven't found more than one new ancestor in the last seven or eight years, but my tree has probably increased from around 1,000 to 7,000 people since then, by going sideways and forwards. Some of these people are definitely the most interesting in my tree and, apart from their spouses, I am related to all of them!

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    • #3
      By going sideways and forwards I've discovered loads of vicars and ministers of a wide range of religious persuasions including two who were high-ups in parts of what became the present Methodist Church. I've found cattle ranchers in Argentina, landed proprietors in Dorset and any number of schoolteachers. And I have a very tenuous link to Michael Faraday, as do most of the folk on GR judging by the number of Hot Matches I get!
      Uncle John - Passed away March 2020

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      • #4
        I work on the siblings of ancestors and trace their descendants forward as it gets harder to follow my direct lines, some cousins or siblings of my direct ancestors whom they certainly would have known have proved to be very interesting - one wrote a history of his town which gives anecdotes about my 4x great grandfather catching a 20 inch eel, and taking snuff, I wouldn't have found this had I not moved sideways with the tree. (to be featured in a future FTF magazine article)

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        • #5
          I would perservere with going back before 1841. It really isn't as daunting as it first seems, and I've had lots of fun doing it (and even OH has enjoyed the visits to records offices and churces).

          You wouldn't be likely to find the parish records often in the possession of the current vicar for that period - most are in the Records Offices.

          If you use Find My Past and other sources you can do quite well. It's also amazing what Google turns up!
          Elizabeth
          Research Interests:
          England:Purkis, Stilwell, Quintrell, White (Surrey - Guildford), Jeffcoat, Bond, Alexander, Lamb, Newton (Lincolnshire, Stalybridge, London)
          Scotland:Richardson (Banffshire), Wishart (Kincardineshire), Johnston (Kincardineshire)

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          • #6
            But you don't have to travel round the country to view church registers!

            The LDS church has filmed hundreds of thousands of registers from all over the world, and you can view these at your local LDS family history centre for a nominal amount.

            I have used this method for many years and got my tree back centuries.

            Other documents, like Wills etc can be ordered from the relevant County Archives for a few £££, and as I am 500 miles from my county of interest, this is always cheaper than going to the County Records Office concerned.

            OC

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            • #7
              What you do depends upon what you want. I am prepared to travel to the relevant archives to find out more, though I must say I am lucky in that most archives are within a couple of hours' journey time.

              The most interesting ancestor I found is a gt gt gt uncle in Broadmoor, but often the people who marry into my family are fascinating too. I like to do as many people as possible - you can then see how social trends shaped their lives - ie mainly ag labs until late 19th c then education, transport opened up job opportunities.

              I also like to go to where they lived if possible. If the original buildings aren't there, there are often places - churches, parks etc that were, plus original road layouts often haven't changed much. You can really understand more if you can trace their footsteps from their local village to the nearest railway etc.

              But if you just want to collect a lot of names and dates, that's fine too.

              When I get stuck/bored with my lot, I do my ex's. Although he and I aren't together any more, I adored my mil (now dead) so enjoy tracing her family - and of course this lot are also my sons' lineage.

              I've even done a tree for a Gloucestershire family whose lives touched my Glos lot at several points.
              ~ with love from Little Nell~
              Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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              • #8
                The interesting people in my tree (well OH's) tend to be descedants of siblings or their spouses. I've managed to get a descendant of the founder of Twining Teas onto the tree that way, as well as a couple of England Cricketers.


                I've also found through going sideways and forwards that MIL and FIL are related and that my FIL's mother and father were related so I've got a few nice loops in the tree now too.
                Barbara

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                • #9
                  Like the others, I have traced my ancestors as far as I can, and OHs. But some of them are so interesting, that I have spent a lot of time collecting more information than just their bmd events.

                  My great-grandfather was a foundation staff member of the Royal Australian Corps of Engineers in 1904, so I have spent a lot of time looking into what he actually did, how he had time to build a house miles from the Army Barracks, and why he was medically discharged in 1909, what he did during WW1 when he was seconded to the Dept of Home Affairs. I even know how much he was paid in 1905-6.

                  On OH's side they were nurserymen, orchardists and gardeners, also prolific writers in their fields, so I have collected photocopies of their articles and works, and spend a lot of time chasing lists of the fruits and vege varieties they created/hybridised. I also chased, without success, camellias they might have done - one stood on the property in Melbourne until the 1960s at least, and who knows, might still be there. As there are two families, one in Sydney and one in Melbourne, both in the trade, I am also looking for commerical links between them. I have a list of the camellias developed by one family member (indeed, the suburb Camellia is named to commemorate his nursery there).

                  Another of OHs ancestors was the first matron at the Female and Orphan Immigration Depot at Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney from 1848, and I have looked into her situation quite extensively, they seem to have got gold fever and moved to Sofala in the 1850s !!

                  Currently I am investigating the links (if any) between my family and my OHs family via a small Berkshire village. This has entailed making lists of everyone in the village and working out who they married and who their children married to see who is related to who(m), where they were born, where they moved to and died. Its never ending....

                  There are lots of interesting things to investigate besides your direct ancestors.

                  Di
                  Last edited by dicole; 02-01-09, 22:24.
                  Diane
                  Sydney Australia
                  Avatar: Reuben Edward Page and Lilly Mary Anne Dawson

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                  • #10
                    As the only people in my tree that ever went anywhere or did anything interesting are the siblings of my direct ancestors, I'd have very little to research to do if I stuck to my direct line. Anyway, I want to find out as much as possible about anyone I'm related to, however distantly - probably because I'm nosey and don't want my searching to come to an end.

                    Jane

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                    • #11
                      If you feel as though you've found enough ...... or all that you want to find.... you could think of way of putting it all together ..... so that people can read it. .... after you've gone.

                      I'm putting mine into a proper book ..... all 300 pages .... with pictures, archive cuttings, newspaper clips and anything else I can find like dates in history, dates of the census and a few poems to make it more interesting to read.

                      I know it's going to cost quite a bit at the binders ..... but at least I'll know all my work wasn't in vain.

                      Jean
                      Jean....the mist is starting to clear

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                      • #12
                        When I did as about as much of my tree as is possible, I started a one name study of my maiden name.
                        Very time consuming but very interesting.
                        If it's to be, it's up to me.
                        Searching for:
                        English: Brewerton, Wilkes, Edwards, Broughton, Piercy, Brundred, Homer, Parry, Wynn, Nock, Noden, Standley and Taylor.

                        Scottish: McDougall,Gemmell, Hunter, Stewart, Campbell, Downs, Galt, Frew, Hill, Hand, Main, Thomson, McLarty and Murdock.

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                        • #13
                          Another idea, if you are a bit tired of your tree (for the moment) is to do some transcribing for things like FreeReg. They are the Parish Register version of FreeBMD.

                          It sounds boring - transcribing records - yawn . But I find it absolutely fascinating. The transcribing I am doing is for a One Name society at the moment. But I have also done it for the Bedfordshire FHS for a time too. I know the FreeReg people are always asking for volunteers.

                          Anne

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                          • #14
                            Ditto for me really.
                            I have spent ages researching my GG grandad's brother as he had a much more interesting life and as he was in public office then there is more to find out about him.
                            I also like to research the communities where the family came from - very interesting when it is a rural community and I enjoy a day out just "walking in my ancestors footprints".
                            My holidays, these days, always seem to take me to the home place of an ancestor!!
                            A few years ago I went to Ireland - i didn't care that I didn't find my ancestors grave as I was just happy to tread the ground they once walked on.
                            Oh dear perhaps I am sad - but it gives me so much pleasure.
                            Good luck with your searching Guybrush - keep at it and just when you feel there is nothing there - up will pop a new and interesting lead.
                            herky
                            herky
                            Researching - Trimmer (Farringdon), Noble & Taylor (Ross and Cromarty), Norris (Glasgow), McGilvray (Glasgow and Australia), Leck & Efford (Glasgow), Ferrett (Hampshire), Jenkins & Williams (Aberystwyth), Morton (Motherwell and Tipton), Barrowman (Glasgow), Lilley (Bromsgrove and Glasgow), Cresswell (England and Lanarkshire). Simpson, Morrow and Norris in Ireland. Thomas Price b c 1844 Scotland.

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                            • #15
                              Thanks for all the suggestions. I have been trying to do more research on people over and above the BMD info using the Gale newspapers and google but my family seem to have never really done anything remarkable (at least not that I can prove). The only thing I've found in the papers is that my gggg uncle went bankrupt once.

                              I think I'll have to go sideways and forward. It'll be interesting but I somehow doubt I'll feel the same about the people I find. I think those days have gone. It was all so new and exciting and registering with Ancestry opened up a whole cornucopia of information. Now I just feel I've been there and done it.

                              Perhaps that feeling will pass. I'm waiting for a marriage cert to arrive at the moment so I'll have some more to do when it arrives.

                              Thanks again and I do feel somewhat revitalised now with all your enthusiasm.
                              Hail Spode!

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                              • #16
                                And you can join family history societies, subscribe to rootschat, your family tree and to mailing lists; read family history magazines; become an OPC. One's choice is never-ending
                                Joy

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                                • #17
                                  It really is surprising what you can find when you stop doing the tree. The tree is necessary to get at the interesting people within your tree, but to me just collecting tree names is very boring.

                                  I have gone sideways and backwards mainly and have found many of mine married by licence and to see these actual marriage licences of the 1600's is really fascinating. I have found a Swedish Scientist who was fined for polluting the Thames back in the early 1900's, Servicemen who served in the Crimea, Boer and First World Wars and whose histories are at Kew and on Ancestry, Irishmen who were rebellious and have found letters that one in particular wrote to a National Irish newspaper. I have found Great Uncles at an army school and have found letters written by my great grandfather through contacting the army school. I have found intriguing wills on line leading to another intriguing ancestral line that I did not know about. I have found a book in a charity shop talking about a Scottish Great Uncle who died in a sea tragedy off Australia, and yet another Scottish member of the family who is the Surgeon mentioned at the battle of Borodino in "War and Peace" and who was a surgeon to some of the Tsars of Russia. I have found some who married during the Commonwealth Period and wonder whose side were they on during the Civil War which has led me to read all about the Civil War. I am deeply into the history of the villages of my ancestors, and I do this by purchasing books of the villages of interest and belonging to the Family History Societies and going to meetings of a local FHS to listen to the wonderful talks which keep giving me more ideas. I have found gamekeepers and gardners and many ag labs, as well as shoemakers and bailiffs at some very prestigious Manor Houses, who have had wonderful documents produced to show what they were doing in the 1700's. The Settlement Certificates are documents that are worth copying and showing as you would a painting. I have visited my County Record Office of interest but it is not a place I can get to very often, so I just collect FH tasks for about 3 years and then visit. I have been doing FH for 30+years and still have much to do, time is my one restraint.

                                  I have also found convicts, but best of all I have found many cousins with which I have shared so much through the internet.

                                  I do hope you will relook at your tree and see where and how you can make it alive to you, so that you will not get bored. Believe me when you really get stuck in and find real records beyond the BMD, it is surprising how interesting your family becomes. Mine was so very ordinary when I started.

                                  Janet
                                  Last edited by Janet; 02-01-09, 23:19.

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                                  • #18
                                    Redacted

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                                    • #19
                                      I've also gone "sideways" and found some interesting characters, including a former premier of Queensland and a well known judge who helped found the Philatetic Society. My grandmother had an unusual surname and so I've done a bit of a one name study on that as well.
                                      Jenny

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                                      • #20
                                        don't give up, you'll always find something. though usually its enough to make you interested, and then you can't find out anything else.

                                        sometimes researching other offshoots brings you into contact with people where you can trade informationa and work on the family together.
                                        or, tracing a brickwall where you get stuck takes you into siblings or cousins, and then through them, you can get further in your research.

                                        i have a distant uncle who was a policeman, found out where the family obssesion for fast vehicles comes from- an uncle died in a racing accident aged 17 in the 1870's, i have found nobility in 1700's scotland- that led to medieval royalty, i have found many farmers but most turned out into rich land owning people.

                                        but i also have the exciting advantage- sometimes worst disadvantage though, that my ancestors were australian, so they all came from different corners of the globe. most of my ancestors were english, and they have the most info so far, but i also have a lot of german blood-from modern poland and mecklenberg, i have irish and scottish ancestors, and ancestors from mauritius, originally from france.

                                        i have a family story to discover with each one, and if you didn't research the distant relatives evrey now and then, there is information you won't know. i have stories that link my ancestors to the dukes of buccleugh-descendants of charles II, links to the kings of prussia, links to wealthy manors in the 1600's.and especially where you hit brick walls, siblings and their descendants may have photos, or drawings, maybe even bibles.

                                        im lucky my ancestors have always been proud of where they came from, they had information and shared it. i have paintings and photos of my ancestors from the 1840's on. i have original letters between england and australia, i have family histories, and paintings on silk from my 2nd great grandmother. i usually only research the different branches if the family is rare, or if i have a brickwall.

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