Family history

I use Find my Past and find it an all absorbing hobby. I have managed to go back to the mid to late 16th century on 2 branches of my family. Thank goodness for unusual surnames.

I think I might give this a go - it all sounds fascinating!

I have had an Ancestry subscription for years and had some very interesting finds. However, I was adopted as a baby, back in 1948 when information about the father of an illegitimate child was hidden, I had given up on ever finding out much about my father. When I had my session with the social worker in 1975 when the passing of The Childrens Act allowed me to apply for a copy of my original birth certificate, as I left the meeting, she announced "your father was a Polish airman"! I spent the intervening years attempting to find out more, but to no avail. In 2018 I was given a DNA test for my birthday and discovered someone had a DNA that suggested he was a first cousin. So 70 years after I was born, I discovered that his uncle was my father. No he wasn't Polish but was eventually an Air Commodore in the RAF! There seems to be no end to what the records hide or what might be revealed by a DNA test!

On finding my late DH tree, other members had been wrongly put into his Dad's family from another branch. Probably cousins or a mistake with great grandma's parents. Worth looking up the ship manifests as one child born in Birmingham when I know they were living in Illinois ? A few skeletons also found in my family, people being born a month after wedlock, and next year the 1921 Census should be released ❤

I did the DNA testing first and was quite cynical until they matched me with my cousin’s daughter. She has been doing the tree for several years and found a well known theatrical dame on my mother’s side which was exciting! Not that I would rush to claim kinship; my great grandmother was her great aunt! Hardly close ! ?

Yes, both I my birth mother and I were adopted, and she died very young, leaving no other decendents. My son recently sent off to Ancestry. We joked about finding long lost relatives, and within a few weeks we did.

The missing details of my history have been filled in, and we have a lovely new branch to the family. For many years, unknown to us, we had even lived in the same small area of London.

In usual/normal times, Ancestry is available in UK libraries, free of charge. There's often somebody around to help, too.

Perhaps it's something to look forward to - next year.

It's definitely wiser to start with the more unusual surnames and leave the Smiths and Jones families until later, when you're more experienced!
Another tip is never to assume you've found the right person unless there is some more evidence. Census returns can usually provide this.
Always order your ancestors' birth and marriage certificates as they can give vital information, but order those which have information you really need first because they are quite expensive. Death certificates sometimes help but are not always essential. You need the reference details (from Ancestry) to order them here:
General Register Office

WOW - that’s amazing

Ancestry is often free to use over a Bank Holiday weekend and there are often offers available.
I've been tracing my dad's side of the family and discovered that he had a half brother that neither knew about. Sadly neither are still alive and my great grandmother on my father's side was an unmarried mother.
Once you start looking it is very addictive and it is quite an easy site to use.

As regards other people's trees, I put them onto my computer file with a ? next to it. I then check with public records that this is my relative. If they have a precise date or an exact address on their tree, I'm pretty confident that this is factually correct.

We have had luck on the English side but have found the Welsh side much harder with Evans, Jenkins etc being so common as a surname.

My husband's Welsh ancestry is easy for him as they were posher than my lot and were always in the local paper. Not so my ancestors who were miners and sheep farmers.

I have been on Ancestry for a very long time and agree that it’s very absorbing, lots of new information, with some information, family stories really, found to be totally wrong.
But I have family members with Smith as a surname and the Welsh side named Davies and its becoming a challenge as I go further back.
Why ever did a father named Charles , proceed to have a several sons, who all had a son that they named Charles? as they usually stayed in the same village it can make it so difficult to untangle them, plus if the child died young they often reused the name.......

I have used Ancestry for years. I always leave a gap between renewals and usually get an email offering a discounted price to lure me back.
I have a public tree ( details of living people are kept private) which has helped relatives find me. I found a cousin when all we knew was that her grandmother had married a Welshman named Jones!

Callistemon - when you have worked hard on your tree, and studied your ancestors' lives you get to know them as people. You know your tree is accurate because you've ordered all the certificates and cross-referenced everything to be sure. Then to find them in someone's tree with the wrong details is infuriating, especially when it's some random person who is barely related! I've had people who just scurry around adding anyone to their tree whether related or not, including in-laws' families which is ridiculous. And they don't check things properly which is why their tree is so wrong.

Love the Ancestry site, researching my family tree is one of my favourite hobbies. I have dipped in and out of the site for the last 6/7 years. I have also done research for a few friends - one friend in particular had a really scandalous relative (bigamy, poisoning of family members), it was quite exciting unearthing her history! Once you get going, it is not difficult to use and it is quite addictive.

I don't belong to Ancestry but have looked into the origins of our unusual family name. It's thought to be derived from that of a notorious Viking family!
Also many seafarers from my father's side, trading in the Baltic. Which pleases me because I've always had an affinity with the sea, I grew up on the NE coast.

I find Ancestry easy to use, But an unusual surname helps, On my father's side I gave up in the mid-nineteenth century - just to many people with the same name.

Better progress on my mother's, and some hilarity when one tree I looked at took me back to Uther Pendragon!

I have been using Ancestry for ten years. It is expensive in comparison with other sites but is definitely the best. I agree with those who say be wary of copying information from other trees, so many are wrong. Having a public tree will benefit you and you will get messages from others who share your ancestry. Living people can only be seen by the owner of the tree. I have found out family secrets and through DNA made contact with 2nd cousins. An absorbing hobby.

If you have an unusual surname it makes it all so much easier!

I agree with Chestnut - beware of information in other people's trees as some are complete fantasies. They obviously do not check and double check their facts.

If you message them to query anything some are pleased but some become very defensive. One has my granny in her tree and I know full well she has the wrong person (same name) but a whole family of different ancestors.
It can be frustrating particularly when their tree is public.

Luckygirl, my Husband’s Mother had a name connection to Prime minister Lloyd George. She was born on the day he came into power, and to celebrate the Government gave a Golden Guinea (21shillings) to every baby given his name that was born that day. Being a girl though, her mother changed it to Georgina Lloyd, and claimed the Golden Guinea for herself, which was a substantial amount of money back then!

I love Ancestry. I've used it for years. They seem to be constantly adding new files to investigate. Honestly I've found it very easy to use.
Look at www.freebmd.org.uk too
I keep my family tree on Family Tree Maker (which I bought cheaply for about £20 because there was a newer version available), not on Ancestry

Our Daughter has traced back my husbands side of the family back for several centuries. A lot of his side of the family are dark skinned with Blue-Black hair, and tan very easily, where as she’s Fair haired but still has the Dark skin tone. She discovered that her paternal Great Grandfather moved to Derbyshire to find work in the Cotton mills, having left the rest of his family behind in the small Cheshire mill town where several generations had lived and worked for many years. She also discovered some Irish ancestors, and a link to the troubled times of the invasion by the Spanish Armada, and the rape and abuse of some of the local womenfolk by the sailors it brought in, bringing the Dark Skin and Blue Black hair in the illegitimate children born from these Sailors to some of their victims. Hence the trait of the Skin tone and Dark Hair that can still be seen in some family members today.

My own Family roots are not half as varied as my Husbands are, Landlords and Farmers around the same Derbyshire Area for eight generations that l know of, and probably more!
My 92year old Dad still lives in the same village that the Family farm his Great Great Grandfather owned, and probably more generations before him, and most Married into other local families and kept up the Farming and food production traditions.

If you can find a free trial, do try it out - I think you will soon find it very absorbing. When I started some years ago, I subscribed to the UK records but it didn't take long before I upgraded to worldwide. I have also met (online) and compared /shared notes with two 2nd cousins. Very absorbing.