Family tree

My son and I have been tracing our tree on my paternal grandfathers side. Got back to 1630 when two brothers emigrated one to Barbados and the other to Jamaica and had sugar plantations. We were upset to learn they were slave owners and profited after abolition when the slaves got nothing. My forename appears through every century.

nananet01. It does depend on where you live and where your recent ancestors lived. Different sites have their main customer base in different countries. It also depends on what you want to know.
I had my DNA done on 23 and me as I was interested in my health. It told me that I had neither the Alzheimer’s gene nor the breast cancer gene both of which was extremely reassuring. As an aside I was presented with a huge list of “cousins” who had registered with the site. That got me interested in tracing my family tree.
You don’t have to join a site and to begin with I used free sites. Eventually I chose Ancestry but it is appallingly bad with Scottish records so I think I made a mistake there.

I've found some fascinating photos of my close family on Flickr from a branch that emigrated to Canada. They were obviously sent these from England over the years.

Pastime!!!

I have been doing my family tree on and off for a few years. I can't find anything about my mother's grandparents who were Swedish as my grandfather was a 'black sheep' who changed his name. Then to compound it he disappeared at the beginning of WW2 only for my grandmother to be informed of his death in America in 1944. I've gone back to the 1500s on my my mum's English side and almost as far with my dad, it's a time consuming fascinating passtime.

I have been researching on and off for 10 years. I have done my father's side of the family, going right back to the 18th century, but as my mother is Italian, I haven't been able to do hers (though I believe there may be records I could access if I chose to subscribe to a worldwide website). It's very addictive; I have researched at least 6 or 7 other families for my friends. Some of the things you find are really interesting - one of my friend's Victorian relatives buried 2 husbands, both died of poisoning! Not that she actually murdered them, she was a herbalist and (from memory?) I think one died of lead poisoning and the other from some herbal concoction that was tainted!

Yes another addict here and been seriously researching for 20 yrs now. Ancestry is great for census lookups tho 1881 is a 'free' one. There is a free trial of 14 days use ( just remember to cancel credit card details at end) and when libraries are open again, there is access there for free. You can use it just to research or if you wish post up a tree for public consumption or keep 'private'. No details of living people are allowed.

FreeBMD is another great site for access to UK indices for BMD. It might give enough information but you can use result to go buy actual copy of a cert from government site. They now do a digital version for a lesser amount.

There is also a probate calendar online that can give useful information and actual copy of a will can be requested using details from same.

Irish records have improved a lot in last few years with free access to nearly all births 1864 to 1920, deaths up to 1970 and marriages up to 1950. Then there is free access to older church records where available and of course the two censuses 1901 and 1911. Sadly there will be no Irish 1921 census as it was not done that year.

I started mine some years back and then haven't done any more research for some time ! I did join Ancestry BUT they persist in getting my birth date wrong ...despite my telling them ! but in the past I did find out my grandfather was Scottish NOT Irish as my dad had always said ......and another relative married a French 'chef domestique' when she was in service in London as a nanny ......and a cousin of my mother who has his name on the Kranji war memorial in Singapore ..killed there in the relief of Singapore when he was only 20......my family name originated in Italy ...must get onto it again ! quite fascinating ..

An American decided that my grand-parents were part of his ancestry, apparently my gran had dozens of children, all over Europe and America, sometimes several in a year, spanning several continents, she was also married many times. Her sons were born and died in America and one died in Sulewasi during the 2ww. None of this is true, they were all English and the one that died is honoured in Portsmouth.
The problem is that people copy other trees without doing their own research, it's hard work but you get the correct results if you diy. Even distant members of families make mistakes, the amount of times I thought I'd found the correct family and realised that I'd been on the wrong trail, I wish they hadn't used the same names over and over again!

I don't think anyone has mentioned this site yet - britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

In some cases when I had identified an individual's name and address and dates I found interesting information to pad out their story. One was a heartbreaking account of the death of my mother's sister who died in her twenties. I was given her name but my mother never spoke about her. The article included a lovely tribute to my aunt and I was thrilled to have "met" her at last.
On a lighter vein, I found several gossipy reports in local newspapers of goings on involving my ancestors in the late 19th/early 20th century. Those early reporters would certainly pack in the detail if they had a slow news day!

Bear1 i was stuck for quite a while with my great grandma my mum gave me he maiden name, but could i find her or her marriage it turned out she was born before her parents marriage so had her mothers maiden name not her fathers name as her surname.
I also use parish records a lot you could try those for his christening or marriage

On another thread about family trees I mentioned being wary someone was trying to trace me.I didn't want anything to do with this person but the relative I had never met.who was the illegitimate daughter of my brother found me on Facebook and have them all the information they wantrd.I was furious as I think I should have been consulted first about whether I wanted my details given out.this has caused a lot of problems now.
I have now blocked this informant from my friends list.I almost had a breakdown after this .but had a real meltdown and panic attacks.please don't give out any .information about anyone without their consent

A cousin traced back one side of the the family. I believe it took quite a bit of time and while I find the results interesting the process itself seems a bit of a faff.

Apparently an unfortunate great-great whatever owned a small country estate but lost it at the gaming table and fell off his horse! Does bad luck run in the family? There's also a possible connection to a Victorian Chancellor and the Bonham-Carter family.

I was always told my dad's sister died aged 17. I decided to look up her death and there is no record whatsoever. Now I am left with a mystery. Where is she? Could she be alive?

I have been researching my family and my DH's for around 20 years on and off and am at present going through my files. I have taken photographs of some of the houses my family lived in and in 2005 went on a package tour to Ypres looking at the battlefields of the First World War. On the 'free' day of the trip we were able to visit the grave of my grandfather near a village about 8 km. from Ypres by using a local bus and then walking; I had previously looked up maps and was so pleased to find that the relevant roads were where I thought they should be, although we nearly walked past the cemetery as it looked so much smaller than we had imagined, probably because of the flat landscape. We also visited the villages in Suffolk and Norfolk where ancestors lived.
But I did come across several 'brick walls' which are still unsolved.

I've been working on my family tree since '80s. I really like Ancestry. I have used others, but I always come back to Ancestry. I haven't shared my tree online. I store in on Family Tree Maker software, not Ancestry's.

1921 census comes out January 2022 which I think is surprisingly late. (Didn't previous censuses come out in years ending in 1 or even 0?)

I have been researching on and off for years.
During Lockdown I have been putting some of our family stories onto a website and have made contact with several distant cousins who have contributed to the tree.
Just yesterday I found a mistake in one line and have had to delete a few people and add the correct ones.
My tips would be to never blindly copy others, do your own research.
When your Ancestry subscription comes up for renewal do not auto renew. Leave it for a while and they will email you with an offer price. I am currently paying half the going rate.

I started doing mine in Ancestry, then found that my nephew was doing his on MyHeritage, so I looked on that and he shared his with me. Now I don’t know where to continue! Does anyone have experience of both and which they prefer. I haven’t paid any fees on either so I could pick and choose.

i have tried several times and gave up as my father whose birth certificate i have (he passed away in 1979) does not exist according to these sites,

I've found being a member of LostCousins very useful. The man who runs it is very good at explaining how things are done, and achieving results via the various websites like Ancestry and FindMyPast. Having had my DNA done, I can see how many parts of the world have made me who I am!

So interesting to read all your posts. Baubles, I sympathise, my grandmother was Irish and called Mary - as a child I called her Grandma May. She went to live in New York in 1927 and I've finally found her on the passenger lists.

As for the DNA test my daughter took it, and had an odd email from a 'cousin' - it unnerved her and she refused to show me so I assume it was a bit odd!

My mother started researching our family tree and I have continued after her death. She must have done very thorough research as I have found little to correct on her side.
Ancestry is helpful but beware, other peoples, trees they are often wrong especially if they do not know the area they are researching or live abroad. You will find brothers and sisters born at one end of a county to another.
As said above don't use Ancestry for B.M.D's they are far too expensive,use family research which is free find the birth cert you need copy all the details and then phone the national registry office if they are still open.

Also ask any elderly relatives how surnames were pronounced You will often find them phonetically spelt before 1839 when proper registration was introduced before that it was often the curate who was not too good himself, i.e. in my county Atkinson was pronounced Atchin and sometimes recorded as such.Also try saying the name out loud in another accent especially when looking at families who had moved countries and are on census.
As is mentioned above Scottish records are much fuller than English and help a lot more and will often name the father of an illegitimate child.
Finally, I had my DNA tested and have solved 15-year-old problems.
Family trees are good to dip in and out of and when we can !! provide an outing to check for graves or records.

Future Learn have a free online beginners course ‘ Genealogy: Researching your Family Tree ‘-starting in March .

GrannyMary1

Has anyone done the Ancestry DNA test? I bought one as there was an offer on but it's still sitting in the drawer. Who gets to see the results of this. I'm a member of Ancestry but does this mean that everyone will be able to see this too? My aunt did this once and was contacted by a stranger from America. My friend's son was contacted by a previously unknown half sister at his father's funeral (also in America!) That was interesting! So really, should I leave the test in the drawer or will I find out something interesting about my family?

Go ahead and get it done. You will be surprised at how much you can discover. My DNA and DH's has led to several links through which we have discovered new information about our families.

I started doing my family tree last year during the first lockdown.

I love it it takes my mind off things.

I have found out lots of things i didn't know, my great granddad on my dads side was christened in the church where my children went to school, i didn't even know they were from this area.

I am now researching my mums family and she loves to talk about it with me, she is 92 and can tell me somethings but i have surprised her with a few things she didn't know.

I am using find my past but i am thinking of try Ancestry for a change.
Is it any good?