Recording my family memories

Yes I did actually!!! My Great Aunt Winifred is there on her parents knee as a baby!!!! She died in 1966 aged 84! A spinster lady, (they were always too fat, too thin, too rich too poor too tall too short!! nobody pleased!) she used to come and stay with my Granny who was her younger sister by 10 years, (Aunt Win was the eldest of 5 daughters!)and I also have a photo of her with me sitting in the garden in deck chairs! I remember she bought me a Mickey Pop (does anyone remember these?) on an outing to Windsor, can't remember anything more about that day!!!!

Hope you did not know the ones on the 1883 photos, niggly.

I'm just starting with mine, so reading with interest.

I've been going through family photo's (I have a suitcase full of them some dating back to 1883!) and picking out people I knew and writing all that I know/remember about them. Some are pretty brief as they were elderly great aunts/uncles (probably younger than I am now!!!) so I didn't know them that well, but others I did know, and hopefully it will make for interesting reading for someone in the future. Google street view is brilliant, again I've managed to find out where people lived way back!

Tegan, there's a lot of information on the back of each map as well.
It's usually a list from Kelly's Directory for a few streets on the map. If you are lucky, the street you want is on the back. It still makes interesting reading even if it's not the right street.

Thanks; I've just found the S.O.'s birthday present on that site as well .

Actually, I've just looked on their website, and I'm going to get some for my sister for her birthday next month.
I found out last year that one of my 2xgreat aunts was in the workhouse in Driffield, so I got the map. The workhouse is enormous, the biggest building in Driffield. Fortunately my relative was the school mistress. The census shows her living at the workhouse.

If you want old maps, there is a company called Godfrey, which works from Leadgate, Consett, and sells old ordnance survey maps.
They have maps from about 1850 to 1930, and they cost £2.50 each, with coloured ones £3.25. Postage £1.25 per order, so order as many as you want for £1.25 postage.Their website is
www.alangodfreymaps.co.uk

Haven't looked at places where I used to live, but I did look to find DD1's new house in Australia when she was telling us about it, only to find a view of a building plot.
When PC is connected again I'll go exploring again, thank you NanKate

Have you discovered Google Street view ? Just type in an address and USUALLY you get a the street not always the exact house.

Although they are all recent photographs it is fun to find places from your past.

Get Googling !

www.francisfrith.com/uk/ has old photographs of Britain. I even found some photos of the village my GGPs lived in and probably their cottage too. Certainly the church they got married in. I hope to visit the village again properly one day having visited briefly years ago before I had so much information.

The guest house we had in York was called the Cornmill Lodge, but it was just a middle terrace house. In the winter, we did a lot of research on it, and discovered it actually was a house belonging to the Cornmill, or Peppermill which was behind it. The house behind belonged to a builder and it was quite rundown, but you could tell it was a mill. It was grade two listed and you could still see the curved wall of what used to be the mill itself. It looked like the mill that you can see when you go in to York on the train.
Our research went back to the 1600s, further back than our own family.
The mill owners owned all the land and built houses on to the lodge for the rest of the family, so that's why it ended up in the middle of a terrace.
Looking into the history of an individual house is quite fascinating, even if it's not your own family history. At least a house stays still.

Ages ago I was asked to write about an old house I used to live in and have only just got around to it. I'm combining it with family memories in the form of an interview rather than a series of paragraphs which allows me to deviate from the 'question' from time to time. Once I get stuck in I really enjoy doing it as it gives me 'permission' to go on a furniture hunt on line to see if I can find the sort of furniture we used to have as a child. The trouble is I've got other projects on the go too so it's a real balancing act. Will I ever finish it I wonder?

wordpress.com/

http://wordpress.com/
You can have a free blog on it and put what you want on it. Then any one else in your family who signs up to wordpress can look at your blog.

Thanks so much Tegan. I am going to put an hour aside and sit and read through this fabulous history of my hometown.

Gosh; didn't realise there was a Birmingham history forum as well; the site has grown so much I can't keep up with it. I keep meaning to order some of his books as well.

www.handsworthhistory.co.uk/images/handsworth_2c.html
not sure if that will copy...

After my father died, we found notebooks which began "in 1984 *(that's me) asked me to write down my memories of our family history, so here it is". What a moment for the 3 daughters. Dad had a host of stories about his parents, and extended family members, which he'd entertained us with as we were growing up. He never mentioned that he was actually writing it all down, as I'd asked him to, and I never pestered as his health was beginning to fail.
It's even more special, because it's in his own handwriting, which was that lovely flowing, script that so many of his generation used. Towards the end, the writing reflects his growing frailty. We have developed a family tree, on dad's side, back to the mid 17th century. Mum's side is a mystery beyond the 1850's. I suspect it's something we become more interested in as we age. This thread has prompted me to continue dad's family history, thanks.

Why is it though, that all my best thoughts for 'writing something down' come in the middle of the night, when I am not inclined to get up and do that? At the moment a lot of my thoughts have been put down in a jumble, but at least they are there - I have written something which is just for our son, although he will never read it, but it has been good to put down my feelings on paper. There is also a very long writing which I hope my daughter will enjoy, it is full of little things which have happened specially during her lifetime, and also tells of my childhood. There is no ancestry there. Our son in law who is a lovely man, gave a little speach at our Diamond Wedding Anniversay, - he and my daughter had put their heads together, and he gave examples of all the stupid things which had happened when my daughter and her brother were young - it had everyone in fits of laughter - hopefully my writings will be the same.

Tegan thanks for the info on Ted Rudge ( new to me) I was born in Handsworth Wood so not too far from the Hockley area. Will check out the photos.

I am in same position as you Mrs Mopp lots of info but not sorted. As Eric Morecambe could have said ' I have got all the right information but not necessarily in the right order ! '. I too wish I had more/any family members to reminisce with.

Durhamjen what is Wordpress ?

I have found it really helpful having so many Gransnet members helping with this project - much appreciated.

Must admit when I was younger I didn't take much notice when mum told me about family history. I remember thinking she went on about the past a bit too much. I became interested much later and of course it's too late now to ask her anything. But I have discovered so much now and fervently wish my parents were still here for me to share it with them. That's life!

Maybe, Tegan, people do not get interested until they are older.
I have two boxes of A4 folders, about 50 folders all with a different name on. That's mainly one branch of the family, my mother's mother's side.
They tended to have lots of kids back then.
The problem is that I find things out and then wish my mother could have known that.
If you use folders, Mrsmopp, and then put interesting facts on the front of each folder, you can then put them in date order, and organise a bit.

Mydaughter has managed to go back a long way with her fathers family, but seemed to hit a wall with mine, even though I thought I had a lot of information. But neither of my children seem interested in my family . I'm going to try to try find out more but there are very few family members left. NanKate; have you looked on the Ted Rudge website about Birmngham [mind you it only covers Winson Green and Hockley; but it's lovely to see all the old photos].

I'm writing my own family memories and trying to sort it all out coherently. Little memories come back to me and I jot them down in my notebook, then the hard part is fitting it into the main piece so it's not disjointed. Are you writing yours chronologically? I'm trying to think the best way to organise all these random memories.
I have researched my ancestry too and have lots of information but again I am a loss how to put it all together. Maybe a chapter for each surname? It's taking me ages. I want more than birth death and marriages I want to know what their lives were like, where they lived and worked, what they died of. Some were in workhouses - such hard lives compared to nowadays.
Perhaps I should hire a journalist?!