Genealogy Chat

If I was still able to work I would not have taken up this hobby just yet.

I was happy gambling on poker and other online gaming sites, which I could afford at the time.

When I started I was stuck on one grandfather, my mum is still living but she was no help and could only tell me what one set of gt grandparents looked like but not their names. I purchased my grandparents marriage cert through Ancestry for about £20 just to find out his age but still could not find a birth to match but at least I had his fathers name and occupation.
I then found someone who matched on the census but was 3 years older, and had now found out from this site I should be using GRO so bought a cert which fitted and it was correct....That was the last cert I bought.

I suppose I have also been lucky that all my gt grandparents married in London and most of the children were baptised, and my dad has a few certs as my gran was a collector of these things (he wont give them to me though)

I do not have a huge tree only about 650 but I believe it is accurate as far as direct ancestors go, I sometimes think maybe I should buy a death cert here and there and perhaps I will one day.

This hobby costs me nearly £300 a year just on subs, but I could blow that easily in a month playing poker (I obviously was'nt very good lol)

I do not spend money on clothes, expensive holidays or going out these days so what I spend on this I can justify

jax

There's been a very interesting discussion on here ..........


............... but I think the point of genealogy is that we all HAVE to get some certificates at some point in order to determine exactly who married who, or who was the mother of a child.

Some of us have more money, and don't have to think too much, while others have to think very hard.


We all prioritize which certificates to buy ................ I know I have a long list of "should buy" and "would like to buy", separate from the "must buy". :-D


We all have to work out how to pay for the ones we must have .................. at least until more bmd information gets posted on the web!


Nanaki has made the first step by starting that second thread asking for help in finding the information.



As a matter of full disclosure, I have been retired for 12 years, although I am one of the fortunate ones as OH has a good pension. BUT I still can't afford every single certificate that I would like to have, so I have to prioritize.


It was a good suggestion to ask for money for birthday and Christmas presents, especially as we get older and need less and less. Just how many boxes of chocolate or bottles of perfume, scarves, etc can one person need or want? :-D



sylvia

Whoa! 28 replies! Sorry guys I was in bed and had to get up earlier for my appointment toda thats why i was unable to reply to this thread and only i can able to post while my mum was here and she was able to provide few information before i forget.

The reason why I said those certs r expensive now and you asked why i didnt get some in the past when i meant to get them but i put that on hold because my life come first such as get married and got beautiful sons which is why i cant afford to get certs as children comes first!!!!

xx

wisechild, I am not arguing, just stating that people need to learn to live within their means,

and i never said i don't have an income, I do from my very hard earned savings

I don't claim any type of benefit although i may be entitled? but if needs be i will just go back to work

Roy

No point in getting into an argument. We rent our house because I´ve never had enough money to own one & my husband´s went to his ex wife, as Spanish law dictates.
We have €400 per month for food, clothing health costs etc which doesn´t allow for buying anything we don´t need.
Here there is no Income support , housing benefit, council tax benefit etc.
If you have no income, tough.!!
As I said, I´m not complaining. Just stating facts & sitting tight until the situation improves........if we live that long. I just thank goodness that we don´t have any debts & are not in this situation as a result of being feckless, although to be fair, people for many years have been encouraged to borrow money they couldn´t afford to repay.

I wonder in the absence of Nanaki not returning to this or the thread posted by Reggie if Nanaki does not no how to return to her threads?

Roy

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.page/board/ancestors/thread/1297921

Also, Nanaki, Have you thought about asking for help via GR members with your research?

Roy

Glad to hear that you've got some Rose :) I'd rather have you around for a few more years yet.


----------
Nanaki - what areas are you looking at?

Some parish records are online for some areas like Rose mentioned i.e. London. There's also the Lancashire OPC site which has a lot of Lancashire transcriptions.

1,000 euros is abt 817 pounds sterling,

I have been out of work hear in the UK for the last 12 months and i have cut my outgoings from 2k a month to just £350 per month,

People need to learn how to adjust when times change and never ever spend more than they earn,

My sister did that when times were good,? she thought that because her and OH were in work it would be a good idea to not save for her new kitchen in her new house and so borrowed the money

They are now in rented accommodation and even more debt and having to pay most of their income to a landlord

Sums up today's society

Roy

SRS, you'll be pleased to hear I did buy some:-D lol thought it was a priority rather than risk breaking my neck wearing the old ones ;-)

(though from a purely financial view Dan would have been better off with my life insurance ! that's one thing that is a priority to me, and costs roughly the equivalent of 1 and a half certs a month ;-) )

I am also an OAP, but in the fortunate position of having enough spare cash to buy the occasional certificate.

One certificate at £9.25 isn't too bad, but quite often it is necessary to buy more than that because it isn't possible to tell whether you have the right person from the BMD entry.

Two for £18.50 is too much and as for three at £27.75........

RamblingRose - I totally agree with your last post.

That's how i see it Rose,

It's more about priorities and the choices we make

Roy

Have to agree Rose, there's also people with children who may always put their children before themselves.

I remember your conversation the other week about your son pointing out that you needed to buy a new pair of slippers for yourself as you always put other priorities/people first.

I already save a couple of euros per week towards the cost of Ancestry membership. Only have basic on Genes & internet is via dial up because I can´t afford broadband.
OH has been out of work for 4 years (nothing unusual in Spain) & doesn´t get his pension for another 3, so we are living on around €1000 per month, out of which we pay around €700 in rent & bills. Nothing left for non essentials.
Haven´t been back to England for almost 4 years .
Please don´t tell me I can afford to buy certs if I save up.
I´m not complaining. Things are as they are & when I retired 7 years ago, we couldn´t have foreseen ending up in this situation.We just have to sit it out & hope things will eventually get better.
In the meantime we both need around €200 worth of dental treatment which couldn´t have been anticipated or saved for.

The point is surely that we are all in very individual circumstances and inevitably have different priorities ... the person who is a carer for someone else will be on a very limited income, a pensioner who has paid off their mortgage will be in a different position to that of a pensioner who is having to pay rent, whereas someone who is at work 'may ' have a small or large amount of disposable cash at the end of the month...or none at all.

Yes, i could see that Roy :-) However, I still disagreed with it.

My post "fail to see how any one in this country could not afford to save this amount in a couple of weeks,"

Was in addition to my other post's on this thread

Roy

"fail to see how any one in this country could not afford to save this amount in a couple of weeks,"

Your statement was not about people using the internet, it was about anyone in the country. Besides, not every one who uses the internet owns their own pc. There are people that use this site via the library.

Your suggestion about saving 50p per week in my opinion was a very good one, it was saving £9.25 in 2 weeks that I took issue with.

I didn't think we were discussing poverty either, only priorities i.e. some people would not be able to save that amount as they had other priorities such as food and bills.

You are correct on that Roy, internet would be 'disposable' (where it not that I use it for work.... )

it is not 'poverty' in the same sense as it used to be (ie no food, no shoes etc) for most... no one needs either a PC, internet OR certificates..

There are many many people 'just getting by' who may in truth be able to save 50p a week.... UNTIL something unexpected happens like the roof leaking, or the boiler getting too old to be repaired, or travelling to be with an ill relative.