Genealogy Chat

I have been doing this just under 3 weeks now, and I feel I have changed in many ways. When I see an old person in the street, I put a birth date to them and think of all the hard times they have been through instead of the old me wondering why the slow old bat infront wont move faster!! I spend an unhealthy amount of time on the history channel now, hearing about the wars, the politics and problems my ancestors endured, and kind of thank them in my head for doing that so the rest of us had a better life. Before history to me was just that, and why worry about something I cant change. I watch movies such as Titanic, Catherine Cooksons, just so I can see clothing that used to be worn and different classes of people and wonder where my family would have ranked, if they were on the titanic they would have been in steerage! I have also gone through every photo album I have and added names and rough dates on the back of them, and made the rest of my family do the same! Am I a minority or has this hobby changed any one else?

Yes! I date all photos, but this began when I had my children and started albums for them and recording their first smiles, words etc. I've always been interested in history, but if I read about a date I immediately think 'Oh, great x3 grandfather was in his 40s then' or 'that's just after great-aunt died' etc. Ditto with geography - I've discovered several villages I've never heard of and got very familiar with the surrounding areas! nell

Wait till you get to my stage & enjoy a day walking round grave yards looking at old inscriptions!!! Sad or what. Georgina.

I am also spending an unhealthy amount of time in graveyards lol, its fascinating!!!

I think I have seen this before on here but I think rather than history been taught at school geneology should be, I'm sure the kids would be more interested. I'm addicted at the moment. Trying hard to get my kids involved but they can't see why i'm interested in the dead! I'm sure one day they will be happy with all my resarch and the hard work (that includes all the people on this site who have helped) Tracy x

I don't think it has changed my out look on life, but it has certainly made me a bit laa laa I talk about my ancestors to ANYONE who will listen, and get cross with OH when he can't remember who I mean when I refer to rellies by their first names. I have dreams about searching censuses for the elusive rellies I can't find, and nightmares where the ones I have found don't match up! And it has definately made me a lot poorer, don't want to even count how many certs I have already bought in the 3 months I have been doing my tree and the flowers and pots I HAD to put on rellies graves I have found without any stone. Oh and being awake at 1.33 am, adding my rellies to yet ANOTHER site that might just get me a link to someone. Linda

I think reseaching years gone by makes us realize how lucky we are ,to have such a comfortable life .I also love wandering through cemeterys and reading inscriptions and feel for all the young people who could have lived longer in this day and age . June

Yes same here! Yes same here! Yes same here! Yes same here! Yes same here! Yes same here! Yes same here! to all the same as everyone else that have posted on this thread. Mine and your rellies have been brough back to life with this infuriating hobby and I LOVE it! I just wish I could find a living rellie that will want to carry on after me and treasure all my findings....and of course........ REMEMBER ME!!!! Gerri the unforgetable lol

So glad I am not alone here lol, my kids think ive gone weird, as I do nothing but talk about some ancient relly I found, and theyre so not interested! Although today I did drag my eldest daughter (15) to the library and she has come back home so full of steam to go back and find more.....1 by 1 I am getting them into it 0)

For every birthday/xmas/Christening/wedding gift I give to a family member, I add a printed summery of OUR family tree. They always 'make the right noises' but I live in hope that when I'm gorn!......some kind soul will take it on!.... If they dont......I'll come back and haunt them!!!! lol (told em that too!) Geraldine (15/04/1949) bWatford, Herts. Canadian father, Albert Gerald Stevens. English Mother, Edith May Ford. bWalsall. Gerri who was a 'result' of the war....WW2 that is! not the Crimeon!!!! as some would have it. LOL

When my husband died I was devastated then someone told me to get a hobby or something to take my mind off it and 3 months later I started this and never looked back. I cant explain the effect it had on me and I almost felt guilty that my husband wasnt permanently on my mind. It does change your outlook on life and as Sticky Fingers says it makes you really appreciate the life we have today. I am 65 and cant think of a better or more rewarding hobby for when you retire than this. Ann

I really hate it when I find someone that was a bit of a challenge and I have no one to tell!! I can come here and tell you guys I know, but I mean like my kids and real life friends

Hi. Although I am only just 41 I seem to have been doing this for years. I was always interested in history at school and can remember grilling my grandparenst at about 15 on their lives, so glad I did!!! Therefore from the time my children were born they have always been dragged around grave yards etc. Now my daughter who is 10 is well into family history and always asking about g,g gran and g,g,g, uncle so and so. At school a while ago they were asked to do a family tree, she asked how far back they wanted her to go !!!! Even my 7 years old son has now strted taking interest and they know that if they get me started I wont shut up. Everytime a cert comes they now ask who its for and where that person fits into the tree. I just hope that by the time they are older they wont be fed up to the back teeth with it and that they will want to carry on. Nicky

Yes, it certainly has changed my outlook on life!! Before I started researching my family history I had no idea at all where my family were from. I didn't even know the name of my dad's parents. Now I know that my ancestors came from all over the UK and there is nothing that I like better than a good churchyard. I have always been interested in how ordinary people lived in the past so it is fascinating to be able to relate this to your own ancestors. I knew that I must be getting a bit doolally a couple of weeks ago when a friend and I were shopping in Cambridge and we stopped for coffee in a place with a lovely view from the first floor. The only comment that I could make was 'nice churchyard' as I was looking longingly at the gravestones below!!!!

Although I have a number of years to go before retirement,I am actually looking forward to being to spend as much time as I wouldlike browsing and gathering for my tree and have a little bit of time left over to help / start other people off who look longingly at my humble tree. J

This 'hobby' has changed my outlook....I ve found relatives out here in Oz (I was London born) and I find myself watching old film footage of ww1 thinking 'I wonder if thats you' (talking to Ggrandfather). Ive always had a thing for history - I was a member of the Sealed Knot (re-enacted battles of the English Civil War for charity) and know now it didnt end in 1649 - it ended 4 years before so and so was born!!! Everything is now measured against the family timeline.

Sticky - We are real life people!!!

Oh i know Angela, lol I could have worded that better lol Some really great stories here glad im not the olny one haha When I am really searching hard for someone (this is where i do get weird) I talk to them....Is this you? Come on give me a clue!!! And if I find a funny name I laugh out loud...then apologise...out loud..... And when on the bus back from wherever I have been on shopping day or something I spot graveyards ive not noticed before, I am looking around like mad to see a road name before the bus gets too far away from it!

I've done it the other way round: looking at rellies' dates and thinking where they fitted in with history, rather than where history fitted in with them. I was looking at a baptism on the IGI dated 14th August 1789, when I suddenly twigged that that was a month after the Bastille was stormed. I'm also going the opposite way to most people in that in this family it's the 20 year old who's been going out and doing the research and attempting, with varying degrees of success, to interest older family members in my findings. My answer has to be a resounding YES. Apparently Jeremy Clarkson, when asked if he would like to appear on WDYTYA, replied 'Why? My ancestors are too boring.' It doesn't take very long once you've started researching to realise that NO-ONE has boring ancestors. Not everyone has kings, presidents or would-be hangman assassins in their tree, but every humble ag lab or domestic servant has a story to tell - in most cases lots of stories!

So true muchael, so very very true. A relly of mine was a telegraph lab born in 1856. He fell from a pole and died a few years later from these injuries (not sure how or what they were) but I had to look on the net to make sure phones were around then, had no clue. And when another relly was born in 1880, the newspaper headline was to do with the invention of the light bulb...you know the light bulb, the things we buy for pennies and dont even think about!