Genealogy Chat

I've always been intrigued about the things my family won't talk about or things they change the subject for when bought up but took the family line of don't ask, don't tell. I spent a great deal of time having cancer tests recently in which they ask about similar family history and was shocked by how little I knew about them. I was thankful I eventually plucked up the courage to ask for the truth as I discovered my grandparents were actually my mum's aunt and uncle and her real mother died aged 41 of the same cancer I was having tests for. Zoe

its quite scary to know that so many of my acsendants died young of the same thing. My mum was 46 breast cancer, her sister 48 ovarian cancer. My maternal nan both at 52. two of her sisters of ovarian at 41 and 46 and my g gran of cancer of the uterus. My nan had 2 more sisters but for the life of me i cant find their deaths. I know years when they were def still alive but have gone thru the records for years after and cant find anything. One im almost positive never remarried but I suppose the other one could and im looking under the wrong name. I will have to get to the records office and spend some time there.

I've always been interested since I was little. My maternal grandfather is one of 13 children and my maternal grandmother is one of 9. My mother had too many cousins to count and the family is basically HUGE!!! I suppose my interest was sparked by all the stories about them. My father's family has a war hero (he got a British Empire Medal), a suicide, a medical weirdo (she never went through puberty?!?!) a cousin who was missing in action in WW2 for 6 months and he came home to find his wife had sold the business and moved in with another man. My mother's family has a casualty from WW1, a dispatch rider in WW2, a commando who was at the battle of Casino and a woman who was in the SAS (although to be honest she did work in the canteen?!?!) and this is just a small example of all the stories. I guess I just wanted to know more about these people.

hi i got started because i was adopted in 1965. i had been to the local family services for my adoption file which contained nothing only birth mothers name and address at the time. i tried for 8 years to find more with no results. i bought my pc in september and came across gc. i thought it would be a good idea to try and constuct a family tree. with the help of people on this site and the site itself i now know my mothers name her sisters name my gran and grandads name. addresses where they lived and a couple of occupations. i am so excited because even though i have never met them i now have some info about my past and it is really wonderful. thanks to you all for your help. gill xxx

A missing grandfather, the cause of much sadness in my mother's life. It was like a piece of jigsaw puzzle missing. One day, out of the blue, I found a genealogy chat room on the internet and straightaway someone found me the person I had been looking for for years. Sadly Mum died many years ago and I now know more about her father than she ever did. She would have loved to have known the true story instead of thinking she (as a child ) was to blame. As someone said earlier, it's very sad.

My father died in 2002 and we moved my mother into a home. She had always brushed off questions about her family name of OGAN, so when we cleared their house I began to find various papers etc and went from there. I hope you folk have sense of humour? She was worried that she might be Irish, but it turns out that her father kept his history quiet because his brother & sister were disinclined to admit that they were born in Uruguay. But by the time he was born, the family had returned to their roots in Hackney. I doubt my mother would like that either, but although still alive, she is past being able to understand. Anyway, I keep going because I like being a web detective!

I started with a lot of research already done on my husband's family who wanted to trace their Maori heritage so it went back to Abraham Bennett White of English and Dutch descent born 1818 in Ceylon who had come to New Zealand and married a Maori woman. The family always said that Abraham was descended on his Dutch side from Abel Tasman. I was also given a lot of information re baptisms from the Dutch Reformed Church in Sri Lanka - there are still a few missing links but it seems possible. So I then turned to my own family - 3 grandparents English and 1 Danish and have had a lot of fun and map reading to see where they were born. Christine - New Zealand

i found this link through friends reunited which i was told about by an old school friend after a chance meeting. (actually she was my best friend from the age of 4!) after filling in my details for my family tree i started asking my mum questions. initially they were about an adopted brother of hers,ROGER KERSHAW (who we are still looking for but are now stuck cos we don't know how to find his adopted name or date of adoption. anyway) my grandma has been married 5 times so we've got a lot of 'branches' on our tree. i think what really made me 'wow' was when i first entered a family surname a message had been posted by someone searching for info on my mum's dad! same name. dob everything. i thought that was pretty spooky. i contacted the lady & her husband is a half bro of my mum! amazing.we are now in constant contact and are trying to arrange a meeting before christmas. she only lives a bit further down the M1! i find it very addictive & it's so easy to wander off from one bit to another & then find yourself 'lost' i am enjoying it all very much. and arn't you all a friendly lot :)))))) gina

I started due to time on my hands and house bound through a motor bike accident 2.5 yrs ago. It was going well at first then you needed to asked relatives questions which, in hind sight, have left it too late as all my older relations are no longer with me. It's very interesting and also time consuming, found a few skeletons to my amusement, but i'm still looking. This is a very good site and very helpful people. Good searching Phil

My cousin in Australia asking about our Grandparents - neither of us knew them. Well, I knew their names, but did she really want me going back so far and giving so much information? Just can't stop now and my family tell me I am wasting my time - but although do nothing to help are eager to know what I have found this week, don't you just love them! Suzanne