Has Everyone Given Up On Family History Research Here?

[DJHawkes]

this section used to be very popular. Or has it been closed down?

[woofgang]

I think as a general fad its less popular than it was.

[Old_Geezer]

I have done very little since the PO changed to a daft pricing scheme and the GRO decided it would be incredibly amusing to damage the certificates you bought by folding them to send to you. In any case I think I reached the stage when simply browsing records on the Net doesn't get me much further. One has to be really enthusiastic to go around the country looking at church registers and suchlike.

[maggiebee]

Still delving away in to mine - slow process.

[andy-hughes]

I think it's like any other fad - it was all the rage, now everyone is bored with it.

[Captain2]

I was doing really well until
a)I got back to my great grandfather from Roscommon who had 10 kids and was one of 10 himself so the family got all mixed up and too hard to follow, and
b) I couldn't make any connection at all between my family name and the gentleman in my avatar - which was my main aim really.

[Hopkirk]

I ran out of steam on mine.

[frugalfred]

I gave up when I discovered that one of my ancestors was transported to Tasmania for stealing 10 sovereigns from her employer....

[Captain2]

PS Nice to see you posting again though DJ :)

[Mick-the-Miller]

I really went overboard and did a lot of work on my Family history, had subscriptions to Ancestry.com and Findmypast.com - I ordered loads of Certificates from the GRO - and then one day I thought to myself that all I'd really found out was a load of Births, Deaths and Marriages, I'd found out very little about the lives of my forebears.

I got into it originally because I found out that my Paternal Grandfather was one of six brothers who were all of an age to serve in the First World War, I wanted to find out the Regiments they served with, the Campaigns etc and their histories - the problem is that a lot of the Army records from the First World War were destroyed in the Second World War and you keep hitting brick walls - very disappointing and you lose a bit of enthusiasm after a while.

I might pick it up again when the 1921 Census stuff is released.

[jno]

1939 register coming out next week, Mick, have a look at it.

http://www.findmypast.co.uk/1939register

[Zacs-Master]

Wow, DJ it's really strange you should post as I was looking at my family tree and wondering where the AB experts had gone. Hope this rejuvenates the interest.

[Baldric]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jjiWS__Mp0

[jourdain2]

I was also just getting around to this - and I haven't my facts at my fingertips. I've just about sorted my family tree, but Mr. J2 is a man of mystery and we have only a few, tantalising, clues - eg we know his dad played wicket-keeper for Kent, pre-war, but bombs destroyed all records. (Interestingly, Mr. J2 also played wicket-keeper before all this was known - his dad disappeared a few months after Mr. J2 was born in 1933.) We really must get ourselves organised and try this bit of the site :)

[munchie63]

thanks jno
v interesting about the 1939 data.

as old_geezer said, you hit a brick wall, and sometimes only really find out dates and not really much about the actual person.
Hit a bit of a wall with mine, but sure when the 1921 records go online it will take off again

[lyall]

I was wondering the same DJ. I had a look on here on Tuesday to see what others thought of the Find My Past announcement that they are opening up the 1939 regiser on 2nd November, only to find it empty! I must admit Iv not done any family history for a couple of months due to the usual hectic summer commitments but as the nights draw in my family trees are out and ready for more information to be added.

[jno]

I'm told you'll have to pay to see the 1939 register, it isn't included in subscriptions.

[Peter Pedant]

hi dee jay
you have been very helpful in the past

two reasons - give rise to the feeling of 'done that'

the scientific historians - the ones that like two refs for a 'fact' at war with the oral/social historians. I sent a contribution to an oral historian that I just picked up and got flamed for my efforts on the grounds, why did I even think aunt euphronia was a liar ? [ answer: she was a batty old girl when she was young God knows what she said at age eighty ]

and one / you reach an impregnable wall around 1750 for most of us.
Three John Xes in the village and it really isnt clear which John and which Mary is the one for you

The journey itself is worth it for what you find on the way
two examples

John Snow and cholera - how did he get access to all the houses in Berwick Street to map cholera deaths? He used local church workers such as my g(3) uncle who knew all the house holders/tenants and landlords in the area

and all Sarth Efrican families have those who fought for the queen and against the queen empress in the Boer War who Never Spoke afterwards - and a Dutch monophone was able to tell me about mine
honestly I thought it was a myth
and for chrissakes do you really have. Dutch only speakers in modern South Africa ? Yeah apparently. huge huge unknown extended fambly.
My gt uncle of eleven married a dutch girl of fourteen ( siblings that is ) - so that is a possible fifty brothers and sisters in law innit - all lurking unknown to us - no .... 28 lurking unknown but anyway lots

O yeah and third use - very useful when I had to show I was not linked by blood or marriage to a well known but erm dead Manchester gangsta family.

I thought they were gonna say - bad luck - we know the cant-shoot-straight gang were also active in Pretoria in 1910 but instead they said ok fair cop you are obviously not one .....phew !

[cupotee2]

I cancelled my Ancestry subscription when I was bored out of my brain looking at numbers, dates of birth and death and often little more. I did have someone "helping" me when he discovered we had a single relative in common.
The most interesting info came from old newspapers. Seems there were some right rogues on my maternal side.

A distant cousin is now collating many photo's from the large paternal side but,much as I am interested in them and opened my page for him to share I have got all the info I wanted to know. 1800's is far enough for me.

I had hoped to be able to print it all off in some sort of order but seems that isn't an option on Ancestry so whats the point?

[Rose Maybud]

Hi Dot, I'm still around, beavering away, though mostly sorting out those pesky Ancestry hints. I admire the skill of the software writers in coming up with the algorithms to do them, but some hints leave a lot to be desired in the accuracy department. I never cease to be amazed at how many Somerset ancestors have doubles in Essex...

As to AB, I lurk around at times weekends, so tend to miss midweek posts. How's your research?

[Coppit]

You might be old, Geezer, but you can't have been researching in the 1960s, 1970s when the only way to do it *was* to go round the country!
Progress was slow, but at least you got to handle real documents, visit the lovely old PRO in Chancery Lane, spend hours standing going through the heavy BMD volumes at Somerset House, (later St Catherine's House), and endure the sweaty Portugal Street hotbox looking at reels of census microfilm.