Homework

In 1994 just two weeks after burying my father my youngest daughter came home from school with a 4 generation family tree template with the request of filling in as much as possible. I knew my grandparents names and asked my mother for more maternal details and my uncle for paternal details. They were both forth coming with interesting family stories. From then on I was hooked.

I then set about trying to confirm the information. Typically things were not quite what they seemed.

Using Newcastle City Library every Saturday searching microfiche BMD indices then the Church of the Latter Day Saints resource centre at Sunderland, then local history resources discovered that only my paternal great grandfather had been killed in a Zeppelin attack in Jarrow, but not his wife. Then found the correct name for my 2xg maternal grandmother and that she had been married 3 times, but that is another story, her last marriage when in her late 80’s. I set about interviewing as many elder relatives as I could find, only to discover my maternal uncle had a shoe box of papers he found at my deceased Grandmothers house. He just posted it to me tied up with string, it contained original certificates, 3 were backed on cloth the earliest a handwritten document showing a marriage from 1804. This was a treasure chest, I now had random meaningless unlinked names but a great outline to work out where all these people fitted into my ancestry. I joined various Family History Societies and visited record offices all over the country.

During my research I learnt of an alleged Autobiography written by a great great Uncle. I eventually found that the British Library had a copy and wrote asking how I could access it, I did not hear anything for a couple of weeks until a large envelope containing a complete photocopy of the 60 pages dropped on my doormat. It was amazing that a book written by a poor fisherman's son was even published, but it gives a great insight to how the common man actually lived and their endeavours, travels and work ethic. The book is unusually not written by an upper class Victorian. A copy was lodged with both Berwick & Northumberland Archives. They found historical details they did not know about.

I also set about trying to find living relatives, mainly second cousins and obtained copies of photographs of various ancestors and a family Bible from about 1830.

In more recent times I have had an Ancestry DNA test and found the fathers and family of 2 “cousins” and have now got new lifelong friends. One of these was found by uploading my Ancestry data to Gedmatch, so give it a go, you never know what you might find.

 

How interesting!
You really hit a gold mine of information through the finding of your great great uncle's autobiography.
I too have had unusually good luck finding second and third cousins, all of whom have become friends.
My family (both sides) emigrated from England to Canada, but other branches have either remained in the UK, or ventured off to New Zealand and Australia.
I used Genes Reunited early on and located a second cousin. Our maternal grandmothers were sisters. He was able to fill me in on all their siblings...all 14!
I in turn was able to fill in all his blanks on those who had come to Canada in the early 1900s, and their descendants. My husband and I were very fortunate to be invited to England in 2008 to meet and stay with my cousin and his family. Together, we all visited places our ancestors had lived and worked.

My father's uncle left London in 1874 for New Zealand...never to be heard from again. My grandmother, who was 4 years younger than her 14 year old brother, eventually came to Canada, and passed along the information about her brother going to NZ.
I came along and decided to try and find any possible descendants, and uncovered my third cousin in NZ and eventually many more -some who I have since met. One of the descendants has published a wonderful book on her ancestors and the move from England to NZ, so I also have been very lucky to have found her.
Such a great pastime...and finding and meeting family members has enriched my life.