Christmas Dinner & I was set the challenge by my mother and sister

It was Christmas Dinner 9 yrs ago and my sister was recounting an article in a newspaper which said something along the lines of only 3 out of 10 people could name all 8 of their Gt Grandparents. We could name 7 but the 8th was a mystery even for our mother - all we knew was she was Irish. My mother said her father didn't remember his mother or know her name as she died when he was very young. The challenge was set. To find her name I went to Dublin to get my grandfather's birth certificate - only problem as I was to find out years later was his birth was registered with her named incorrectly as Mildred so I didn't stand much chance in finding her death. However, challenge laid down gauntlet, helmet, chest protector, and horse well and truly picked up and I've been running (crawling and tottering more correctly ever since). My mother's father's side is fascinating and last summer all my christmases and birthdays came at once with the rediscovery of a lead trunk, which we thought was lost, full to the gunnels with photographs, albums, scrap books and the king's jaw bone - family story but but here in a box is a jaw bone. totally hooked now and back in September 2012 I co hosted with another cousin a worldwide family reunion of all the descendants of our 3xGt Grandfather. We had relations from Canada, USA, Australia, Belguim & UK attend. And the start of all this research - Sarah Gailey from Donegal - my Gt Grandmother - so now I have all 8.

 

I think we could only do as it as my mother spoke about her grandparents - one was still alive when my sister was born and whereas my father's side were all long gone - he was actually of my mother's parents generation - he had an amazing photograph album with names below them.

 

I didn't even know my grandparents had siblings until I began my family research.

 

Oh, how I wish.........

 

I was fortunate to discover a second cousin living in Canada who had inherited his grandfather's glass plate negatives plus some celleloid ones. I had sent him a scan of a Christmas family gathering. He in turn sent me a copy of the same scene,but notated by his late father. I had already identified my father and my aunt as children,but I now had identities of other family members across 3 generations....wonderful...and being able to put an age to an infant(my Auntie May) could date the photo as Christmas 1916.

 

As a postscript to my previous post, my cousin has since emailed images of all his inherited collection. A treasure trove of precious moments and source of information and research material...I'm having great fun trying to identify various scenes and people.

 

Thanks for that information, Peter. I thought that was something that only moderators/administrators could do.

 

Thanks Peter, I have used the edit feature on several occasions but didn't realise the available time frame.

 

Nor me, but that was probably because my parents married in their mid 30s following the intervention of WW2 and my grandparents were in their late 30s when they married......so all my grandparents were 70+ by the time I was born and gt grandparents had been dead for years (one died 62 years before I was born, so no surprise I didn't know about him!) Family were dispersed through Yorkshire, Essex, Devon/Cornwall and Glos, no longer living close to one another. I could only name one of my grandparents' siblings as I never met them and they were never discussed, partly because my grandparents were the youngest children of large Victorian families and older siblings had died well before I was born, many in infancy.

 

this has struck a chord with me- I have been able to name all my great-grandparents since I was 15[ a good 47 years ago!] as I was curious about the repeating family names [Scottish naming pattern] and asked my paternal grandfather and he typed out a family tree complete with names of spouses but no dates. My maternal aunt did the same and she has access to my grandmothers photo albums. Granny was also very good about writing names under pictures.
My research over the ensuing years with large gaps of FH inactivity has filled in the dates and taken me back a few more generations. So a big thank you to Papa and I am making sure that I talk about family to my aunt as much as possible. She will be 90 next year.

 

A family bible helps enormously if you are lucky enough to stumble across one, especially if, as in my case, one branch of the family appeared to be atheists and none of their children were baptised as infants!! The bible gave me names and dates, but regretably few place names - and then only, I suspect, when the event took place away from the location of the bible at the time. Make sure you commit your findings to paper (or computer?) and label your photographs for the following generations.............they will appreciate it. I wish I had some old family photos.....

 

Or gives you incorrect information!
The family bible my cousin has is incorrect on a number of dates.
Some filled in at a later date by someone who did not know the correct date and a marriage date changed obviously to hide the fact that the first child came along too quickly.

I wish I had old family photos on my father's side.
I have recently seen a photo of my great grandparents on my mother's side and that was wonderful to actually see the people that I had been researching.

 

I have pretty much always known the names of most of my great-grandparents on my mother's side. Not great-great's though until I started getting more interested. Nothing of course on my Dad's.

Beth -
Calgary

 

I was lucky - my family bible seems to be pretty accurate, contemporary entries even giving the time of day for birth/death in some instances, though not having geographical locations is a bit frustrating. Events are listed on the blank pages on the back of illustrations, the earliest entries being for the 1700s.