How I got started in Family History

Firstly I would like to thank you for allowing me into your genealogy forum Thank You.

I started to trace my family tree about 13 years ago, the reason I started was because my dear father when he was alive tried to find his mothers final resting place, but he got told that he would never be able to find it because she was in a paupers grave as they called it years ago a public grave is what it is called now. My Grandmother was only 25 yeas old when she died and my dad was 3 years old. So many years after my fathers death I decided to try and find his mothers grave so we could pay our respects, we found it easily and since then I have the genealogy bug.

Best Regards,
Tom

 

Welcome Tom, you have joined an interesting group.

 

Thank You Margery

Kind Regards,
Tom

 

Thank you for allowing me to become part of this Forum.
I began searching my family in 1975. My mother passed away in 1974, and I thought I might find a history of the cancer that she died from. As it turns out, I did indeed find a link between the type of cancer that she had, and the deaths of her father, her great grandfather, and two brothers.
I was hooked of course, and here I am 5000 family members and 40 years later....still engrossed. I must say that the search is much quicker now than it was when I had to "send away" for proof and wait for weeks for it to arrive.
Nothing was quite as exciting as receiving that birth, death, marriage certificate in the mail, or finding a connection through one of the Societies in England that I joined.
What a wonderful pastime we all have.

 

Welcome to the forum Tom and jojoy, there are some wonderful people on here willing to share their knowledge.

 

Oh how I agree.
I feel that you may be in the Southern hemisphere, jojoy? I am in Oz (so is Heather).

 

Thanks for your warm welcome Heather and Margery! I am in Ontario, Canada Margery.......with all my Roots in England and a few branches in Oz

 

Hi jojoy. Although I am loathed to pay the price of certificates,you have reminded me how exciting it is.Only yesterday I looked through my folder to confirm some information,and have to say that although most of my records are 'digital',there is nothing like holding and reading a paper document.

 

Thank you Heather

Kind Regards,
Tom

 

Thank you for the welcome! My introduction to family history started in 1958 when I was 12 years old. My father’s eldest brother had recently passed away and my father being the last surviving of his siblings was handed the 18th century family bible which lists names and birth dates for my Spencer ancestors going back to my 4x great grandparents children. My late uncle had produced a family tree.

Apart from visiting some places in Cardiff relating to my paternal grandparents I did nothing about family history research until 2005 when I discovered the Genes Reunited website. By this time both my parents and their siblings were all deceased as were my grandparents. Within a very short time I made contact with new relatives many of whom I have met face to face.

In 2006 I joined the Isle of Wight FHS, my late mother’s family were from there. In 2009 I became their Publicity Manager a job I can easily do remotely from Wiltshire. The following year I took over the role of Journal Editor.

My wife’s aunt on her mother’s side who had been researching their family history let me have her research which I added to my own family tree.

I have been gradually populating the Lost Cousins website with census records for my relatives from my tree.

Peter Spencer
Near Stonehenge in Wiltshire.

 

Do let me know if there is any research I can do for you down here.

 

Thank you Margery. I have found rellies in just about every State in Oz whose ancestors came from the Isle of Wight.

 

Hi and welcome to the forums Tom, Jojoy and Peter.

 

Thank you Sue345 and welcome Peter 356!
Peter, I also had positive results trying Genes Reunited about 10 years ago, and was able to connect with a second cousin I had never known about in England (we are in Canada)
Since then we have stayed in touch, compared research, shared information, visited in person in 2008, and enjoy an ongoing friendship that involves Skyping on a monthly basis!

 

Thanks Sue345

 

Welcome indeed particularly to jojoy from Ontario. Take a look at the Canadian Resources pages sometime and see if you have anything to add. My newish interest which I bore everybody with is the contribution from Canada to WWI. I am currently working on a project to remember Canada's V.C. recipients from that period which is taking me down all kinds of twists and turns including how we are to celebrate our country's sesquicentennial in 2017.

 

Thanks Tim