1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.
  2. Only registered members can see all the forums - if you've received an invitation to join (it'll be on your My Summary page) please register NOW!

  3. If you're looking for the LostCousins site please click the logo in the top left corner - these forums are for existing LostCousins members only.
  4. This is the LostCousins Forum. If you were looking for the LostCousins website simply click the logo at the top left.
  5. It's easier than ever before to check your entries from the 1881 Census - more details here

What got me into Family Research.

Discussion in 'How I got started in Family History' started by Stephen49., Nov 8, 2019.

  1. Stephen49.

    Stephen49. LostCousins Superstar

    I remember right up to my mid thirties, in the top draw of my aunts writing bureau, in Acton, West London, were old family photos. Not just a few but hundreds, about four to five hundred, ranging in size from miniatures to nearly A4. I was never aloud to touch or look at them, but something told me they were important yet at the same time were of no interest to me. In my mid thirties I had now emigrated to Australia, Brisbane. I was not a ten pound POME, more of a 640 pound POME. I had been marginally interested in photography since my teens, fortunately now there was an opportunity to get involved. I had at my disposal a fully functional darkroom under the house I was renting. I don't know why but I was keenly interested in reproducing old photos be they family or otherwise. At that time I was working in the third biggest hospital in Brisbane and let it be known I was in the business of old photo reproduction. At first one or two people asked me to reproduce their only copy of their grandma or grandpa which I did. They were so happy with my work they showed all their work colleagues. Now my part time business started to snowball. My semi-professionalism began to expand to other areas of photography, weddings, portraits, cats, dogs even houses. My yearning for the old photos back in England grew stronger and stronger. I asked my parents to send a handful out to me, which they did without any background information. I felt very pleased with my copy work. In 1990 I emigrated to Japan, I'm still here, in 1991 I made my first trip back to England in ten years. Whilst in W.H.Smiths, in Oxford, I saw "Family Tree" magazine and bought a copy. Three weeks later on my way home to Japan I read that magazine cover to cover and was hooked, I also brought over all the old photos I could get my hands on. From the adverts in the magazine I started to order birth, marriage and death certificates. Through the same agent I also bought Census copies. Coming up to date I now subscribe to Ancestry and FindMyPast. One of my recent thrills was doing the Ancestry DNA test. Thirty years later I'm still just as hooked as I was in the beginning.
     
    • Thanks! Thanks! x 1

Share This Page