Family history

Morning Glory

Morning Glory

Obsessive cook
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Inspired by some discussion about history and families in another thread, I was wondering about everyone's family history. There are three aspects to this:
  • Whatever has been handed down to you by word of mouth, photographs, letters and documents etc.
  • Ancestral research using ancestry.com or similar, searching out birth, marriage, death records etc.
  • Getting a DNA test/search
So, what do you know about your family history? How far back in time can you go? Have you ever done ancestral research or a DNA test/search?
 
classic33 said:
Gone back 1500 on one side & 1100 years on the other side of the family. Even been able to visit the graves of some of the earliest ones known.
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DNA tests are next to useless, there's not enough been done over the years to provide meaningful answers. Identical triplets should have similar results, they didn't.
Ancestry dot com is next to useless, they'll pass you onto other sites(many of them free to use, once logged onto them) for a fee.

Letters and documents are only the start. And anyone considering researching their family history should bear in mind that there may be stuff that will/can be found out that can cause untold damage.
 
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I did quite a lot of research on my family via Ancestry.co,uk. I sent off for birth certificates etc. and managed to trace back on both sides of the family to around 1860. Beyond that its difficult as many records are still in Parish churches and haven't been transcribed. The difficult and mind boggling thing is that every time you do a step back there are two paths to follow (female and male lines) and this gets more and more complicated!

My lot are mainly country folk (farm workers) with a bit of London in the mix. But there is my great great Grandad who was an early photographer back in Victorian times. Some of his photos can be found archived on line. Its coincidental perhaps but my eldest son went on to be a successful photographer. And I am quite a keen photographer too!
 
@morning glory

Fascinating thread ..

Both my parents who are both alive and my grand parents & I had done alot of research via the Archives long before computers / internet were commerically or privately available ..

My paternal family dates back to the 1500s, origin Venice, Italy ( Cintrano which comes from Sintra & Sinatra & Sintrano ).

The paternal side were involved in almost the same business that they are in now. Of course over the years, many changes and re-engineering took place.

They sell porcelain, silverware, glass and stemware, restauration goods, hospitality merchandise and supply outerwear and uniforms to fishermen, hotels, restaurants, transport workers, and all types of trade workers.

Now, they specialise in the Hotel & high end Restaurant Sector along with my 2 sons and 1 of my daughter in laws and my husband & I who developed a Tour Operating Company and runs as a separate división in a different office location.

My mother hails from Gibraltar, however, she relocated to Barcelona to attend university, which is where she met my dad.

Her family ( Guillamet ) is Catalan & French Provençal and they had gone to Gibraltar, many many years ago. However, they are French and Catalan.

They too were in a related business, they sold fish and shellfish and all the equipment necessary for fishermen ..

My great great grandmother ( paternal ) was a writer. And perhaps that is why I freelance journalism and have a tiny magazine of my own.

Surely, the whole family loves the sea dearly ..

My parents had documented all of this and spent several years researching all of this ..

Extremely extraordinary .. My mom and maternal grandmom in her 90s now, have taken up the pen and are writing a small book on all of this .. She had recently started it ..

More " penners " ..
 
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classic33 said:
DNA tests are next to useless, there's not enough been done over the years to provide meaningful answers. Identical triplets should have similar results, they didn't.
Ancestry dot com is next to useless, they'll pass you onto other sites(many of them free to use, once logged onto them) for a fee.

Letters and documents are only the start. And anyone considering researching their family history should bear in mind that there may be stuff that will/can be found out that can cause untold damage.
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"Post remains the same" after editing! Half its gone.
 
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classic33 said:
"Post remains the same" after editing! Half its gone.
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I'm not sure what you mean - but I removed the link in the quote because it is not from the CookingBites web site and doesn't work when clicked; it is also quoting content that hasn't been discussed with this forum audience before.
 
I don't know that much about my family history except what my mother and father have told me. Its something I would like to research. I have a friend who spent a lot of time researching his ancestry and has whole spreadsheets of family trees!
 
My family history is a bit complicated. My Dad was born in 1903 and his birth was registered to an address in Barking. Apparently, however, in those days births were usually registered to the mother's home address and not necessarily the actual place of birth. It was only in the 1960's that my Dad learnt that he was actually born at Warley Hospital in Brentwood, Essex. As my grandfather was in the Essex Regiment stationed at Warley, we assume that this was the hospital attached to the barracks and not the lunatic asylum of the same name! We do know that he fought at Mafeking, and he was mentioned in a book about the army in Essex. Dad was one of 16 children, all but 4 of whom survived into adulthood. Only the wife of one of my uncles is still alive now, and she is well into her 90s. Very little is known about my grandfather, although he was living in West Ham prior to 1899 when he married my grandmother. Her family came from Cambridgeshire. My great-great-grandfather was born about 1830 and my great-great-grandmother in about 1829. My greatgrandmother was born in 1861 and was then the youngest of 9 children. She did however have younger siblings, but we do not know how many. My grandmother was born in 1882.

My mother was born in 1907; she was one of 7. Her father was in the Royal Navy (he started off as a stoker) and apparently she was born at the Royal Naval Hospital in Gillingham. My grandmother was living in Gillingham at the time, but we believe he was away at sea. They lived for a while near Sunningdale and Windsor Great Park, and were friends with The Prince and Princess of Wales (later King George V and Queen Mary). I remember seeing photos of him with them, and letters, but don't know what happened to them. He and my grandmother lived in Bow for a while when my Mum was young, and then they moved to Chigwell Row. By this time he had retired from the navy and owned a newsagents in the village. One of her sisters used to work in a large ?manor house nearby, where she used to do all the embroidery. My Mum married her first husband in about 1927. My brother was born in 1929, and my sisters in 1934 and 1936. Their father died in the early 1940s. I know very little about him. No one could trace the immediate side of his family back. My Mum never really said anything about him except that during the war they had a car and had unlimited supplies of petrol (!). There weren't even any photos. Even my brother who would have been a teenager when he died knew nothing about him other than as his father, and even asked me if Mum had ever told me anything. Mum worked at Kelsey Hayes in Dagenham and it was there that she met my Dad.
 
I tried to check my grandfather's war record [1st war] when the records became public but as all I have is a name it didn't get anywhere. The family name does in fact go back to before the Norman conquest [and there is a coat of arms] but that is as far as I can get.
 
sidevalve said:
I tried to check my grandfather's war record [1st war] when the records became public but as all I have is a name it didn't get anywhere. The family name does in fact go back to before the Norman conquest [and there is a coat of arms] but that is as far as I can get.
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What do you need to have besides the name? I've not thought of looking at the war records...
 
morning glory said:
What do you need to have besides the name? I've not thought of looking at the war records...
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Seems you need regiment, dates and lots of other stuff. TBH if I had all that information I wouldn't need to bother in the first place. All my grandparents were gone long ago [never knew any of them] and now so are all of my parents generation. I have no medals even from my father [who fought from 39 to 45] as he neither collected or wanted such things and like many others he never spoke of it - I suspect he had had enough of the war and anything associated with it. It also becomes difficult when the individual can't read or write, something not uncommon a century ago.
 
My surname originates from Dorset, though I know of no obvious connection with that fine county. My understanding is that an English ancestor settled in Ireland in the 17th century and the surname became Gaelicised. When having an Irish name became somewhat detrimental, some other enterprising ancestor reverted to the English version, which remained in place. I have sometimes wondered whether I should cheekily switch back to Irish again.
 
morning glory said:
What do you need to have besides the name? I've not thought of looking at the war records...
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That was how I found out my grandmother lived in Barking when my Dad was born and his father fought at Mafeking. Unfortunately some of the earlier records seemed to be a bit haphazard and, as far as we can ascertain (and my parents and their siblings could not remember or were too young to know) neither of my grandfathers fought in the First World War or later. The records did however confirm the proper name of one of my Dad's brothers who was in the Royal East Kent Regiment, was killed in WW2 and is buried in Tripoli. Most of my Dad's brothers were in the Army, although one was in the Navy, and some were exempt (my Dad, because he was deaf (although he was in the Home Guard in WW2), and a couple of others who were farm workers). I have absolutely no idea about my Mum's brothers, and my own brother was only 16 in March 1939 so did not join up. He did do his National Service after the war, and was trained as an engineer in the RAF. He was left the RAF in 1952, and was demobbed in Maldon (of salt fame!)
 
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