Family trees ?

[Paullyfuzz]

Anybody tried tracing their family tree ? I have had a go and got no where. I then got talking to someone at work who was a bit of of a wiz at doing it. An hour later and I was close to tears ! He only spent an hour on tinternet aswell and says that's just the start !

 

[mountainm]

An ancestry.co.uk account makes it easier. Ain't cheap though.

 

[Paullyfuzz]

My mate rrings me up when ever he finds stuff out and every time I'm nearly in tears. My great grandad was part of the British expeditionary force to Vladivostok to help the Tsar.

 

[joejoe]

thats how i got my avatar, foun out my great great great grandfather was a slave in new orleans . was the only time i got any info as my father would talk about any of it

 

[Paullyfuzz]

It's spooky that. When I asked my mom about her sister she just said, I don't want you delving into her ! There's nowt so strange as folk !

 

[joejoe]

quite agree used to take me to see my grandmothr his mam who was as black as coal . but i soon learne not to ask questions

 

[hog]

My Wife has done hers back to the 1600's and mine seems to be a bit of an enigma...kind of fades out reckon we are from the planet Zogg !!

 

[Dave]

I keep getting spam from these ancestry sites, offering free trials, but they never are.
I'd be interested to know how your pal does it Paully?
does he pay for an account somewhere?

 

[Paullyfuzz]

I've asked him, I guess he's just good at it. He says there's no need to pay for anything as its all readily available. The only thing you have to pay for is military service records. It's all open source on the Internet . The companies like like ancestry.com just pray on the people that can't be arsed to look

 

[Dave]

Sounds worthy of further exploration then.

 

[Paullyfuzz]

My mate, within a matter of 1 hour got my moms family back to 1820, without paying for a single thing.

 

[swotty]

My dad has, got us back to the 1400's....and living in Somerset then but i'm guessing my surname came over with the normans just no firm link.
He's done all his research from the library with their records (births, deaths and marriages) and using census info.

 

[wingstoo]

It can turn out some of the skeletons in the cupboards as well, so just be careful which path you follow and what you learn, it may not be what you want to see or hear.

My cousin has been tracing our family tree, but it depends which branch he follows as to the results he got, many leads got to dead ends or wrong ends and he had to go back and start again.

Local records offices, local church grave yards do turn up useful leads with Marriages, christenings and death records.

I dabbled a few years back trying to find out more about one of my uncles who had a wife and daughter killed in the blitz, but one of the problems with such incidents was that records offices were also destroyed and I came to a dead end...But another surname the same as mine and my uncles threw out some interesting information on another Mother and daughter who were killed when a Me109 was shot down by a Spitfire and the plane crashed into their farm yard on the last day of the Battle of Britain in September 1940.

Good luck with any research you do.

If there are any relatives killed on military duty during the numerous conflicts the War graves commission has a huge data base worth looking at.

 

[Paullyfuzz]

It would seem that military history for the 1st World War is pretty much open source, with anything after being stuff you have to apply and pay for.

 

[Ahjno]

I can trace my surname back to the 1600 in Flamish Limburg (province), at the time part of the Republic - before that date there are no primary records (baptism, marriage or burial) available - so all research needs to be done through other sources, something I don't have the time for ATM.

Through one line I might (I'm 70-80% sure) be descending from the dutch painter Adam Silo, need to do more research on that bit.

Through another line I'm a descendant of Charlemagne, but also have lines to Germany (quite a lot, especially Prussia), France and even England (Essex, somewhere around 1200)

 

[Dannytsg]

Very funny that this thread has come up as I have spent 2 hours tonight on Ancestry.co.uk researching into my family tree. I have found it to be very interesting and I have learnt some really good things about my ancestors and been able to view some of the old documents such as both of my granddads enlistment papers in WW2 etc

 

[Paullyfuzz]

Full military records can be applied for for around £10, but can take up to 18 months to get back

 

[Zingmo]

My surname is quite unusual so tracing my paternal line is fairly easy up to a point. My mother has a very common maiden name and her line is nearly impossible to progress.

Use the free census sites and records from freebmd where you can and then pay money to get copies of certificates to make sure you aren't barking up the wrong tree.

Z

 

[hiraeth]

While ancestry.com and other web sites have their place, I have always found more enjoyment from searching the original records in churches and chapels, for me you cant beat the smell and feel of handling the original records. I am back to the mid 1700s now.

 

[rik_uk3]

Its surprising what you find with a little digging. My father was told his father died in France, 1918 and was buried there. Turns out he died in Italy in 1918 and is buried there in Padua.