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i bought the 1881 on cd rom about 5 years ago, i had just bought my first computer. my mother had asked me to research her family tree, and i thought the 1881 would be a good stepping stone. it was, must be the best thing i have ever bought for this 'hobby'. but ,even such a short time ago, there was hardly anything on the internet to help me. lds was there, but certainly not like it is now. i did all of my research in libraries. but if it has got so popular over the last 5 years, and the internet has progressed so much, what will the future hold ? perhaps in 5 years more, you could possibly type in 'fred smith' and get his full history. when he was born, when he married , which census he appeared on ....etc....etc.. i know we will always have the elusive characters[ my william walker springs to mind ] but most lines are usually straight forward , once you can access the relevant census , or parish records. or luckily for all of us on this site, perhaps ask someone local to the area you need , to help you out. i cannot help thinking that in future years , this might not be quite as exciting or rewarding, or am i perhaps showing my age. would love to know everyones views on this. sue.

Sue I was interested in family history from an early age and wrote down all that my mum and dad could tell me about their families when I was a teenager (boy am i glad of it now!) However, its only now that my sons are a bit older that I have time to sit in front of a computer and I have been amazed at what I have found out. I still remember my awe when I first visited the Family Record Centre too. As for the future - well, no doubt more records will be available online and I suppose the next thing will be to be able to access the original documents online too, so you can see if they've been adequately transcribed. But I am sure people will still want to visit graveyards, old houses etc where their relatives came from. And in the future everyone will have even more ancestors than we have to investigate! Helen

hi helen. i do hope you are right. i love this site, but i have definately got more info from the libraries etc. and although it is lovely when someone finds some info for you , that you couldnt find , or get to , it is never the same as when you come accross it yourself. if anyone would have told me i would one day enjoy stomping around a graveyard, on a sunday in the rain, miles from home, looking for someone who died 100 years ago ! well ! but you really get the bug, infact it can take over a bit too much if you let it .lol .sue.

wow claire, now i am jealous !!! the farthest i have gone back is 1610. no leads at all for him before that. and i agree with you , the internet is fine, but.... cannot beat the actual proof sitting in front of you in a library. no wills so far in my lot, all skint, thats proof it's in the genes. lol sue.

Kia Ora I started 11 years ago when a now deceased aunt gave me a few gems she had saved from a now missing Family Bible. She had painstakingly written to English churches and the Soc of Genealogists and scraped together a few names for the centenary of her grandparents arrival here in NZ in 1878. Each letter was sent by ship to England (6 weeks) the research had to be done, the letter written and posted back by ship another 6 weeks + plus the research time = you were lucky to progress at all in 6 months! Especially if you had second guessed the family wrongly or they had moved parish. Now people get a little terse when they don't have info in 6 hours!! Aunt Hazel would have been green with envy at what I have learnt over the past 5 years - I only hope I am doing the olds justice by ensuring I do the extra 9 yards by getting the addit records now available from Workhouses, Wills, Miltary Records, viewing original censues, parish registers etc that are available and not relying totally on those who have published what I know to be incorrect family trees on the Internet because they haven't done their homework. Women giving birth at 104 is my favourite! It's also fascinating to find that element of truth in the family stories altered by time and telling like the fabled Chinese whispers and more interesting- what they didn't tell anyone! Thanks to all on this site who have helped me so generously. Marlene in the Shaky Isles Wondering if anyone told my olds about the earthquakes before they travelled here- had more yesterday!

I only started researching my lot at Xmas last year, after I was given a book on family hisory. It has gone beyond a hobby to an obsession. I am really looking forward to travelling to Sussex ==200 miles away, to have a look through Parish Registers, Family history and old grave yards. I know in the future it will be all at the touch of a button.But I have really enjoyed the BUZZ of finding a thread that you have been looking for. Cant beat it. Keith Pullen.

I happen to think in about a hundred years time or so,this type of research will get harder due to the lack of stable Marriages nowadays. Regards William Russell Jones Cefn Mawr Wrexham.

Hi Sue, I feel that so many folks are doing their family tree now, that future generations won't have anything to do .. except add the occasional birth, wedding or death, as and when it happens ...! I've given both my kids strick instructions that they are to keep the family tree up todate for me. Each member of the family is having a copy ( if it ever gets completed !! ?? ) and then its up to them to keep it going. My 17 yr old daughter shows no interest at all and says I'm sad sitting at the PC all day long. My 8 yr old son doesn't pass comment ... but says that he will definately keep the tree going for me, cos he knows how much time and money I have spent doing it.! (Little Treasure !) I feel that those who start a tree in years to come, will be able to download certs from the net .. not have to send away for them .. I imagine it will be a lot quicker and easier for everyone during the next 10 - 20 years. But it won't be anywhere near as exciting or sociable .. I think we have the best of both worlds at the moment. Elaine :-)

I had no interest what so ever in family history. A 10 week course came up at my local college that fitted in nicely with my shift pattern at the time so I thought I would give it a try not really expecting much out of it!!! WOW how wrong could I have been. If it was not for the internet I would not have the information that I have found as my mother was born in New Zealand. I am now in regular contact with my mums half sister in Utah whom my mum did not know existed until I found out some family secrets. My mum has 6 half siblings from her mothers 2nd marriage. My mum believed that her mother was dead and knew nothing of a 2nd marriage. This site is probably the best for help, receiving and giving. I object when some professional replies to me and offers me their services for a fee. There are to many people willing to make money out of a pleasurable hobby. Gloria

I think you are right, the internet not only helps with source data but also can link you up to others researching the same families. I started my research in March and have already located two 4t cousins in Australia who were researching the family, one in New Zealand and three in UK. This has enabled me to go back to 1500's on some lines and 1780 on my paternal line, as well we now research as a team which has really paid dividends. I have over 1000 in my tree now, and whilst I have not managed to verify the source data for all lines yet, I have concentrated on ensuring that my paternal line data is solid as a rock. All research was on internet, Ancestry, 1837online and two purchases of census CD sets. Also located Parish records, Coroners Inquests and Wills without need to visit anywhere. Only visit I had to make was to Kew for military and merchant records, even got copies of Ships Logs from a University in Canada! Love it! Kevin.

I've only been researching husbands family since March and using Scotlandspeople, LDS, Scotsorigins and message boards have got back 8 generations on some threads. (why oh why aren't english and irish on line records as good). Although only having the bare bones on many of them, have had messages from others with loads of genealogy which is great and has made us want to go and do the family history part - putting flesh on the bones and see for ourselves the places, the OPR's, the churches etc etc. - the travel budget is going to get rather high. However the biggest bug bear for us is the Irish (my side) the 1881 and 1901 census's - born in Ireland with absolutely no clue whatsoever where and no possibility of finding out -unless the Irish records become searchable (when or if that ever happens). Meanwhile husbands side is keeping me very busy but some of the brick walls are coming down little by little.

I've not been doing this for long, but even so I'm finding that there is more to get out of it than just dates and places. I am due to go to a records office for the first time ever to look at parish registers - I've never seen a parish register before and can't wait! (sad I know lol) Apart from that I'm learning about the different occupations my family members had, and there are so many family complications that I doubt I will ever unravel everything. There will always be new info for the next generations to uncover.

I'm another one (born in England) down here in NZ (though luckily not in the North Island where the floods and earthquakes have been messing things up). It's been a godsend to have the internet to work on for this wonderful hobby - I inherited a fabulous tree that my late aunt did all the hard legwork on. I remember her heading for St Catherine's in the early '80s when I was on my OE and seeing the London sights. She'd have loved this access, and through GC/GR and IGI I've gone one generation back and also found a couple of very nice 'cousins', so I hope I've done her justice. My biggest breakthroughs have been in my husband's family...finding out where in Norfolk the first BRIDGES in NZ came from, and a bit about his family in England. I've even been lucky enough to find a will and get a photocopy. TWO marriage certs for him in Victoria, Australia were also poss. only because of the offer of a lookup by a lovely man on GC/GR. They were accessed and sent online, and it was MAGIC! The low point is finding that all the English parish records for the Norwich church were destroyed by Herr Hitler's lot. Grr! But I've enthused my father-in-law and he's on a real mission now - we've even found all the family grave references here in NZ now. Whether any will be unvandalised is another matter. There are a lot more record and paper trails for our generation, but I'm sure people will find any "treasure' a thrill, no matter how quickly it arrives. So yes, I'm sure future generations will have fun too.

I suppose the next thing will be using DNA samples to prove relationships. Apart from finding out more about my own family, it is a great history lesson in how lives of ordinary people have changed over the years. All my great-grandparents came from small farming communities. Most of the Cornish relatives' villages have virtually disappeared. The average family had 8 children. No one retired, they worked until they died, which if childbirth or accidents didn't do for them, was in their late 60s-early 70s. The most exciting thing for me so far is finding one of my gt gt uncles committed a murder (my sons were vaguely interested in the gory details) because I got to read press reports which had the actual words spoken by my gt gt gt grandmother and father in court! The nearest I will ever get to "hearing" them. That, and reading the loveletters their descendant, my grandfather wrote during and after WW1 when he was courting my grandmother. I don't see how anyone can find that dry or boring! H.

Just like to add, I think Helene mentioned DNA I have had a couple of e-mails from the lists I am on that already do DNA to check if you are in the same line as them. Not sure how it works but I think it is a male only thing!! Gloria

Re: DNA I think it should be a female-only thing as the stable form of DNA which doesn't change is mitrocondrial (not sure about spelling) DNA which is transmitted through the mother!

hi sue.im glad ive started mine whilst my grandparents are still here..both my grt grandma's died in 2000,one was 100&10 mths the other was 96...i only wish i could have got all their memories before they passed away.its much harder than i thought it would be so i guess im glad theres so much available on-line.as my family originate either in sourthern ireland or dudley and nottingham its hard for me to get the libary stuff as id have to travel some miles.my 8yr old has vowed to carry the family tree on so hopefully she will..just wish my rellies had given me a head start,and photos etc.its facinating stuff just hard to find it.happy hunting to everyone.xx

i am finding it interesting reading how we all first got 'the bug'. i almost gave up at the very start because i found i had been doing my mum's next door neighbours tree for the first 3 weeks, didn't realise till i spoke to my aunt ! so much for someone advising me to ask the rellies what they knew, my mum had given me the wrong surname for her mum's maiden name. anyway , after that stumbling block i found it enthralling. especially finding the streets or even better the actual houses [in a couple of cases] that they lived in. mind you a lot of my mum's lot seemed to marry their next door neighbours, and then move into the next house down the street ! they obviously couldn't find the buses out of yorkshire. then i started my dad's tree- a different kettle of fish altogether, spread all over and couldn't keep still. lol. sue.

Kate Yes, DNA can be used for both genders. And of course guys can only inherit Y chromosomes from their fathers. BUT mitochondrial DNA is only inherited from the mother. Not sure how you would do this over the internet. I suppose you could have a DNA test, get a printout of your DNA structure in computer code and have it matched against everyone else's. Then you'd soon know if the bride and groom were faithful!

both my husbands [i'm not a bigamist-1 is very ex] picked best must men with - shall we say 'unfortunate appearances' so no dna tests needed here .though it makes you wonder how many of our trees are really acurate, something we will never know ! lol sue.