Genealogy Chat

where and when do we stop the climb of our ancestral tree? I see many a cry for help to find info on their GGGGG Grandparents born in 1625 and I think to my self ........ how lucky you are you've climbed so high ( pls don't fall ) On one of my branches I have only reached a birth of 1836 thanks to the 1861 census........... others a wee bit higher. So how do you get to the giddy heights of beyond the census details?? and just when do we stop?? Share your knowledge here pls ......... but becareful some of us treee climbers may suffer from VERTIGO.

Deborah Surely we are going back to our roots and digging in the soil - we are the topmost leaves of the tree! I've got most of my family back to about 1800 or so, because I have found them on the 1851 and 1841 censuses and on the IGI. But there are lots of gaps. Some people I know I can get back further with because they came from small villages and had unusual names, but some people will be a nightmare. With my husband's lot, I am going to give up on the Welsh side. I mean, you find Margaret Evans, whose parents were John Evans and Margaret Jones nee Evans, whose parents were John Evans and Mary Jones nee Rees, and Evan Evans and Mary Rees nee Jones and .... I've found whole streets in the census in Welsh villages where all the neighbours are probably related, if not by birth, certainly by marriage and it would be impossible once you get to parish registers to work out who was whom! nell

Sarah, can I have some of your photo's, I can pretend they are mine lol Marion

Sarah, I can't IMAGINE not wanting to have copies of your ancestral photo's !!!!!!!!!!! I would give ANYTHING to have photo's of mine. Perhaps I could adopt yours. Dea x

LOL Sarah........no fear of Vertigo with John claude for sure LOL Oh dear Nell yes I think I too would bury the welsh roots very deep too.....however did make for very funny reading. Poor you Back to Sarah......... is this 3rd cousin feeling alright? does she know what treasures she has passed up? foolish lady ( I guess associated to John Claude lolol) I agree it's got to be quality , not quantity. To be able to tell their story and make our young 'uns know who they were.

You don't stop. Ever. I have huge (and very boring) trees full of James, William, George in every generation and it was only when I came across a peruke maker that I suddenly realised I'd been dressing them in rent-a-crowd C20th costumes. But I know that an ancestor in the 1730s had his clothes washed at harvest time, while I know nothing (thank goodness!) about the personal hygiene of my Victorian ancestors. A Tudor ancestor had all her son's trees cut down. (She says she did it herself, but as she also says she is 75, I suspect she had some help!) It's those little snippets that bring the people alive in any generation (and believe me, that particular lady had an awful lot to say for herself, so I have a pretty good idea of her professed character). It really doesn't matter which period you are in, so much as the quality of the information you can find.

Never, ever! There are brickwalls, oh yes, but suddenly something happens and whoopee! I thought I might never know much about my Irish ancestral family - after writing letters, emails, putting messages on message boards and mailing lists. Then I received an email out of the blue whoosh! It's all rather complicated (being about Irish ancestral research, I guess it would be! - no offence intended, after all I am one eighth Irish!). First email - here is the birth registration for my (probable) gt-gt-uncle. Then the next email, that confirms he is my gt-gt-uncle, *and* takes me back another generation! .... and all because someone has read a message I put on a rootsweb mailing list 4 years ago! How kind! :-) Joy (I'm high up in the sky with excitement!)

I agree - it's the quality of the information. I'm back to 1760s for some ancestors but that's only because of relatively unusual names and folk living in little villages and not venturing out for generations but it's just lists of names really. Call me morbid but I'm getting quite interested in causes of death and life-spans - I've had a 15 yr old ancestor 'run over by a wagon endeavouring to stop the horses who had set off at the report of a gun' in 1805 and two inquests (one in 1877 held in a cottage which reported that the deceased had eaten a supper more hearty than usual and then was found dead the next morning in her bed despite her husband hearing her snoring in the night!) It's this sort of detail that puts the flesh on the bones! Victoria

The time to stop.... is when the washing has piled to the ceiling and your family has started buying paper plates to eat takeaway from... when the floor disappears under a fine layer of unwanted birth certificates... when you see a feint reflection of 'cousin It' in the monitor and realise its YOU.... and when you know more about dead people than the rellies you've still got living ;) Seriously... I think that it depends on what you're after... I have decided to trace back EVERY family line to 1799 (approx)... and have only a few names left to find. Others choose one name and trace that back about as far as they can go - sometimes you'll get lucky with that and hit the jackpot on LDS. If you can get to a 1841 or 1851 census, and find out 'who's the daddy' (such as a father aged 50 or so, for example) then you've got the name back a little further. If a marriage happened round about the time when certificates became the law, then you'll have the fathers name of the bride and groom to further your search. Graveyards and parish registers are a great help-if you can get to them (I cannot)... but other than that...it is sheer eye-blurring, headache making, hard work :)

A MAN......oh Sarah then this explains it lol and as regards that family bible.......no way you could brine him? and if that doesn't work ask him to leave it to you in his will ( or one of your children) ......... do you think he might lol? Pink Tabitha - this is what i am afraid of.....names and dates and no meat. Thanks to the help of Sarah above us she has helped me put meat on some of my husbands ancestors with a far few look ups of her resources and her time I've been able to paint a picture . How did you find out about the trees and washing of clothes? fascinating snibbets. Joy brickwalls, just like garden paths, I have had more than my fair share. I had a grt Grandmother ( who I had known till I was 13 ) she had been born in 1886. No Idea where - always thought Sussex as she married there and died there. I couldn't even find her on the 1891 & 1901 census and I had searched for her birth cert for 10 years. Why? she was named Tabitha and Grivinnia on the census. She wasn't under her step fathers name under her mothers and she was born & living in NORFOLK until her marriage!!! *sigh* Victoria ......... oh how I love death certs lol. Brights Disease ....... fascinating death lol. Had an ancestor who was shot by his own brother by accident whilst out hunting. One who who commited suicide - why?? don't know still looking for the inquest sadly. Cha Cha........ very amusing..........lol Seriously though stoping at 1799 gives you some control and organisation ( something I do not have but will try ) I tend to get excited when i find a new rellie and then start trying to find another 2 ( the Parents lol) So we don't stop? we keep climbing , however we keep trying to find meat??