Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Lost in the past

It all started early last month, when I learned that the genealogical website Ancestry was offering a weekend of free access to all its records. Two of my three younger sisters have done a great deal of family history research over the past few years, but somehow the bug passed me by. I’ve been genuinely interested in their discoveries and have used some of their information in previous posts, but I never felt the need to do the research myself - until now.

The Ancestry weekend whetted my appetite and since then I’ve enjoyed starting to put together my own version of our family tree.  However, last weekend moved things onto a whole new level. This is because another family history website was offering three whole days of free access to their huge stock of worldwide records  and this time DH was away visiting his mother and I had almost the entire weekend to myself.

Over the previous few weeks I had learned enough to know exactly what to look for this time. In three packed days I experienced the most enormous enjoyment and satisfaction as I gradually put flesh on the bones of my skeleton family tree (if you’ll excuse the mixed metaphor) and fitted half-forgotten names from my childhood into their proper places. Without DH to remind me about mealtimes I even forgot to have breakfast one day and ended up eating my cereal for lunch!

By the time the free access period ended I’d amassed an enormous amount of information, which I now have to organise and make sense of. But in addition to information I’ve gained something else over the past few days – something perhaps more important than factual details and certainly more personal.

Scanning through census returns, searching birth, marriage and death records, and adding details to the family tree, has brought the lives and backgrounds of my ancestors and their wider family members into very sharp focus, Suddenly I find myself trying to put myself into the shoes of two of my great-great-grandmothers, one of whom gave birth to at least thirteen live children and saw four die in infancy. Even more tragically, the other also had thirteen children, of whom only seven survived into adulthood.

My great-uncle George as he started school in 1896

The streets teemed with children, including three of my great-uncles.

Both these great-great-grandmothers lived in the industrial Lancashire town where I was born and I know the streets of small terraced houses in which they struggled to feed and clothe their large families.  One was the wife of a brick and tile maker, the other of a cotton weaver, so money must have often been very scarce with so many children to care for.

My great-grandfather, aged two, and seven of his siblings on the 1871 census

No wonder then that as soon as the children reached the school leaving age of 13, they too found themselves in the brickworks or the cotton mill, working long hours and bringing their wages home to swell the family purse. They usually went on living at home until they married and even then rarely moved far. One of my great-grandfathers, with his wife and child, lived just round the corner from an elder brother and his wife and both couples appear on the same page of the census return.

Spot two of the Fish brothers on the same census return

If they were female and didn’t marry they often went on living at home until their parents died. My grandmother’s mother was one of a family of nine, eight girls and one boy, of whom only four married. In the 1911 census six unmarried sisters are shown living with their widowed father. The youngest eventually married and I still have vivid childhood memories of her and her next sister, whom I knew as Aunt Ethel and Aunt Lil. If only I’d known enough then to ask about their lives and hear from their lips the way the world had changed since they were my age.



Or at least five of them. My maternal great-grandmother is on the far left.

Sadly those generations are long gone, but surprisingly vivid echoes of their lives and struggles, their joys and sorrows still linger in the apparently dry and dusty pages of those official records.

Yes, you’ve guessed it – I’m hooked!


63 comments:

  1. Oh, I'm entranced by your research. I love genealogy; my father has been an enthusiast for over thirty years and has traced his lineage back to England in the 13th century. He did almost all of it before there was the internet, which I think is amazing. Your research is very interesting so far; I particularly enjoy the handwritten census records. Families were huge then. I notice that many of the first names in your records are popular names again today, which is interesting. Thank you for sharing, I know you will find much more enjoyment in this new pursuit.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm glad you enjoyed it so much, Jennifer. Your father did amazingly well to research so far back before the internet. None of us have gone back anything like so far. Over the weekend I found the handwritten notes my mother made on her researches into her family history before her death 32 years ago. With the help of the internet I was able to verify many of her findings, but also disprove a few and make other discoveries. I've only just scratched the surface and am looking forward to going deeper.
      PS The older names have become very popular in the UK too, even very old-fashioned ones like Mabel, which was never used in my childhood. :)

      Delete
  2. I've had the bug since 1998. You should have seen me sliding under a fence three years ago to catch a glimpse of a ggg grandmother's grave. A fabulous entertainment during the dark months of winter.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gosh, 17 years and you're still not over it, Linda! :-) I've very much enjoyed your posts about your researches and your travels in search of your family's history and remember the photos of that grave and graveyard.

      Delete
  3. You've certainly put in a tremendous amount of work. My mother has an old family bible listing family births, deaths and marriages written on the inside pages.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I haven't worked such long hours for a very long time, Sarah, but I enjoyed every minute. The internet makes it so easy to gather a huge amount of information in a short time. Sorting through it and putting it where it belongs will take much longer.. :)

      Delete
  4. What great difficulties our ancestors encountered throughout their daily lives - hardship, poverty, death, illness, sorrows and hopefully some joys too.
    I wonder whatever they would think of our lives today?
    I noticed that nearly all of the sweet little children on the photos are looking rather glum.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They did indeed, Rosemary, and I was constantly aware of this as I scanned through the census lists of very large families living in very small houses with no modern conveniences. I'm sure they had enjoyable experiences at times, but everyday life must often have been very hard.
      I think they would consider us blessed almost beyond understanding in terms of material wealth and leisure.
      As for the children, I think they may well have been overawed by being photographed and have been told not to move or they would spoil the picture. :-)

      Delete
    2. Long exposure times - it's heard for littlies to stay still or hold a smile even for five or ten seconds

      Delete
    3. Exactly, Marion, though they were probably much better at being still and quiet than children today, as it was expected of them. Seen, but not heard... They certainly didn't spoil these two photos.

      Delete
  5. I got the bug in 2006 and have remained hooked ever since - gradually building more and discovering some living relatives around the world I didn't previously know I had. I think part of the appeal is discovering the unknown - like a good detective story. Then when you discover 1 fact e.g. an emigration, you then want to know why and what was it like? And so it goes on. It has changed my view of who I think I am.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's interesting to discover how many of my readers have been bitten by the bug, Nancy. It sounds from your experience that it may be a lasting affliction, but a very satisfying one. My sisters have made contact with one or two very distant cousins, but I'm not at that stage yet. As a great fan of detective novels I'm really enjoying this painstaking chase after clues and am hoping that I too may make an unexpected discovery.:-). It's early days for me yet, but I have an inkling of what you mean by your final sentence.

      Delete
  6. What amazing progress you made in just one weekend, Perpetua. It is fascinating to learn of the lives of our ancestors, which were generally much harder than life today. It is interesting to read of the unmarried sisters. I remember a few ladies from my childhood, known as Maiden Aunts. You never hear of those today! One of my grandmothers was 'expected' to remain unmarried and stay at home to look after her parents in their old age. But she rebelled and married anyway :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I had a flying start, Patricia, with the help I've had from my sisters and also the handwritten notes from my mother's initial foray into family history well over 30 years ago. Sadly she died before getting very far, but it makes her feel close to be using her notes and following her hints and of course I have the internet at my fingertips.
      I had my fair share of maiden aunts, being old enough to have relatives whose chances of marriage died on the battlefields of WW1.There was always a 'surplus' of women back, even without a war and society's attitude as to what was suitable for unmarried women was very different from ours.

      Delete
  7. Hari OM
    Such a fascinating pursuit indeed... Father and cousin Mike are the two in our family who are following this sort of research. It has revealed its own surprises. You have some amazingly clear photographs here... the one with the 'sisters' is gorgeous! YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's far more fascinating than I would ever have imagined before I began, Yam, and if course the internet offers such amazing possibilities for research. When I was working as a librarian back in the 1970s-90s, people still had to do their census investigations laboriously on microfilm in the reference library! Now it's all indexed and appears at the touch of a mouse. :-)
      Yes, the photos are lovely. We don't have very many but they have been carefully preserved.

      Delete
  8. Once you are hooked it hard to stop. It can be sort of overwhelming at times. I am glad that you are discovering your ancestors. It is really hard to understand what they went through, losing children, working long hours, the drudgery must have been so difficult. When looking at women from the past in pictures, they seldom have big smiles on their face. They probably have too much on their mind, and are too tired to grim.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can well believe it, Bonnie, even after so little experience of the thrill of the chase. :-). I think I've reached the age where it matters to put my life in the context of those who went before me, while I can still remember some of them.Yes, life must have bee extraordinarily hard for those women with large families and little money and no labour-saving equipment to help them. I don't see many smiles in any photographs of working-cleass life back then, though to be fair the Victorians didn't tend to smile in photos whatever class they belonged to. It was outwardly a very serious time.

      Delete
    2. Centuries of poor oral health and no dentistry beyond extraction means one doesn't see teeth bared in any portraits, painted or photographic before the C20th. It was considered gauche and undignified to smile broadly with lips apart in any circumstances.

      Delete
    3. That hadn't occurred to me, but it makes sense, Marion. A smile with lips apart would have seemed far too intimate for public consumption in a much more formal society.

      Delete
  9. Go for it! I can totally understand how immersive has become - I've dallied with the idea a couple of times, but never really had the time to get into it, but who knows, one day...

    Since my mum died, I realise just how tenuous our connections are to the previous generations of our family and as I get older, I wonder more and more about the characters of my ancestors and how their attitudes may be influencing me even today, so yes, I wholeheartedly support your efforts. Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I definitely will, Anny. It's the thrill of the chase that is so addictive, one clue leading to another, with lots of false starts and dead ends to stop you feeling too pleased with yourself. :-) But it's very time-consuming - much better suited to retirement.

      It's many years since my parents and father-in-law died and my dear mother-in-law's memory is not what it was, so this is really the only way to explore the world they and their parents grew up in.I've always loved social history and think of my research as another facet of that.

      Delete
  10. I think my daughter Jess would enjoy having great uncle George in her class...he looks a lively one !
    I think you know how much I have loved reading this. I actually thought about you last weekend, knowing that you were taking advantage of the free weekend.... Knowing that you would be fascinated by all you discovered. I think knowing the streets your family has walked on is incredibly powerful. Touching spaces that these people who were "our" family makes me feel close to them, and piecing together their lives, and just remembering them is important. I'm so glad you had a wonderful weekend... It is clear, you are well and truly hooked. Maybe some of my great great grandmother's siblings and children came across some of yours in their days in various Lancashire cotton mills.
    As promised, I have included my face book comments here P. Mark laughed when I told him you missed breakfast. He knows that unless he tells me its time to eat, I could miss whole days of meals when I'm on the trail of a long lost but now learned about great great aunt. Jx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I only remember Uncle George as a man of my grandmother's age, but he had a twinkle in his eye which fits with that little boy with his tongue out. :-)

      I knew you would enjoy thiis, Janice, as I always enjoy your super family history posts. , Indeed the pleasure you obviously feel in your family history discoveries one of the things which has inspired me to have a go myself and the free weekends were the final trigger. The fact that most of my ancestors (at least as far back as the early C19th) on both sides of the family come from one relatively small town and its surrounding villages means that I can much more easily imagine them in their everyday lives than if they had all lived somewhere I had never visited. My maternal grandfather was from Yorkshire, and from a very similar social if not geographical background. I have certainly been reminded of my strong working-class roots.

      DH wasn't a bit surprised that I'd missed breakfast. He knows only too well how time gets away from me when I'm absorbed in something, whether it's blogging or clarinet practice or now family history. He just comes and looks pitifully at me until I remember it's time to make a meal. :-)

      Delete
  11. Nothing dry or dull about records...I'm not interested in tracing my family back, but give me legal records and I too would forget breakfast!
    I'm glad it is proving so fascinating for you, placing your family in its time and place...but please don't disappear from the blogosphere!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeed there isn't, Helen. You're speaking to someone who used to enjoy cataloguing books, knowing how important it is that information is recorded and organised. I haven't tried legal records, but DD might well join you in that. To be honest I never thought I would become more interested than just appreciating what my sisters had discovered, but I must say I really am enjoying my first experience of proper research for a long time.
      However there is no danger that it will tempt me away from blogging. My posts may not be so frequent as in the early years, but the enjoyment and satisfaction I get from them are just as great if not greater and I have a couple of posts coming nicely to the boil just now...

      Delete
  12. It's one of my favourite past times as well, and I'm lucky that my father has always had a keen interest in family history. It sounds like you've made great progress!
    The hardships of previous generations are humbling to some of us in this generation. My grandmother raised 13 children and didn't have indoor plumbing until the younger three were born. When I think of those who came over in the wooden ships and carved a life out of the wilderness I am left feeling very spoiled and lazy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think It could well be come one of my favourite pastimes too, Pondside, alongside music and blogging. The ex-librarian in me loves following lines of inquiry and trying to find accurate information. You're fortunate to have your father to whet your interest. My mother became interested when she retired, but sadly had only a very few years to explorer the subject before her death nearly 35 years ago. I'm now using handwritten notes she left to point me in some directions I wouldn't otherwise have thought of.
      To coin a phrase, most of us in the developed world don 't know were born nowadays. Even in my childhood in Lancashire we didn't have piped water or indoor plumbing in our country hamlet until I was almost of secondary school age. Indeed the Welsh village we now live in didn't get mains electricity until the early 1960s! But things were very much harder a generation or two before that for working-class people.
      I'm afraid my knowledge of the realities of pioneer life doesn't go much beyond the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, but I can try to imagine the loneliness of being in a new and vast country and the hardships of trying to wrest a living from it. I'm not sure how well I would have survived in such circumstances.

      Delete
  13. As I think I said in an exchange we had on Facebook, when you got me to post B & W photos for five successive days, my eldest sister has completely researched our family history in her retirement years, partly spurred on by inheriting the material our father had researched before his death. I therefore don't feel the need to reinvent the wheel!

    However, what you say about large families and infant mortality just a few generations back, does ring very true. My paternal grandfather was one of 15 children of whom two died in infancy. And even my mother had a sibling she never knew because he died of whooping cough before she was born.

    The same issue of small incomes on which to raise families, applied to agricultural labourers too. When Rector of those North Oxfordshire parishes that you also know well, I several times had enquiries from visitors from Canada, Australia & New Zealand, trying to trace their family roots. They would explore the churchyard of the village where their ancestors had lived until emigrating in the late 19th or early 20th centuries, and express surprise that they could find no headstones bearing their family surname. I always had to explain that in those days, only the very wealthy could ever afford to erect a headstone!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I remember you telling me that, Ricky, and to be honest, until recently I would have said the same. My sisters have done so much and I now have access to their family trees on Gens Reunited. But neither of them would say their trees are complete and of course there are DH's Scottish roots to explore too, so I can't see me running out of avenues to wander down for some time yet. :-)

      Yes, infant mortality before the widespread introduction of immunisation and modern post-natal care could be horrific and even in the early C20th, both my father and my mother lost siblings at a very early age and my father also lost the only son he ever had not long after birth.

      You're quite right to point out that rural poverty could be just as deep as its industrial cousin. Farm labourers' wages were pitiful and it was often only the availability of gardens for growing vegetables that enabled them to feel themselves and their families. Your anecdote about overseas family history researchers made me smile, as I often had to deal with similar baffled enquiries from overseas visitors to our local history library, Their bafflement was usually to do with the very small number of Welsh surnames and the consequent pages of Jones and Williams and Davies to be ploughed through in the census returns, often with the same limited store of first names to complicate matters. It made me glad hwen I started my own research that our family tree has a few slightly less common names on it. :-)

      Delete
  14. Infant mortality due to unknown/untreatable causes was still around just after the war....
    I only walk this wonderful Earth because my sister was born with her heart working the wrong way round....
    a "blue" baby!
    I never met her, obviously.... but I thank her for my life.

    You don't'arf' look like Aunt Ethel!

    On family trees... my cousin Mike was involved in a very big geneology project concerning Isaac Newton...
    and I am related to the great man via his brother...
    but I never understood the gravity of the relationship....
    [urrrg!].
    I have a wonderful picture of Mike standing by a portrait of Isaac....
    talk about separated at birth....
    by umpteen generations.

    We grow Newton's Wonder apple in tribute...
    and a damned tasty apple it is, by jove!

    Keep fleshing out those skellingtons...
    you'll be surprised what's there!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And I have a half-brother I never knew, Tim. He and his mother, my father's first wife, died soon after his birth in 1940. I and my younger sisters wouldn't have existed without that tragedy.

      Do you really think I favour Aunt Ethel? My grandmother and her sister always told me when I was a girl that I was the image of their mother, Hannah, the sister at the end on the left. That's her in the first photo with her husband, Swain.

      Wow, a connection of Newton and his famous apple! So far our researches haven't thrown up any eminent connections, but we live in hope. We come from generations of cotton weavers and spinners, and also brick-makers and labourers. I often wonder what they might have been and done if they had been given our educational opportunities.

      The skeletons are getting fatter day by day. That's the fascination of it all. :-)

      Delete
  15. Just before I read this blog I found Swain Fish's Baptism as an adult on the same day as several of his siblings. Love the Hearth sisters photos!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Correction Swain was almost 7, Samson 13, Eliza 17, Noah 19 & his eldest brother Nathanial two days under 21 on their joint baptism day 7th March 1875

      Delete
    2. Oh, I'm glad you've found that for yourself, PolkaDot. If you hadn't I would have shown you when you come. I happened to stumble across it during the Ancestry free weekend in early February, which of course gave me dates of birth as well as baptism. I've got so much information which hasn't been added to the tree yet.

      And I'll be finding even more now that Find My Past has made me an offer I can't refuse - a month's worldwide subscription for £1. If there are any overseas searches you want to make, note them down and we'll do them while you're here. :-)

      Delete
  16. Being brought up in a family where family stories were part of our everyday life it was only natural that I should be very interested in family trees. Several older family members on all sides did construct family trees but what is available on the internet today add so much to it.
    My g.g. grandfather, a whaler and sealer in early Otago [N.Z.] history always passed himself off as a 'son of the military'. It wasn't until late last century [ 20 or so years ago!] that the truth came out ... he was the son of convicts, in Sydney, Australia. In his day no one admitted to being a child of convicts, but today there are many of us who proudly declare to have such ancestors. Funny how outlooks change, but those convicts opened up Australia.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your family sounds very like mine, Shirley. I remember listening to my grandmother and her sister and cousins telling stories about their relatives and it's such fun to track down those half-remembered names and find out where they fit in.
      How interesting to find out that your great-great-grandfather was descended from convicts. I remember reading somewhere that convict ancestry has become the new aristocracy in Australia, because it means your family history is rooted in the earliest days of the colonisation of the continent. My footloose widowed grandfather emigrated to Australia in 1921 and in 1926 my 18 year-old father went out to join him, but came back to the UK after his death. Such fascinating information.

      Delete
  17. I think I will keep this post in my favourites list, in case I am tempted to start researching. Reading all the comments, it is obviously a serious addiction.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It certainly seems to be. :-) Until I had the taster weekend in early February I hadn't realised just how much fascinating information is available with a few clicks of the mouse and a subscription to one of the major genealogical websites. Take me as a dreadful warning and beware!

      Delete
  18. How great that you found so much info Perpetua..
    I got back as far as my great great grandparents.. but i really would like to find out more.
    Mother's side Ireland.. dad's side Manchester.
    It gives one a sense of who we are and how our families lived.
    val xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Almost all my ancestors come from England, Val, which makes tracing back to the beginning of the 19th century reasonably straightforward, as so many records are now available online. Further back than that gets much more tricky, especially for working class families who didn't own land or houses. It will be intersting to see how far back I can go. Good luck with your own research.

      Delete
  19. First off, loved your mixed metaphor, Perpetua, and may "accidentally on purpose" borrow it someday. :)
    How fulfilling and awesome this search must have been for you and will likely continue to grow and grow. I am always excited beyond measure when I discover bits and bobs of my family history. Your post and enthusiasm are giving me an urge to do some discovering soon.
    I cannot imagine how hard lives must have been, both for the toil and backbreaking work and for the sorrow and loss.
    Lovely posting, Perpetua.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Feel free to borrow my mixed metaphor whenever you like, Penny. :-) I can mix you some more if you want...
      It was a wonderfully interesting, if tiring, weekend, Penny and I'm now looking forward to another 4 weeks research, thanks to an offer of full access for just £1. But I also to need to organise what I'm finding and that will take much longer. Be warned, though, once you start, you will keep wanting to find out just a little bit more....
      Life for the working classes has always been hard, whether they were labouring in the fields or the factories. Trying to keep and care for such large families at the same time must have been so very hard. :(

      Delete
  20. A few years ago my brother took advantage of an online offer to do some searching. He didn't get very far but found it interesting. Work commitments prevented him from finding the time to go further. I do find the subject fascinating but am not one for wanting to compile and sort informatıon. Although I do enjoy the programme 'Who do you think you are' Have you watched it? I can see how it can bring you closer to your ancestors and how sad it can be to discover how short lives were many years ago. I still find it sad that my father lost two sisters to dıptheria and was himself in an iron lung for six months as a 5 year old. Scary times.

    I can't see you giving this up even when the offer runs out...glad to see you are getting so much enjoyment from it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The resources available today are very much greater than when your brother did his searching, Ayak, and new records are being digitised all the time. I'm sure he would get much further nowadays. However, it can be very time-consuming, so perhaps best kept for retirement. I know the information-sorting bit is by no means everyone's cup of tea, but it appeals to the librarian in me. :)
      I've watched 'Who do you think you are' and found it very interesting, but it was what my sisters discovered about our own ancestors which really got me hooked. In fact we didn't even have to search to know about child mortality and illness, as our elder sister was lucky to recover from diphtheria and her baby brother died soon after birth. We are so very fortunate to live when we do.

      Yes, I don't think this is something I'll give up very easily, though I'm already making myself be disciplined about it. There are just not enough hours in the day...

      Delete
  21. What a fascinating time you've been having, Perpetua! My husband has been working on family history for the past two months almost non-stop. There was a free offer through Ancesty.com, and after it ended he signed up for an additional month. He also uses a computer program called Family Tree Maker. Are you familiar with it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Extraordinarily fascinating, Kristie, and I've so much information to make sense of. These free offers from the big genealogical sites certainly draw people in and once you make a start and realise how much there is to discover, a weekend isn't nearly long enough. I'm now on a '1 month for £1' offer with the site I was working with last weekend. :-) Thanks for the mention of the program. I hadn't heard of it, but will investigate. At the moment I'm compiling a family tree on the website itself, which allows me to link all the records to the person concerned.

      Delete
  22. You're an inspiration, Perpetua! It's so fascinating to be able to delve down into family history and learn of the lives those who came before us led. Like you, I wish I had asked more questions when my parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles were alive. It's sad but true that by the time we achieve the maturity to look beyond ourselves and become curious about previous generations, they're too often long gone.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not sure about being an inspiration, Kathy. When I look at the amount of information I now have to grapple with, I think I may be more of a salutary warning of what happens to those who get hooked on this addictive interest. :-) You're right about it being fascinating and it's so frustrating when I come across someone who may or may not be related to my family tree and the people who could have confirmed it are no longer with us. But it's not just the people, but also the social background which is so interesting and I know I'll be researching that too.

      Delete
  23. I understand that that is what happens once you start: you become hooked.

    I agree, it is a very interesting pursuit, this digging up of ancestors. I wonder, should I . . . . .?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sadly this is very true, Friko. The onset of the affliction is insidious I'll (just check one more fact) but one check leads to another and before you know it, you're totally hooked. Having read your posts reflecting on your memories as a child, I imagine researching your family history could be very interesting indeed.

      Delete
  24. Oh dear, Perpetua, your enthusiasm and wonderful blog have got me pondering whether I have unfilled gaps in my research! I did tell myself firmly that after working on my father's side of the family enough is really enough. My uncle's wife is still a bit of a mystery though. Ummmm.... Maybe next winter........

    Spindrift51

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Spindrift, everyone has unfilled gaps in their research! That's what's so interesting and addictive. Each of my sisters has specialised in certain areas, but there's so much left unexplored. The number of records being digitised continues to grow rapidly, so perhaps the solution to your mystery is now out there, just waiting to be discovered...

      Delete
  25. A fascinating post about a fascinating subject. It struck me recently, to my horror, that I know more about the extended family of the chap whose biography I am slowly writing than I do about my own family's history. My aunt is keeper of the information and has compiled a detailed family tree, you have prompted me to visit her and pay proper attention to it. At least I can add to it ... Looking for information about something else I recently discovered that one of my grandmother's cousins had been born to the young woman always assumed to be her older sister.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you enjoyed it, Annie. I can well imagine how writing a biography provides you with more than enough family history research, none of it your own. You're lucky that you have an aunt interested in the subject. I do recommend paying her a visit and asking for a copy of the tree as the basis for your own further research. Every family tree has its little secrets and ours has at least one example of the situation you've discovered and some other sad and touching scenarios.

      Delete
  26. My father started writing his memoirs soon after my mother died and became hooked on researching his family tree as he tried to put events, and people, in the right place and the right order.
    Some of the stories he unearthed were better than fiction, a blend of tragedy and adventure. I was enthralled as he told us about his discoveries every Sunday evening when he came round for his dinner. He was absolutely horrified to find that his eldest sister was born out of wedlock!
    His brother gave him an old biscuit tin full of documents, including some letters sent to his mother after her first husband as killed in WW1. They were heartbreaking to read and it was that which compelled me to visit the graves of three of my great uncles in northern France, a truly moving experience.
    So I can see how you have become hooked - the more you discover, the more you will want to find out!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I remember you posting about your visit to your great-uncles' graves, Jean, but there is obviously a lot more history there to be told. You're so right to say one can never know what secrets lie waiting to be discovered.
      I've only been researching for a few weeks, but have already discovered illegitimate children, pregnant brides and deserted wives - so much heartache behind the bald details on census forms and certificates.
      Of course the internet makes research much easier nowadays than it was when your father began work on his memoirs and family history, but it can only take us so far. Letters and other memorabilia are needed to flesh out the bones of official documents and these are tantalisingly few and precious.

      It's totally fascinating and very addictive...

      Delete
  27. I am so glad I didn't miss this post, Perpetua, and thank you so much for alerting me to it! I don't know how I missed it when you first posted. I am thrilled for you to have begun the interesting challenging of filling in gaps of family history with the stories that seem to come to light when you begin to discover previously unfamiliar documentation! I have a similar thirst, and recently, after about two years of searching, found a missing piece of information relating to my mother-in-law's youngest sister who died at three years of age. For some reason she was just lost to us! I've searched all on-line records for at least two years and only one week ago got an important clue. It's amazing how thrilled and fulfilled I felt. I hope you might continue with ancestry.com. It's a reasonable investment and it provides so much information. Our daughter has an account and has been making connections on her dad's side. Now that I've found my one missing piece I've offered to help with more. It's really a joyful addiction. I loved your photos! It's a gold mine! :-) Debra (breathelighter)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I thought that you, with your love of history , would enjoy it, Debra, and I know how busy you are at the moment. I might have known that you too have become addicted to researching your family's history. :-) New records are being digitised and put online all the time, so I fully expect we'll both make discoveries in the future which aren't possible
      at the moment.

      Though I did my initial research on Ancestry, I don't have a paid subscription on there. I have a basic subscription on Genes Reunited and in fact am almost certain to take out a full subscription to Find My Past at the end of my bargain month, as I find its search function and family tree building software very user-friendly. Only yesterday I was able to trace a friend's great-grandparents on her paternal grandfather's side and she had never known anything about them. I even managed to go further back along one line into the eighteenth century. So satisfying.

      Delete
  28. The interesting aspect of personal family history research is that those census records can give a lot of information to fuel the imagination about past lives. I particularly like the extra details of the 1911 Census such as the number of children in a family who lived or died, which I found fascinating when I related it to my maternal grandmother and found out more about her. You can also get an insight into how close-knit a family unit was when you see members living in the same street and on the same census record. It was interesting to see the unmarried Hearth Sisters all living under one roof.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're absolutely right, Linda. I've done some basic census searching, but haven't yet had time to analyse properly what I've found. Even without the extra detail of the 1911 census, I've been able to trace children who died young (a baby on one census, no longer there on the next) Certainly very many people passed their whole lives in the same few streets, probably working in the same mill or factory. Unmarried daughters would have been expected to go on living at home into adulthood in our area, both for decorum and economy. Knowing how small most of the houses were it must have been a cramped and limited life for them.

      Delete
  29. I think this is just great. I really need to get at the family history myself. My father did so much work on it and compile great lists and a book of narratives of things he learned about people along the way. I'm sure I can find more on Ancestry. You inspire me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's certainly fascinating, Sally, and it sounds like you have a head start with your father having gathered and organised so much information already. The internet resources are truly vast nowadays and I'm sure you could fill out what your father has done and make more wonderful discoveries. Have fun.

      Delete

I welcome your comments and will always try to respond to them. Thank you for reading.