Has anyone completed their research?

Ted · Post by **Ted** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 11:38 am

Hi Everyone

When I first started searching several years ago I only got so far before I began to lose interest - mainly because on line-searching was not readily available and I live nowhere near where my ancestors lived - so manual searches in Libraries and local archives were not much use. Then I had contact from my 1st cousin - who I had not had contact with for over 30 years - he was interested in starting a family history search. We agreed to combine our efforts and search jointly - sharing the costs and also sharing everything we find. This has worked very well for us and we have been astounded at some of the family history we have uncovered. We have worked on the basis that we would prefer to find out about our ancestors personalities and the way they lived rather than just collect names to see how far back we can get. We do sometimes stray into some distant branches of our tree - but mainly to help get some info on the main branches. This has produced great results for us many times - and has led us to contact 2 x 2nd cousins in the US who are also heavily into genealogy.

One of the biggest benefits for me is that my cousin has now become a close friend rather than just a childhood memory.

In regards to if I will ever be at the end of my searches - I think we all know the answer to that one - you may find some brick walls that you think are unbreakable - but you always keep trying anyway. Many times we have thought that we have just found the final piece in the jigsaw of an individual - when suddenly something new pops up and you keep that one open.

I am sure that eveyone using this superb Forum would agree that once you get hooked on genealogy it goes way beyond being a hobby and becomes a way of life.

Enough of me rabbiting on.

Best regards

Ted

Post by **Tracey** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 9:03 pm

Ted sums it up for me.
I now stick with the "trusted" researchers of my family tree and we work together and debate and prove our findings. My tree was on rootsweb but found a few other trees being "padded out" (even with gedcom disabled)with my info which as far as they knew could all have been made up as they didnt bother to contact me about it and i can honestly say the first time i put it on some of it was wrong so if others keep copying what was originally placed on it there is going to be a lot of very wrong information floating about. One bloke in England has gone from a few hundred names to over 3000 in a few months - i know how he has done that and and he knows absolutely nothing and if anyone contacted him couldnt prove zilch ! and no doubt there are others like him who will carry on adding other peoples info without verifying it just to make there tree look impressive.
I now keep my tree off rootsweb and my contacts havnt suffered from it - people still find me - and also only give relevant info to anyone that contacts me via genesre and NEVER allow them to view my tree unless they can prove a genuine link and back it up.

I am far to precious about it i know but have got to the stage where i am not about to just hand over info to anyone

tishgibbons · Post by **tishgibbons** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 9:35 pm

Tracey et al,

I know what you mean. I found a tree, on IGI I think it was, and it looked like they were connected to some of my Mitchells from Crathie - it had a link to some Australian families and I really thought I was getting somewhere as I am missing a Helen Mitchell reputed to have gone to Australia . Then they mentioned Adolf Hitler in the same tree and I just thought, I'm not going there, even if she was Hitler's mother I don't want to know! So like everyone else I now stick to good quality research friends and try to pad out the lives of those I know to be connected. I have never found a living Scottish relative as my g.g.grandfather came to Ireland in Scotland in the 1870s and seems to have broken all contact with his family in Scotland. I'm as interested in findign out the reason for that as I am in locating spurious relatives!

AS to the 'Ireland' situation, yes it is desperate. All my other ancestors were Irish though I have had some luck in tracing them as some branches never strayed more than 40 miles from home over 100 years! Still some gaps with the Wright family whose names sound very English and I'm not very hopeful of tracing them any further back than late 19th century as a result.

so, like most other people, I'll never be finished!

Tish

Post by **Tracey** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 9:47 pm

Trish

I can only thank my Irish/Scots gt grandfather for marrying and dying (very young) in Scotland so at least i know his parents names - thats it so far for my Irish kin

StewL · Post by **StewL** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 3:43 am

I dont know if I will ever be able to say that I have finished, probably wont in reality.

So far I seem to be back as far as I can using online sources, but then again I may be wrong there too.

But for the present I am trying to "pad out" the rellies/siblings of my direct line, and that seems a chore in itself.

I intend try to obtain as many certs (BMD's) as I can for those long losts, and currently seem to be concentrating on one line (Lauries) with the odd digression to the Stewart side. I have found that when I first started this caper I was jumping all around, but that may be excused due to marriages within the two main lines. Eventually I hope I can then go into the other lines and get more information on them.

This will probably sound ridiculous to all you out there

, but for some unknown reason, I avoided censuses like the plague, perhaps due to a run of wrong people when I first started. But hopefully I am a bit more confident and will try a bit harder on this area.

Oh and I have gotten wiser in using my credits, I hate to think of the number I wasted when I first started this game a couple of years ago.

Post by **joette** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:28 am

Originally I started to look for my Four Generations.The LDS church had asked all members to trace back four generations-just the Grandparents & I did this fairly quickly even back in the pre-online days.
I was very fortunate in that I had original BMD,Marriage Proclimations,letters,photos etc & that my Aunt & Mum had did research at St Andrews House.
Then I just wanted to go back further,learn more about how these people lived & most of all to find the birth of my Mum's paternal Granny.We searched for over thirty years & it was some very kind person on TS who sent her Birth Details within three days of me posting.So from that we were able to find her on the 1871 Census the only time she is documented as living with her Mother & by this time she is now Maggie Leitch(Kerr on her Birth.)
Now I am thrilled to find living rellies.Sometimes they fill in gaps in my knowledge & sometimes I do for them.I love the thrill I get when I make a new discovery.I am still looking for a really scandalous relllie but so far as far as I have been able to discover they were all a pretty good-living lot.
Now I have come up against the Irish connection in both sides which was a suprise! I will delve when I feel the time is right & I am planning to never give up the search as new records are found ,become aviable we are always adding to our knowlege.

Mykayla's Gran · Post by **Mykayla's Gran** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 2:49 am

Hi All

Joette, when I read your post it reminded me of when I first started researching my family just a few years ago. Back then I probably wouldn’t have minded a little bit of scandal, the odd surprise which I thought would bring the past to life a wee bit and make my ancestors more “real”. However, I actually found some real trauma

(serves me right), which I realised must have caused a fair bit of grief and heartache. So, my views have changed a lot in that respect - but I’ll leave the heavy stuff here for now.

On a slightly lighter note, I’ve found a wee bit of “scandal” in all four of my grandparents’ lines. (And I thought I came from a fairly conservative lot too.) In the line of my paternal grandmother, who died some 10 years or so before I was born, I had a really difficult job finding any information on her father’s origins, but in the end it transpired that he was illegitimate and had been registered (OPR) under a different name to what I expected

. Crivvens! Help ma Boab! Goodness gracious! – I hear you say! But, strangely, and I'm more surprised at my own reaction than anything else, it does come as a wee bit of a shock and has taken me a little time getting used to it. (The cover-up rather than the illegitimacy I think!)

My dad was the youngest in his family and his mother died when he was a teenager so he no doubt lost out a bit with regard to his family history. As a parent himself, he rarely spoke of his mother – probably because her death hit him very hard; and I for one wouldn’t have wanted to cause him more pain by asking too many questions. Anyway, his grandfather was not WILLIAM CRAIG, as we had always thought, although he went by that surname all his life (as did all of his children). William’s father’s name was actually ALEXANDER AITKEN, and his mother, MAGDALENE LAMOND. It appears that his mother gave birth to him AFTER the death of her husband, PETER CRAIG (although I haven’t yet found a death for Peter to prove that).

On the 1861 census in Alyth, Perthshire, my great grandfather’s name was given as William Aitken (aged 6), with his mother Magdalene Craig (Blacksmith’s widow), and two (half) brothers Alexander Craig (11) and James Craig (9). Also, although William took Peter Craig’s surname, he used the name “JAMES Craig” as that of his father on most of the records I’ve found. He made one mistake, which gave me the vital clue – on his second marriage record, which I think is termed “irregular” and took place in Glasgow, even though he and his second wife both had addresses in Dundee, he stated that his father was CHARLES Craig. He had been so consistent until then that I had no reason to doubt him. So, another brick wall has slowly crumbled after many months of chipping away, although it presents even more questions for me now – none of which I can hope to find answers to! I don’t know the story of what relationship (if any) was between Alexander Aitken and Magdalene Craig which produced my great grandfather, and as yet I don’t yet feel any attachment to Alexander – not enough to take my research on him further, as yet. However, curiosity will no doubt get the better of me ……..

Well folks, I just thought I’d share my wee bit of news. I don't think my wall bashing will ever end! Wishing you all success in yours!

Kind regards.

Vee

carolwalden · Post by **carolwalden** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 6:41 pm

HI All, i am one of those with the millions of names in my tree

I started this fascinating hobby about 5 years ago and to be honest didnt get very far.

I then thought i would just look up a few of the wives families and see what i came up with, i soon hit brick walls.

Then i was asked if i could look into my nephews family and things started to run away with themselves.

I added a large number of people including any notes i found.
All very interesting but not MY family as such.

Now i am on the trail of my elusive Scottish family again, hoping to get somewhere this time.
I have many stories from my Grandmother but no dates and in most cases no places.

The intention when i started was to make a record that my son can keep and show to his grandchildren one day, now its almost become a full time hobby

I dont think anyone will ever be finished, the family lines will always need updating.

Carol