Friday 5 June 2015

Five on Friday (on Saturday!)

Hello my lovelies,  thank you for popping in.  Thank you especially if you left a comment on my last post - particularly you, Bronwyn.  You set me athinking and today's post is a response to your comment.  I am also joining in with Amy at Love Made My Home so a special welcome if you have popped in via her blog.
 
When I began researching my family history The Teacher was at primary school and The Mathematician was at nursery four mornings a week.  I had two jobs and worked three mornings, four evenings and one night a week and the Best Beloved was a full-time student, so I really didn't have much of the elusive "spare time".  However, the point about family history is that you can take it as fast or as slowly as you need to, it won't change while it waits for you, and that the amount of it that there is to be found will expand to fill the time that you have and beyond.  So if you are thinking about it, here are five tips to set you on your way:
 
1.  Talk to your elderly relatives
I was 35 years old when I began my research and many people told me that I was "about twenty-five years too young" and that I should wait until I retired.  They were wrong: my grandmother was still alive and able to tell me lots of things about her family, and I wrote them down.  A year later she had the first in a series of small strokes which would soon take away her memory and five years later, she died.  Had I left my research much later, I would not have had all those valuable clues.  So talk to your oldies, and write down what they tell you - I have dedicated research notebooks.  Ask them who the people are in those old black and white photos - my mother-in-law threw away several Edwardian photos after her mother died because she didn't know who was in them.  My lovely Aunt Anne sent me several pages of typed information including things which her grandmother, born in 1871, had told her and these clues have been invaluable.  No snippet of information should be left unrecorded.

 
 
2.  Do not believe everything your elderly relatives tell you!
You should regard this oral information as clues, signposts if you like, but nothing is factual until you have the documentary evidence.  My grandmother told me that her middle name was May because her mother's middle name was May, but when I eventually got hold of a copy of her mother's birth certificate it showed that her mother's middle name was definitely Mary. My aunt told me that she had been told that her grandmother's brothers attended Westminster School and sang in the choir at Westminster Abbey.  This turned out not to be true, but ten years later I discovered the existence of Westminster Abbey Choir School, a different establishment, and contacted them.  It turns out that it wasn't her grandmother's brothers but her grandmother's uncles, a generation back, who had sung in the Abbey Choir, and I now have copies of the documents which prove it. 

 
 
3.  Always allow for human error
I was watching a tv programme a few months ago and a woman said that tracing her family tree was her hobby.  The presenter asked her if she goes to record offices and looks up old documents and she replied that the modern way to do it was to use internet sites to link up with other people to whom you are related and to share information to build your tree.  I was horrified.  Really.  The problem with that is that people make mistakes.  I have been the grateful beneficiary of other people's work but I never rely on a transcription.  I use it as a signpost to an original document - or a facsimile of an original document - but I always check out other people's information.  Similarly, people sometimes make assumptions and present them as facts: when I began, I spent a long time researching one hundred years' worth of genealogy which took me into Cornwall.  Now, I love Cornwall and was thrilled that it was the land of my fathers, but sadly, it turned out not to be the case because my starting point, a copy birth certificate I was given, was incorrect: right name, born in the right year, but wrong person, and a comparison with other contemporary documents (census returns) would have borne this out before I got so far.  I cannot overemphasise how important it is to check the documentation.   

 
 
4.  Use the internet and think outside the box
This hobby can become very expensive, but you can find free information: look at the success I had here with a straightforward Google search, and I always look up the towns and villages my ancestors lived in because it sets the scene.  Sometimes you strike gold and discover that somebody has transcribed the parish registers and uploaded them - but be wary and remember Tip Number 3, above!  I have an ancestor who moved his family from London to Limerick in the 1870s and I just couldn't work out how or why.  A letter suggested that he worked for the Army Clothing Company but my search for information about this company proved fruitless, so in the end I sent an email to the Limerick City Museum asking for help and I received a response the following day suggesting that he probably worked for Tait & Co. who had factories in London and Limerick and manufactured army uniforms.  I LOVE free information.    

 
 
5.  Keep paper records
Now then, I know that this is a bit controversial in this modern age, but I keep paper records because technology can fail (how many of us have had laptops which have "died"?) or become obsolete so that your work become inaccessible.  When I visited the Bodleian Library in Oxford a guide told us that some years ago there had been a project to digitise the contents of the library.  The books, some of them very old, had been copied and stored on...floppy disks, yes, the big old ones which really are floppy!  They are now completely useless because nobody has the equipment to read them.  So, I learned my lesson and now keep paper copies in lever arch folders.  I have a lever arch folder for my father's family, another for my mother's family and a smaller folder for one particular branch of my mother's family which I am researching in a broader context.  If the computer catches a virus or an elephant tramples it to death, my information is safe (and if the house were to catch fire I would scoop up my three folders along with my photo albums). 

 
 
So there you are, five tips for family historians.  I promise there will be no more family history here until July (it's so difficult to contain myself!).  If you want to see who else is joining Five on Friday do pop over and have a look here.
 
Love, Mrs Tiggywinkle x
 
 
 
 


21 comments:

  1. Great points on this family history study,Mrs. T. I helped my mother write her memoirs, and it was so delightful to write down her thoughts. I'm not into the intense study of family history, but we have friends who spend endless hours tracking down family.

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    1. It becomes a very absorbing pursuit, Linda, if not completely addictive! x

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  2. Five things that should be adhered to - you are so right in all of them. On the internet I have two bug bears - someone has stolen a lot of my information and photos and attached it to their tree I wouldn't mind if they were correct but the link they have made with their family and mine is tenuous and hasn't yet been proved in fact some record office research I did seems to discount it. The other thing is transcriptions. My father Harry is on a data base website as Harvey and I can't get the person to change it even though I am Harry's daughter and have all his certificates to prove he is Harry. so frustrating. I started researching in the late 1980s when you were still allowed to look at the actual registers. It is so much easier now but so open to error. I've enjoyed reading all your points and agree with them entirely:)

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    1. Thank you Rosie. I agree, it is enormously frustrating when transcriptions are wrong, and I think it's incredibly rude when people "steal" the information you have worked hard to find. I discovered that a professional researcher had used my write-up on her blog - I was furious. Hope you had a good weekend. x

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  3. This was a fascinating post! I have been doing family research for many years and find all your warnings, caveats and advice to be absolutely true! My Mom actually got us started on this path and she has done much more than I. I also read Rosie's comment and will agree to so much she says as well. Documentation is absolute KEY to all of it, and so many times one cannot find the necessary documentation and that can be frustrating! But I have run into similar situations to yours: 1) My husbands Mother did not have a birth certificate so we sent off for one. First we came upon evidence that her parents had filled out (she was born at home) the paperwork that was never filed, with a different name. Originally she was to be named Lena Mae (Mae was her Mother's name). But then they changed their minds, and registered her birth as Mary Lucinda (Mary & Lucinda are her two grandmother's names) Later because she hated the name Lucinda, she started calling herself Mary Lewellyn. We had her name legally changed, late in her life, to Mary Lewellyn. Her oldest daughter (my husband's older sister) knew about the Mary Lucinda thing...but was shocked to learn about the Lena Mae thing! :-) 2) When I found (through Ancestry.com) relatives of Mae, my husband's grandmother, they thought her name had been Mary and had documented it as Mary in things they had entered onto Ancestry. I said, no, I have the family Bible and the words of her own daughter that her name was Mae (plus other things like census records) and they were so reluctant at first to believe me! So, it can be a challenge and an interesting, sometimes delightful, journey, that's for sure! But, you do have to be so careful! My first time to visit...enjoyed your post! Have a great weekend!

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    1. Hello Marie - lovely to meet you, you are very welcome here. That is interesting, I have never come across a girl name Lewellyn before so that is going to cause some confusion further down the line! My daughter's middle name is Mary after her two grandmothers. And ISN'T it frustrating when sloppy researchers won't accept your own, conscientious work? x

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  4. What a great post, it is something my husband is seriously thinking of looking into his family history so will be invaluable information for him. Congratulations on winning the give away email me your address so that I can post out your little parcel. mamasmercantile1@gmail.com

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    1. Thank you! I am SO excited and have emailed you. xx

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  5. Such wonderful tips!! I love studying family history and old photos too! I've been fortunate to have several aunts and uncles from both sides of my family do a lot of the work already - so I have the info that I do.
    Such a meaningful and worthwhile hobby. And it's why i love scrapbooking too.
    Happy weekend to you!
    xoxo

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    1. Oh yes Carrie, the photos! I love the photos, they make the stories come to life, don't they? I have never done scrapbooking but can totally see the appeal. x

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  6. I'm completely addicted to family history. I have loads of folders full of photocopies and my notes. One of my winter projects - as I gain more time - will be to write up everything for my nieces. Jx

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    1. It won't be long now, Jan! Writing it all up is a great idea and it's something I have only begun to do recently, in a piecemeal fashion. It is a really helpful way of consolidating my research. Your nieces are very fortunate. x

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  7. Five really great tips!!!! I am not sure that I will ever look back into my family history, and I have already missed the boat with getting information from relatives, but if you do want to look back, your advice is invaluable!! I hope that you keep enjoying your project and that it brings great rewards to you!! Fascinating to read about it. Thank you so much for joining in. I hope that you have a great rest of your weekend! xx

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    1. Thank you Amy, and thank you for hosting. It's lovely to link up with other people in this way. x

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  8. These are five brilliant tips. I have been trying to get as much info as possible from our relatives but both my parents were the youngest of really large families and so grandparents etc were loss when I was ver young. I am so interested in doing this though. But just a little mention, my MIL is a Mary and my youngest is Mae for a middle name, she is named after her a Grandma because it's a derivative, it's quite a traditional pattern in my husband's family, one us Mary one is Mae. Hope you are having a lovely weekend xx

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    1. Thank you Lisa. I had never thought of Mae being Mary, that's interesting and I'll tuck it away for future reference. Write down every snippet you can get from your relatives, sometimes the tiniest thing puts the last piece of the puzzle in place. x

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  9. It's so interesting all this research. I've been having a look at my ancestors too and was delighted when I typed a name into google and up popped a newspaper article! Mind you at the other end some towns are full of people with the same names, which makes it all a bit tricky. Thanks for your kind words. x

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    1. Hi Karen, it's much more difficult with towns and common names - I can't get beyond 1894 with my husband's paternal grandfather, which is very frustrating. But if you can get to the root of it, I have found that most people moved into large towns from a small village somewhere. The censuses are invaluable for that. Good luck.x

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  10. That is so interesting I think it could be a hobby that could consume you once you got into it. Sadly I have left it too late and didn't do what you suggested about getting information from my elderly relatives they have all died many years ago. One thing that did fascinate me quite recently was talking to an elderly Aunt who told me where my maternal grandmothers family came from, it sent a shiver up my spine because every time I had visited that town I felt an affinity for it, it always seemed very familiar and comfortable as if I had come home, spooky. Have a great Sunday. :) x

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    1. I know that feeling, Linda, it's extraordinary, isn't it? It's never too late if you want to start - begin with a birth certificate, which will give the mother's maiden name, go back and find the marriage and take it from there. x

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  11. Hi Mrs T, what good advice you've given here! I've enjoyed reading this post and the one before about your family history. I have done a little research into my own family and it's addictive isn't it! Thanks for your visit and lovely comment on my blog :-) xx

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