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How I got started

T

Thomas

LostCousins Superstar
Unlike most genealogists, I'm in my early 30s - although judging from the number of times I've heard people mention breaking down a brick wall that they've had for decades, I assume that a good number must've got started around my age or even younger!

About four or five years ago, I was going through a particularly bad period of depression, and as a way to help get me out of it a friend suggested that I should take out a free trial of Ancestry and see how far I could get within the two weeks. The answer to that was apparently "just enough to get me hooked on it"!

So far my tree is just over 4000 people, including 233 of my direct ancestors going back up to 11 generations on some lines. By a complete coincidence, I found myself living in almost the perfect location to do my research - one part of the family is from about 50 miles in one direction, another part about 70 miles in another direction, and the rest about 80 miles in a third direction - so I couldn't be much better placed if I tried, even though I had absolutely no idea about my family history when I moved here, having grown up in another part of the country entirely!
 
Welcome to the forum - it's not often a new member joins and immediately achieves Star status.

The great thing about being a generation (or two) younger than many of us is that you'll have many more lines to research and many more relatives on the censuses that we use at LostCousins. And more 'lost cousins' to find and collaborate with, which is just as well with all those lines to research.
Thomas said:
a friend suggested that I should take out a free trial of Ancestry and see how far I could get within the two weeks
Click to expand...
What a perspicacious friend!
 
Thanks Peter! :)

I have a good database of all my research, and I keep copies of the images of all of the census records I reference, so it was fairly simple to go through all of those, look up the reference numbers and add them to LostCousins. It was only a couple of hours' work to add all of my known ancestors up to that point.

Somehow it has taken me this long to find out how to actually cite a census record.. until now I worked on the assumption that keeping a copy of the image was enough - which I suppose it is, but now I understand how the references work and I've been adding them to my database as well.

I suppose my next goal is to reach Superstar status - hopefully that won't take too long!
 
Thomas said:
keeping a copy of the image was enough - which I suppose it is
Click to expand...
It would be if all the references were shown (and clearly legible), but folio numbers are only given on every other page, and in 1911 the piece number doesn't appear anywhere in the image. There's also a tendency for researchers who don't appreciate the importance of the piece number to cut it out of the image, and when this happens it may not be obvious which census it is, let alone which piece number.
 
Being retired, I don't come in the young category however I have come across at least two young ones who have helped out with different branches of the family.
I think there are quite a few who would be interested with a bit of encouragement! I was 8 when we went on a family holiday to Bury St Edmunds to look up my mum's grand mother's Tollady family. I remember poking about in a dusty archive, looking for the name, not the least bored, (I was an odd child). Social and economic history always interested me and I remember questioning my mother about the age of various houses and asking if 'they wore long skirts when those were built'. She was probably fed up with me and my questions! Later on, when I discovered census information (about 1994, having been busy with other things) I was in my element and mum was a great source of help and showed a great interest, remembering the names of distant relatives. Many of these I would find and tell her about them. Unfortunately she is no longer with us so I have to bore my children and anyone else daft enough to listen!
 
I grew up with just my immediate family, without any cousins, and only one aunt and grandmother. I was always wistful when friends told me that they spent the weekend with their cousins etc. so that fuelled my curious nature, wondering if I had cousins somewhere.

My maternal Grandmother (born 1918) was raised by her paternal Grandmother. When she asked about her mother, she was told her mother was dead, and was forbidden to ask ever again.

Fast forward to 1988 and I accompanied my Mother and Grandmother to the UK for a family visit. It was on this trip that my Grandmother discovered that her mother did not die in 1920, but instead had run off, abandoning her 18 month old daughter and four year old son, taking all the household furniture with her! My Grandmother also discovered that she had a half sister and brother some where, and as her older brother had died when he was 10, she was keen to find them. In those days we advertised in local newspapers, and a couple of people came forward with valuable snippets here and there.

When the internet became a thing I assisted my Gram by searching whatever resources were available. Sadly my Grandmother died in 2008 without finding her siblings but I felt I need to keep going. Along the way we had found a woman searching for her birth mother who was my Gram’s sister. I kept up the search and eventually located my cousin’s mother and they were happily reunited after 60 years and she met her two half sisters as well.

When my Mother was 70, she discovered that she was partially adopted, so I started researching, gathering circumstantial evidence about dates, locations etc. I asked older family members but they could not provide more details. Finally after years of careful research and my Aunt, Mother and me taking a DNA test I was able to track down someone who I thought might be a descendant of the man I had in mind. I also had a ‘gut’ feeling that he might be ‘the one’. The descendant kindly agreed to do a DNA test and I was correct, he was my Mother’s nephew and my half first cousin!

These days I am on the trail of my ‘natural born’ 3rd Great Grandfather’s sire and with the help of other researchers have identified a family. It’s amazing to think that we could get that far 150 years after the fact!

The more family closets I open the more skeletons pop out, and I wouldn’t have it any other way!
 
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