[Misc] Anyone done a history of their family investigation?

Cpt. Spavil · Jul 1, 2020

My late uncle did lots of family research and found lots of this.

I have his old hardrives on usb and I go though it time to time.

My family claim to fame is that my great grandad invented the chocolate orange and chocolate apple.

Before the company was sold off to Terrys and they rebranded it.

Perfidious Albion · Jul 1, 2020

AlbionBro said:
Please forgive me for asking, do you do this through the internet? if so, Is it easy for someone who is older who lacks internet experience?

Mostly internet but it is not difficult. Sites like Ancestry give a lot of help and The Mormons site , Familysearch.com is free.The most help for me came from the local family history group, used to be at The Keep, near the Amex for East Sussex.

I tracked my paternal history back to the late 1700s . My mother’s went cold in the early 1800s . I found I come from a long line of agricultural labourers and manual workers . No scandal, just a lot of illegitimacy.....

sydney · Jul 1, 2020

Bevendean Hillbilly said:
Those demographic maps are interesting and, as I say, I’m not OK with Israel hoofing the Palestinians out. I also get that Zionism is not Judaism but...and this is a big but...what else are the Jews going to do?

Their democracy and need to defend their people has been hard won. As has been pointed out the Jews have been persecuted and murdered all over the world. The British guaranteed the Jews Israel with the Balfour declaration (Palestine being a British protectorate) and, frankly, no one else wanted them after WW2.

It’s a little known fact that Palestinians are happy to sell their land to Jews but (because it is likely to upset other Muslims) they will then tell everyone that their land was “stolen” by the Israelis. It’s a complex set of politics in Palestine but, I would rather have a pro western Democracy in the region than not. They’ve had to fight for their lives to keep that bit of desert. Let them have it.

another unfixable situation

cloud · Jul 1, 2020

Gwylan said:
One mystery that's not been solved is where I can get my complexion from. I'm dark enough to have been mistaken for Pakistani and Turkish in the past but I'm British for at least four generations on my mother's side and at least seven on my dad's. I'd like to get to the bottom of that

There are a lot of Italians living in Wales, plus potentially african slaves in 1600s-1800s.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wales/entries/fdcff8e1-66dc-34e2-b279-a6e7280958cc

cloud · Jul 1, 2020

Perfidious Albion said:
I found I come from a long line of agricultural labourers and manual workers . No scandal, just a lot of illegitimacy.....

The working classes often didn't get married because of the expense. Also, christenings were costly so they would sometimes wait a few years until several children could be done at once. Or until there was a plague and they needed christening quickly.

Gwylan · Jul 1, 2020

Perfidious Albion said:
Mostly internet but it is not difficult.

I think this depends what your name is. If your grandfather was John Smith who married a Mary Brown, it may prove tricky but if he was Murgotroyd Bollockchops married to a Petronella Spindleshanks, it would be a lot easier.

cloud said:
There are a lot of Italians living in Wales, plus potentially african slaves in 1600s-1800s.

There are but they came in the later 19th and early 20th (and after the war), I've traced my mother's side back to the 1870s and there's nothing Italian there.

NooBHA · Jul 1, 2020

AmexRuislip said:
Yes, my dad has traced our family line, right back to the 1600s on his mother's side and 1800s on his dads.
My mums side all originate from Croydon.
Interesting stuff

I find that all really interesting as well - I don't really care what any of them looked like or what they did for a living or how many went to jail but it was interesting for me to find out mine - My Dad's family Originates from French Huguenots in the 17th Century.

Was really ironic in that Huguenots were originally Protestants fleeing Persecution from Catholicism in France - However somewhere in between after fleeing France. Someone in his Ancestors must have converted to Catholicism in the intervening period ''The Lure of the Altar Wine '' must have been too great.

Cheshire Cat · Jul 1, 2020

https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/index.jsp

Might be useful for some on here :wink:

Worried Man Blues · Jul 1, 2020

If you are researching Sussex around the Weald area there is a great free site called er Theweald worth a look has lots of info and ready made trees, as it wood.

AmexRuislip · Jul 1, 2020

NooBHA said:
I find that all really interesting as well - I don't really care what any of them looked like or what they did for a living or how many went to jail but it was interesting for me to find out mine - My Dad's family Originates from French Huguenots in the 17th Century.

Was really ironic in that Huguenots were originally Protestants fleeing Persecution from Catholicism in France - However somewhere in between after fleeing France. Someone in his Ancestors must have converted to Catholicism in the intervening period ''The Lure of the Altar Wine '' must have been too great.

Oh how very regal of you :lol:

Seriously that sounds really interesting.
My dad's family come from Liverpool, Ireland and France, so a bit of a mixture there.
It's all very fascinating, as he has now got all the info on his dad's WW1 expolits in Galipolli and France, ending up as POW.

dejavuatbtn · Jul 1, 2020

Have used the lockdown researching my great grandfather. If you just look at the 1901 and 1911 censuses he was a boot riveter living in Chesham. If you look at the years between then he played 3 years for Chesham Generals, a year with Grays United, Two years at Brighton, a year at Stockport County, a year at Carlisle, a year at Exeter and then finishing at Watford in 1910 with his younger brother. So I got access to the British Newspaper Archives and have got match reports from just about every game he played in, and been in touch with the various club historians who have been great in finding info, like a Carlisle team pic that I didn’t have in the family archives. So much social history, FA politics, crowd issues and inter club rivalry going back over 100 years is just fascinating.

NooBHA · Jul 1, 2020

AmexRuislip said:
Oh how very regal of you
Seriously that sounds really interesting.
My dad's family come from Liverpool, Ireland and France, so a bit of a mixture there.
It's all very fascinating, as he has now got all the info on his dad's WW1 expolits in Galipolli and France, ending up as POW.

LOL

Can't see my family being Regal - I come from a Council Estate in Scotland

How did your Dad get his War Records ? - Galipolli always fascinated me historically because I never really understood it's strategic importance.

My Dad was always curious as to how to go about obtaining things like that but I told him, ''I don't think the IRA would have kept any War Records in the 1700s ''

I think what he is probably most curious about was when his family changed from Protestantism to Catholicism and they reason it might have happened. His family are originally from Donegal, so close to the border of Northern Ireland

AmexRuislip · Jul 1, 2020

NooBHA said:
LOL

Can't see my family being Regal - I come from a Council Estate in Scotland

How did your Dad get his War Records ? - Galipolli always fascinated me historically because I never really understood it's strategic importance.

My Dad was always curious as to how to go about obtaining things like that but I told him, ''I don't think the IRA would have kept any War Records in the 1700s ''

I think what he is probably most curious about was when his family changed from Protestantism to Catholicism and they reason it might have happened. His family are originally from Donegal, so close to the border of Northern Ireland

My grandad served with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.
My dad got his father's war records from the regiment museum in Northern Ireland and the National Archives at Kew.

Hiney · Jul 1, 2020

Got mine (on my Dad's side) back to the early 1700s

Some interesting characters in there, like Israel Hine - 13 children and a few times in prison.

bhafc99 · Jul 1, 2020

A great uncle of mine spent years researching the family history in his retirement. This was back in the 1980s and 1990s, before the Internet was used for this kind of thing.

So it was all paper. Boxes and files and boxes and files of it. He gathered an absolute forest of stuff, going back generations and generations, but didn’t really organise or sort it much. It’s all just there: a mountain of ancestral paperwork, clippings, photos, photocopies and more.

When he died, my Dad was the only descendent left in the family*, so he took it all and put it in a spare room.

And when my parents died in the last few years, my sister did the same.

So we still have all this stuff in the family, but no real time to do much with it. But then it’s inconceivable to throw it away, so it will probably continue to be shunted down the family for decades to come.

*The irony was that my great uncle’s generation was so nearly the end of the very tree that he so assiduously documented. He was one of six siblings, but out of that six, only one - my grandmother- ever had a child - my Dad. I often wonder how my great-grandparents must have felt: they raised six kids, but then ended up with just one grandchild!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Jackthelad · Jul 1, 2020

I did research a few years ago I had relative that was a sussex war hero rear gunner in the war and another who was in the Irish resistance in the Easter Rising both were shot in the head and both survived oddly. Got some posh French prods in my family as well the same lot Eddie Izzard is related to who moved to East London so I'm hoping I'm not related to Eddie Izzard need to do some more research though.

AmexRuislip · Jul 1, 2020

dejavuatbtn said:
Have used the lockdown researching my great grandfather. If you just look at the 1901 and 1911 censuses he was a boot riveter living in Chesham. If you look at the years between then he played 3 years for Chesham Generals, a year with Grays United, Two years at Brighton, a year at Stockport County, a year at Carlisle, a year at Exeter and then finishing at Watford in 1910 with his younger brother. So I got access to the British Newspaper Archives and have got match reports from just about every game he played in, and been in touch with the various club historians who have been great in finding info, like a Carlisle team pic that I didn’t have in the family archives. So much social history, FA politics, crowd issues and inter club rivalry going back over 100 years is just fascinating.

That is an interesting piece :thumbsup:

Cian · Jul 1, 2020

Gone as far as I can with currently available records - there's a census release in 2026 that could give a few bits of info working the way back down and maybe turn up some cousins. Not much of interest; one side were farmers/fishermen primarily until the 20th century and the other side is shopkeepers and conventional professions; a railway station master probably being the most interesting. Only two of note really:

One great grandfather was a quite senior non-combatant in the IRA in the 1910/20s (precursor to the actual Irish Army, hence a totally different organisation to that from the 40s->now). Finding stuff about him in military records is quite easy as he had a *very* Lancashire surname that wasn't the likeliest for someone of his political persuasion! Did battalion inspections of readiness and was a judge in the interim courts system.

A first cousin many times removed was the Bishop of Pittsburgh in the 20s to 50s. Nearly his entire family died in the Johnstown Flood, but he was away at college.

neilbard · Jul 1, 2020

Yep, all perverts.. :shrug:

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[Misc] Anyone done a history of their family investigation?

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