tonyh29 Posted May 20, 2013 Share Posted May 20, 2013 I don't even know the names of my Great Grand parents who were all dead before I was born My Dad's Nan did tell me that we that on her side they were German and Irish and that during WWI they changed the spelling of our surname to something more English sounding there was a vicar with my surname who patented the Corkscrew in 1795 ... I'd like to think we are related somewhere and that someone in my family did something worthwhile for humanity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted May 20, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted May 20, 2013 there was a vicar with my surname who patented the Corkscrew in 1795 ... I'd like to think we are related somewhere and that someone in my family did something worthwhile for humanity You don't even like wine !!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted May 20, 2013 Share Posted May 20, 2013 there was a vicar with my surname who patented the Corkscrew in 1795 ... I'd like to think we are related somewhere and that someone in my family did something worthwhile for humanity You don't even like wine !!!! back in the day it was used for cider and beer .. I suspect the French bastardized it somewhere along the way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddywhack Posted May 20, 2013 Share Posted May 20, 2013 All they found of him was his boots. He might still be alive I'll prepare the missing person posters Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted May 20, 2013 Share Posted May 20, 2013 One of my earliest ancestors (with my surname) was a priest from Scotland who fled to somewhere in Armagh and got hung or something or other. Hope it wasn't too dodgy. But it is Armagh. Strange folk out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baselayers Posted May 20, 2013 Share Posted May 20, 2013 You can find out loads without paying. Genes Reunited is (I think) still free, and you can get quite a bit of census stuff on the internet. Can't find anything for East Asian people. And searching by surname will do **** all, seeing that my surname is the most common one in the motherland. Screw you white people and your relatively unique surnames Relatively. Not easy if you're a Smith, Jones, Brown, Johnson, Williams, etc., etc. It's the Icelanders I feel sorry for. Yes I can imagine trying this with my surname would be a right pain in the buttocks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted May 21, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted May 21, 2013 All they found of him was his boots. He might still be alive He probably became an ad man in New York. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted May 21, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted May 21, 2013 You can find out loads without paying. Genes Reunited is (I think) still free, and you can get quite a bit of census stuff on the internet. Can't find anything for East Asian people. And searching by surname will do **** all, seeing that my surname is the most common one in the motherland. Screw you white people and your relatively unique surnames Relatively. Not easy if you're a Smith, Jones, Brown, Johnson, Williams, etc., etc. It's the Icelanders I feel sorry for. Yes I can imagine trying this with my surname would be a right pain in the buttocks! What's your dad's first name? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PussEKatt Posted May 21, 2013 Share Posted May 21, 2013 Apparently my lot go back to Lily Langtree. Explains why I am living in Australia does`ent it ?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted March 10, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted March 10, 2023 Bump. As mentioned in the pubs thread, I've just revived my family tree research, and it's absolutely fascinating. Finding stuff out about my Dad's (Irish) side of the family is somewhat more tricky, although there is a bit more info online than I had been led to believe. My Mom's side though, are Brummies going back at least 200 years (mate). Anybody else into this stuff? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mottaloo Posted March 10, 2023 Share Posted March 10, 2023 12 minutes ago, mjmooney said: Bump. As mentioned in the pubs thread, I've just revived my family tree research, and it's absolutely fascinating. Finding stuff out about my Dad's (Irish) side of the family is somewhat more tricky, although there is a bit more info online than I had been led to believe. My Mom's side though, are Brummies going back at least 200 years (mate). Anybody else into this stuff? Both my parents were Irish and I seem to recall similar difficulties tracing back further than say, mid 19th century.....gave up after that and I am sure it could get quite expensive depending on how determined you are Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddywhack Posted March 10, 2023 Share Posted March 10, 2023 On 20/05/2013 at 11:08, Paddywhack said: My cousin researched our family tree a few years back. It turns out my great, great, great, great, great grandfather lived in Jiggins Lane in Bartley Green; about a 2 minute drive from where I live. Well traveled, my family. He also burned to death in a brick kiln in Weoley Castle. All they found of him was his boots. I think I added two too many 'greats', 10 years ago. It's difficult to read, but they mistook him for somebody else in the newspaper article. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rds1983 Posted March 10, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted March 10, 2023 Apparently at some point on my Mum's side the family is Scottish and my Dad's, Dad is from Portsmouth. That's disappointing enough for me to not want to risk knowing anymore. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wainy316 Posted March 10, 2023 Share Posted March 10, 2023 What's the best way to go about tracing all this sort of stuff? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theboyangel Posted March 10, 2023 Share Posted March 10, 2023 I do find it intriguing but I could only realistically research my mothers father’s lineage with any possible degree of success as he was my only UK born ancestor. My mom’s mother is from Germany having come to the Uk with my grandad after the Second World War. She’s still around (94yrs and in better shape than my dementia suffering mom )but has never really opened up about life in Germany. My father’s parents eloped together from Cyprus (and made up our family surname on arrival in the Uk) in the 1940s and were both from villages which are in the occupied north of the country. The whole thing is very ‘murky’ with no one really knowing what went on, although we do know my grandfathers previous family. I imagine there will be no records at all in existence covering their hereditary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaJ100 Posted March 10, 2023 Share Posted March 10, 2023 (edited) I can trace mine back to Charlemagne. I'm his 32 x great grandson. Edit - Pretty much everyone of western European origin is probably descended from him, but it's nice to see/prove it Edited March 10, 2023 by VillaJ100 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted March 10, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted March 10, 2023 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted March 10, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted March 10, 2023 4 hours ago, Wainy316 said: What's the best way to go about tracing all this sort of stuff? There are several websites/apps that let you build family trees, research public records, etc. - Ancestry.co.uk, MyHeritage.com, FindMyPast.co.uk are probably the 'big three', but there are others. They all seem to have a free version that lets you create a tree and have some limited access to records (census, etc.) - but as you might guess, if you want to start digging deeper you have to pay. Annoyingly, they all seem to have access to slightly different datasets, so there is no obvious brand leader. I'd started a tree on the free version of MyHeritage a few years ago, so I went back to that, and decided to upgrade to the paid version. However, they only have the UK census records up to 1911. The latest available one (1921) is only on FindMyPast, so I've had to go on there and buy odd records at £2.50 a throw. Ideally, if you know someone who's on a different site to you, you can swap info (I'm planning to look into this with my wife's mate who's into genealogy). Tell you what though, it quickly becomes the ultimate 'down the rabbit hole'. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted March 10, 2023 Moderator Share Posted March 10, 2023 1 minute ago, mjmooney said: 4 hours ago, Wainy316 said: What's the best way to go about tracing all this sort of stuff? There are several websites/apps that let you build family trees, research public records, etc. - Ancestry.co.uk, MyHeritage.com, FindMyPast.co.uk are probably the 'big three', but there are others. They all seem to have a free version that lets you create a tree and have some limited access to records (census, etc.) - but as you might guess, if you want to start digging deeper you have to pay. Annoyingly, they all seem to have access to slightly different datasets, so there is no obvious brand leader. I'd started a tree on the free version of MyHeritage a few years ago, so I went back to that, and decided to upgrade to the paid version. However, they only have the UK census records up to 1911. The latest available one (1921) is only on FindMyPast, so I've had to go on there and buy odd records at £2.50 a throw. Ideally, if you know someone who's on a different site to you, you can swap info (I'm planning to look into this with my wife's mate who's into genealogy). Tell you what though, it quickly becomes the ultimate 'down the rabbit hole'. The best way to start off though is honestly to talk to older family members and extract as much as you can from them. Once they're gone they bring an awful lot of knowledge with them that's gone forever. Building a tree is one thing, but that's just names. Knowing the stories of the names on that tree is much more interesting and gives those names a personality and a context. Then once you've gone back beyond what's accessible to your living relatives you've got what Mike says above. After that, genealogy can be a lot of legwork. If it's not available online, you're going to libraries scouring microfilms. If it's not there then you might be visiting parishes that keep their records local. Genealogy is as time consuming as you want it to be, which could be 'extremely'. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted March 10, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted March 10, 2023 1 hour ago, BOF said: The best way to start off though is honestly to talk to older family members and extract as much as you can from them. Once they're gone they bring an awful lot of knowledge with them that's gone forever. Building a tree is one thing, but that's just names. Knowing the stories of the names on that tree is much more interesting and gives those names a personality and a context. Absolutely this. Unfortunately, most of us tend to have little interest in that stuff when we're young (I certainly didn't), and we only start wishing we'd asked, after the old folks are gone. All I've got to go on are half-remembered family anecdotes. But at least the online research can then do a certain amount of confirmation (or refutation). I am finding it very addictive. And sure enough, my (millennial) kids are currently not particularly interested in what I'm finding, but at least it will all be there for them when they come round to it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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