- Mark Twain.
Families are funny things and family history, the desire to know one's ancestors, even more so. Those that do it, love it with a passion and those that don't, think that watching paint dry would be more exciting.
Me?
I kind of fall in the middle.
I've been doing my own family tree for quite a few years now. A school project that got just a little of out of hand (understatement of the year). My history teacher would be so proud or perhaps horrified that it's taken me this long to do an assignment.
My family background is pretty typical. English, Irish and Scottish. There are Yorkshire men and Cornish men and a few others in between. Their generally a hard working lot with miners and cloth merchants and sailors and soldiers making up most of the mix.
Sadly there are no murderers or runaway lovers or an unclaimed castle (or two) waiting for it's rightful owner which has been just a little disappointing. I long for an exciting ancestor. Someone like Rob Roy or Dick Turpin; alas my fore-bearers are a pretty tame lot, still I live in hope.
Maybe one day I'll find out that Great-Great Auntie Loveday (and yes I really do have an ancestor with that name) was the secret mistress of a king or even a lord or that perhaps she was hung for killing said lover.
Until then I have to make do with the ancestors I've got and though they may not be exciting they are still interesting to me.
Explore your family's past
At 356 pages this is a great book that is suitable both for the beginner and the more experienced family historian.
As would be expected from a Reader's Digest publication it has a mainly UK focus but it still manages to cover a variety of subjects, from parish records to refugees to armed forces to wills, a wide range of avenues for research are looked at.
How to tr
Another Reader's Digest publication, this time with a focus on tracing your family tree using the vast world of the Internet.
Laid out in a clear easy manner this book even includes screen shots of the web pages to help you navigate your way around.
Family history : digging deeper by Simon Fowler.
This is not a book for the beginner. Instead this a book for those who have already done quite a bit of work in putting together their family tree.
If, like me, you have come stuck and are now facing a brick wall (or in my case an entire fortress - my family never does things by halves) then this book may be able to offer you some solutions for getting around it.
Personally I think a stick of dynamite would work well.
The family tree problem solver : tried-and-true tactics for tracing elusive ancestors
by Marsha Hoffman Rising
As I mention above I'm facing a fortress instead of just a brick wall which of course means that it's going to take more than just one book to help me solve it.
Though this book uses American examples it's still useful in showing you ways to overcome obstacles in your hunt for that missing ancestor.
Another book designed to help overcome those pesky brick walls that all genealogists come across when undertaking the search for family members.
American examples again but the chapters were easily read and laid out and the book covers a range of avenues including DNA research and a book list of other books that may prove helpful.
Tracing you family history can be fairly easy to do - until you go past 1837, a time before census records and births, deaths and marriages were officially recorded.
This book helps you to locate the many places where 'unofficial' information was recorded, from parish records to manorial land records, a variety of sources are looked at.
DNA and social networking : a guide to genealogy in the twenty-first century 
by Debbie Kennett.
The world of genealogy is changing. No longer do we have to just rely on methods of emails and letters and websites. With the advent of Facebook and Twitter and other online social outlets there are now even more ways to make contact with others and find the help you need to trace that elusive ancestor.
DNA testing is also beginning to take off, proving to many people that their ancestors didn't always come from the places they thought they did.
Personally I can hardly wait to have my DNA sample taken and analysed.
1 comment:
One of my ancestors is actually Rob Roy McGregor, and yes it is pretty cool, but I only know that due to other people's in-depth genealogy research. And it took them a fairly long time to find this information. You may well come across something similar yourself, best of luck with it! :)
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