Family trees and relations

[Diflower]

I know some of you have done a fair bit of work on these.
It never bothered me, I knew who all of my mum's family was, all their children's names, etc., and she always kept me up with what was happening with them all.
But of course once she died - and sadly all but two of her 7 siblings had died by then too - those links were gone, the next generation for the most part is not so in touch.
Over here it's been better, a lot of us cousins have been in contact all along, but two of the sisters married Canadians during the war and emigrated, and their families (one especially) seem to have been more fragmented. Once Mum died I had no idea what was going on with any of those cousins/second cousins at all.

A cousin here has over the years put a lot of work into the family tree, and tbh I'd thought it more to do with ancestors, which I'm just not interested in. We don't have anyone rich or famous, they were all just 'poor people' lol, and 100% English - very boring!

Now though, he's been putting together a whole 'Family album' going right back to the early 1900s but including Mum, her brothers and sisters - and me and my cousins/second cousins too. He's put it on facebook, access only by invitation - and some of those Canadian relations have begun to join in (he has been in contact but from what they're saying now, nothing much had been said about the family before).
So at last, I do see the point of all that work - still not the usual going back 100s of years job, but the plain old family tree, with everyone on it.
That's something I used to do as a child, because Mum came from such a big family, and she was the youngest so the names of relationships intrigued me (all those second cousins etc). I used to ask her a lot, we'd go over who was who, married to who, names of their children and their relationship to me etc. So I guess I was so used to having it all in my head I took it rather for granted - and I've no idea what happened to any of those Canadian cousins after 1997!
Now I'm going to be gradually trying to piece it together

[miasmum]

Di, I completely understand what you mean. I did my family tree, for no reason than I wanted to find out more about my dad's mum. She died when my dad was 14 but I always knew he loved her so much. I found out all about her, her mum and dad (she is buried with them and my dad is buried with them too now) All her brothers and sisters and I met up with a couple of their relations. I now have a photo of her with my dad when he was 3 and that means the world.

Like you I have no interest in going back hundreds of years

[Kaz]

My friend did a family tree for me when my parents died I find it all fascinating - I knew most of the stuff going back to grandparents, as I have always been interested in family history. My nan's Aunt Ethel was still alive when I was a little girl and I loved all of her stories of being in service in Edwardian times - she became a scullery maid in 1905 aged 12 and eventually became the housekeeper, who married the game keeper

Some of the stuff my friend discovered was news to me though, including just how much Irish we had in the family, both Northern and Southern Ireland, and the fact that my great grandfather was the caretaker at the Houses of Parliament and looked after Big Ben, and all sorts of interesting stuff. Oh and another great grandfather was a horse vet in Westminster, no doubt where B gets her love of animals....

Enjoy it Di, it will be fascinating

[Diflower]

It's what's happening to them all now that's interesting to me Kaz, like Mm I still have no interest in the history of it all. It may be different if I didn't already know so much, from her side.
My dad's side has been done too, but again, I'm not bothered really. I only found out a lot of things about his family long after I was grown up, he wouldn't talk of his father (he died when Dad was 7) but I feel I know all I want to now.

It's because Mum and her sisters were all in contact so much, it was a constant ongoing story, that's what I miss

[miasmum]

Be prepared to get hooked and to develop a fascination with finding out where they lived, to see their houses and their graves moved me so much

[Diflower]

Noooo, right now I'm having a lovely time 'chatting' to a second cousin who I last heard of when she was born I think.
She's fascinated by all the old photos my cousin has posted because she'd hardly seen any. Her granddad re-married after her grandmother died (my mum's oldest sister) which was in 1979!

[Gal]

Jen started to do ours a few months ago - she found it fascinating, looking for names that may be from our family, I could remember some from years back, and then a few from her dad's side....she really got into it! I think we got quite far back - neither family moved far from this area Oh and most of the men were miners

[Kaz]

Plenty of those in my tree too

[saundra]

how lovely to do a family tree
my problem is iv no relations on my mums side now
but a few years ago i got a phone call from a lady who had been given my
phone number(this aunt and sister are in there 80s on my dads side)
anyway she said she was doing a tree and would send me a copy never heard any more
kaz how excitting about your great grand parents and westminster
di lovely that you are in touch with your canadian cousin
i might give it a go sometime

[TheOstrich]

The "current distant relations" aspect of genealogy is very interesting, especially as families were so large back in the early 19th century, giving lots of scope for discovery. But in our case (my S has done mountains of research) the vast majority of our current cousins, relations etc. simply died and left no issue. The only cousin we ever had died many years ago at a relatively early age - he worked in a legal firm in the Manchester area. I only ever met him once, at my father's funeral. Nobody left but us now .....

Gal/Kaz, I have miners in my family tree ..... they worked in the Staffordshire / Cannock Chase pits.

My FiL was very much into genealogy and actually self-published a small book on what he discovered about his family name (an old Yorkshire one). He found one relative had been a high-ranking Confederate office in the American Civil War!

You also have to be careful what you might find ...... An old school pal did his family tree, found an "illegitimate" branch line way back, traced it forwards again, and came up with the fact he was a blood relation to (from memory) an early 20th century prime minister of totally different political persuasion to his!