Making a family history/tree advice

Megahurtz400

Megahurtz400

Megahurtz400

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Hey all,

Finally managed to sit down with my grandad today and chat to him about his parents and get scans of his and his parents birth, death and marriage certificates!

I’ve signed up to ancestry and managed to get back to about the 1850s with some certainty but I’m wondering if anyone has done similar and has any advice on how to get further back?

I’m now finding out with my 4th Grandparents that dates aren’t quite lining up in terms of birthdays etc.

Cheers :)
 
The only advice I can give is to be prepared to find something that surprises you.
 
Did it a long while ago but I gave up due to not being bothered and lazy.

But the best advise I was given was talk to old family members while they are still alive because once they are gone it makes it a lot more difficult.

And obviously record all that information either written or spoken.
 
I tried this once, crimewatch were brilliant and helped fill in the last 200 years of our family tree.:D

On a serious note, all the whingers who complained about the census this year and filled in strange info, might screw up future generations trying to track back their family tree.

Ooh look, grandad was a jedi.
 
Megahurtz400 said:
Hey all,

Finally managed to sit down with my grandad today and chat to him about his parents and get scans of his and his parents birth, death and marriage certificates!

I’ve signed up to ancestry and managed to get back to about the 1850s with some certainty but I’m wondering if anyone has done similar and has any advice on how to get further back?

I’m now finding out with my 4th Grandparents that dates aren’t quite lining up in terms of birthdays etc.

Cheers :)
Click to expand...

I've done quite a bit of work into mine on my father's side. What you'll probably find, like me, is that you'll get several generations back and the trail will just stop dead. And that will pretty much be the end of it. But it will be an interesting journey.

m4rmite said:
On a serious note, all the whingers who complained about the census this year and filled in strange info, might screw up future generations trying to track back their family tree.

Ooh look, grandad was a jedi.
Click to expand...

Indeed, the most useful document I found was one from the 1911 census, which was very interesting in finding out about relatives we never knew we had.
 
m4rmite said:
On a serious note, all the whingers who complained about the census this year and filled in strange info, might screw up future generations trying to track back their family tree.

Ooh look, grandad was a jedi.
Click to expand...

I mentioned that in the census thread as well. But apparently it’s OK to do that because “it’s funny”.
 
I tried it a good few years ago on genes reunited. I managed to connect with someone who had a slight connection to us but one word of advice that I learned from this... Double check the info anyone outside of family gives you.

This particular person sent me a spreadsheet of the family tree and had my sister listed as my uncle's wife lol.

My dad did somehow get a load of family tree info from his side before he passed away and left it in a folder for me to find. Not sure how accurate it is though or where it came from. (Interestingly the family name eventually goes back to the surname Powers and we have a distant relative called Austin Powers :D)

definitely speak to older family members if you can.
 
Feek said:
The only advice I can give is to be prepared to find something that surprises you.
Click to expand...

Apparently one line of my family can be traced back to an 8th Century Armenian prince called Ashot the Carnivorous. Sounds diabolical but the nickname came from his refusal to give up eating meat during Lent.
 
MikeTimbers said:
Apparently one line of my family can be traced back to an 8th Century Armenian prince called Ashot the Carnivorous. Sounds diabolical but the nickname came from his refusal to give up eating meat during Lent.
Click to expand...

I'm sure one line of everyone's family can be traced back to royalty somewhere.
 
My family has a fair few dead ends.

My paternal grandmother was a barnados child so that's a dead end. My Dad was lied to about who his real father was most of his life, his real Dad died before I was born, so I can't get much information about him and his extended family.

My maternal grandfather jumped on a ship to Australia when my maternal grandmother was pregnant with my mum, so he's a dead end too. The only line I can go up is my maternal grandmothers side, got back to the 1700s there. Shropshire -> Rotherham -> Essex now over the years.
 
only slightly related but what are people's opinion on DNA ancestry? Has anyone here done it? Did you use Ancestry or 23 and Me? any opinions?
 
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