Ancestry.co.uk

[Gwadien]

I've made it my mission to find out my families past after my Grandma telling me some interesting stuff last night, my Great-great Uncles both died in World War One for instance, but she didn't know their names etc, is there anyway that you can access military records without paying?

 

[Job]

Try paying, it's worth it for the hassle.

 

[Raven]

You're great grandfathers were called Ranjit Patel and Benson Freeman.

 

[Raven]

your*

 

[rynnor]

You're great grandfathers were called Ranjit Patel and Benson Freeman.

Or you find you are all related to a girl called lucy ftom africa...

 

[Mabs]

most of the WW2 stuff is still filed and you have to apply for it
before that, its mostly available to the public, but you might need to pay for some of it

depends how much info you have to start with that you can track

 

[Job]

My ma did it and we are Scorttish through and through.
Grandad was McQueen and General in first world war
Grandma was Stevenson, part of the Edinburgh wool family.

 

[Shagrat]

got mine back to about 1650 at the moment, to go any further i think I need to start visiting places to look at the records they have stored as theyre not online.

 

[rynnor]

Does anyone else think its largely made up beyond the census years?

 

[Raven]

My Grandad got ours back to 11something with the help of a geneologist, related to William Catesby http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Catesby

and ofc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Catesby

My mum keeps in touch with the direct descendant now.

 

[rynnor]

My Grandad got ours back to 11something with the help of a geneologist, related to William Catesby http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Catesby

and ofc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Catesby

My mum keeps in touch with the direct descendant now.

Stick it on facebrag - I just think its kinda sad bathing in reflected glory.

 

[Bahumat]

I can't ever see the point in tracing your family history. Once you know you're related to Barry a ship owner from wherever...then what?

 

[Zenith.UK]

rynnor, I can tell you with absolute certainty that it isn't made up beyond census years.

Census, birth, marriage and death records get you back to about 1837 with some confidence when it became the law to register those events.
Before that, you have parish records which were maintained by parish clerks for baptisms, marriages and burials. They reliably go back to early 1750's but start getting sketchy beyond that point.
I use Ancestry frequently and use it as a starting point to find out information about people in history. The real work starts when you need to go to a county archive to see records for yourself. I've seen and held a letter written in 1629 by one of my direct ancestors. Yes it's old, crinkly and fragile but the point is that when they wrote it in 1629, they would never have dreamed that one of their ancestors would be reading the exact same letter nearly 400 years later.

I personally find the late 1800's and early 1900's the interesting time because it was a time of huge social and industrial changes. My great-grandfather was put in a workhouse when he was a child, was sent to Canada, got shot four times in WW1 (once at Gallipoli and three times at Messines) and went on to live till he was 71. I didn't even know his name 4 years ago. Now I have detailed information about his childhood, his military records and a much better appreciation of the difficulties he faced in his life.

 

[Raven]

er, it's not bragging. It's a thread about ancestry. Not a whole lot of glory being related to a Roman Catholic that tried to blow Parliament up.

I happened to mention that we used a genealogist to trace ours back.

 

[Raven]

Does anyone else think its largely made up beyond the census years?

No, because births deaths and marriages were kept by the church. Sure there are loads of dead ends and some harder to find connections, that's why decent genealogists are expensive.

 

[Raven]

Or you find you are all related to a girl called lucy ftom africa...

You mean, Mitochondrial Eve.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Or you find you are all related to a girl called lucy ftom africa...

You're saying that like it's a bad thing

 

[Tom]

My aunt has traced our family history back to medieval times, it's pretty interesting to see who's related to who. Some of my ancestors spent time in workhouses, mills, etc.

Just imagine if you were able to trace an offshoot of your family, now living in a different country. And then you noticed that a member of that offshoot was the spitting image of someone in your family. I know I'd find that interesting.

From my aunt's work I know that on my dad's side, my family, generally, comes from Northamptonshire.

 

[Mabs]

church records are being digitised atm, a lot of places are doing it, wait and see if you got time
otherwise, check military if they were, those are usually very good

 

[Raven]

generally, comes from Northamptonshire.

Any idea whereabouts? Mine are pretty much exclusively from Northamptonshire on my mothers side. Dad's side are Cornish.

 

[Zenith]

One of my aunts have done some work on my dads side. My lastname comes from a Swedish fortress back in 1610's, that a ancestor ruled over. Apparently he was an Italian General, joing the Swedish army during the crazy wartimes. She even traced his line to a Pope family, whom wouldnt let us in to their library to confirm it!

 

[Everz]

Gypsy descendant thus I don't have much if any family history .

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Family history is about as interesting as a stale loaf of bread.

 

[mooSe_]

Apparently this is my family crest:

Pretty sweet huh: sexy lady with an anchor and severed head. My ancestors were awesome.

 

[rynnor]

I happened to mention that we used a genealogist to trace ours back.

You mean you paid someone to trace your family history and amazingly they traced it back to someone notable - how suprising...

 

[rynnor]

You're saying that like it's a bad thing

Neither good or bad - its just a fact.

 

[- English -]

alot of sour graped people in this thread

 

[Tom]

alot of orphans in this thread

 

[Mey]

Apparently this is my family crest:

Pretty sweet huh: sexy lady with an anchor and severed head. My ancestors were awesome.

My clans motto means "By the force of arms, I remain unconquered"

The clan was also cursed by the Bishop of Glasgow and excommunicated from the church.

 

[Gwadien]

My Family is full of weird ancestors, For instance, my Grand-father on my Dads side is a Scouser, with a popular Swedish surname, whilst my Nana was Irish descent, on the other side, my Grand-father was adopted by a inherited millionaire family, I'd like to find out how they made their bucks, and who his real parents were, and my Nan on this side, the only one alive, told me stuff that she'd like to know more about, like her Grandparents siblings for instance.

It's interesting stuff!