Genealogy

Now that sounds dry and boring does it not? OK, let's call it something else - how about Family History instead, beginning to sound less uninteresting is it not? I used to think that genealogy was the dry stuff of academics and for royalty and toffs but my opinion has changed diametrically. The BBC series of WHo Do you Think You Are whilst interesting and some cases almost compelling has not really influenced my awakened interest in the subject. The awakening was brought about by my wife and curiosity about her parents and background. The most obvious facts and events were known as far back as her grandparents but there was an impenetrable veil beyond that generation.

The problem was where to begin, there is just so much advice on the Web which can be confusing to the novice. The first essential is to choose a suitable site that specialises in family history and research and allows the building of a family tree to record your research. Then begins the interesting bit, doing the actual research.

Generally it is much easier to trace a family tree backwards from the present time rather than the reverse. There is however a difficulty with uncovering facts from the last one hundred years or so. Agreed that records of births , marriages and deaths are readily available but the information gleaned from those sources may be a little sparse.

The most commonly used resource are UK national censuses which contain much useful information, unfortunately the latest available is the one conducted in 1911 as later censuses are still inaccessible due to the law restricting some information less than one hundred years old.

A good source of information is within the family itself from older relatives but with my wife's family there was very little forthcoming as like many families there was reluctance to talk about "things". SO it was down to searching online via census records.

We knew where her parents were born and when, although her mother had knocked ten years off her age which did not initially help! Within a few weeks we had managed to go back about six generations and unearthed all sorts of things. Distant relatives include several of the Tolpuddle Martyrs who stirred the beginnings of the Trades Union movement and were transported to Australia for their ideals. The earliest ancestors have been traced back to the early 1500s in the Dorset area, there is more to discover but the further back the reasearch the more difficult it becomes but that is the joy of the challenge.

As to my side of the family there were splits and schisms from the time of my parents going back several generations so little was known as one party did not talk to others and vice versa. Rumour abounded with dark hints of skeletal remains in cupboards, initially potential research looked difficult because there was little hard information as an actual starting point. After many false starts the right trail was finally discovered and although it is a very ordinary family the history is fascinating as there is a real insight as to many facets of ancestor's lives.

For quite a while there was a brick wall that seemed impossible to break through then suddenly there was contact from a fellow subscriber of a genealogy website. The actual information was not in itself earth shattering and seemed unimportant at the time. What I had actually been given was a metaphorical key to a door, all that remained was to find the door that the key fitted.

Some weeks later the door was found and the key fitted. As a result I have now definitively traced my blood ancestors back to the year 1010 AD living in Normandy, France backed by documentary evidence. This person was known as le Compte d'Oise and is recorded as having been part of William the Conqueror's invasion force in 1066.

More recent ancestors have largely lived in a small area of Suffolk until the mid-nineteenth century when there was a considerable population migration from the land to London due to the expansion of the railways and better paying work there.

Much more remains to be discovered and with the approach of winter it is a great way to spend time delving into the past.