Anyone done a family tree? How far back did you get? Any surprises

[Dave7]

My Bro has been doing ours. Not easy as we have a very common suname....but he has a lot more patience than me.
So far he has got back to 1810 but records get vague then.
No real surprises although one ancestor was called Joseph Barton and there is family rumour that we are distantly related to 'that' Joey Barton (so keep that part quiet please).
It is sad to see how many (in the 1800s) died very early eg in thier thirtees from consumption.
Anyone else tried it ?

 

[MartinQ]

Yeah, most parents / grandparents died when I was fairly young started doing one a few years ago.
Its quite interesting, didn't know about my mother's half siblings (grandfather had been previously married) and that my grandfather had ~10 siblings and grandmother had a couple of extra siblings. A few "miracle births" in the family, i.e. ~5-6 months after getting married, but as scandals go, not really a biggie. Wife's family had colourful couple of generations in late victorian times and managed to make the papers (for the wrong reasons) a few times.
No family fortune :-( loads of farmers, coal and lead miners, but it brings to life some of the places we used to go as kids. As you say, before the census records start, it's hard to go much further without a good deal of guesswork, but still quite fun.

 

[Drago]

I can go back on the paternal side to the 1500s. Can go back on the maternal side to the early 1800s. My Mum and Dad each did the hard work, not me.

 

[Lullabelle]

I made a start but surnames on both sides are very common so as a result of that, poor education years ago, literacy wasn't great,and me not having a huge amount of time led me to stop. It wasn't easy and at times I got quite lost so for me it became a waste of money.

 

[accountantpete]

My mother did her side of the family back to early 18th Century but you always end up hitting a wall where the records break down and gaps appear - you then have to guess in order to get back to earlier times.

The problems are the usual ones - bastards tended not to be documented, "strays" from the other side of the country means a long trek and often they were outcast bastards so you end up back where you started. Also surnames were evolving in those days so Crowfoots from Crowland in Lincolnshire moved on and became Crawfords elsewhere.

 

[MontyVeda]

My Dad started researching the family tree when he retired 12 years ago, with varying degrees of success... I'm still not sure if my paternal grandfather was born in Manchester or Dublin, but i am certain that my paternal grandmother's great great granddad did not start the Chiver's jam company (that being the family myth on Dad's side). On my mother's side, he found a cousin who'd done all the work and that tree goes back to the 16th century... farmers in the Appleby, Shap and Tebay area and none moving far from their roots. It was interesting stuff but hardly riveting.

 

[classic33]

My Bro has been doing ours. Not easy as we have a very common suname....but he has a lot more patience than me.
So far he has got back to 1810 but records get vague then.
No real surprises although one ancestor was called Joseph Barton and there is family rumour that we are distantly related to 'that' Joey Barton (so keep that part quiet please).
It is sad to see how many (in the 1800s) died very early eg in thier thirtees from consumption.
Anyone else tried it ?

Try North Wales(Anglesey/Caenarfon), Then the East Riding Of Yorkshire.

 

[Dave7]

[QUOTE="MartinQ, post: 5213417, member: 32029A few "miracle births" in the family, i.e. ~5-6 months after getting married, but as scandals go, not really a biggie. Wife's family had colourful couple of generations in late victorian times and managed to make the papers (for the wrong reasons) a few times.
.[/QUOTE]
I notice that we had a few of them in our tree...........when I was a kid that was really frowned upon but maybe more acceptable then.
We also had an ancestor that spent some time in "the House of Correction"..........naughty boy.

 

[classic33]

Marriage record in a church in Ireland, 1142, for one side.
Graves in Yorkshire for the other.

 

[Dave7]

I can go back on the paternal side to the 1500s. Can go back on the maternal side to the early 1800s. My Mum and Dad each did the hard work, not me.

That sounds interesting. Is it in "hard form" so you can read it in comfort ?

 

[Dave7]

Try North Wales(Anglesey/Caenarfon), Then the East Riding Of Yorkshire.

Sorry............not sure what you mean there. Please enlighten me

 

[classic33]

Sorry............not sure what you mean there. Please enlighten me

Narrowing the search area down.

Has the surname Vesey made an appearance in any search?

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Less a tree, more a bonsai!

 

[Firestorm]

Gone back as far as you can fairly easily, that is to the first published census, so those born early 1800s
Found my Father in law had an onerous brother who died in his first month, which my wife didn’t know about.
A great etc grandparent who was residing in jail when the 1870 census, who had a cousin of the same name who was in Norwich Jail at the same time.
One Ancestor was a stickmaker, which gave us a bit of entertainment...but as he was living in Bethnal Green at the time it is obviously Match sticks as opposed to posh walking sticks or just walking round Hackney marshes pulling bits off trees and going “made one”

 

[gavroche]

My father did one on his side of the family but could only go back as far as 1789 as all records were destroyed during the revolution. Apparently, my ancestors came from Italy originally as there is a village there bearing my family name but with a slightly different spelling. The family name was altered to make it sound more French than Italian at the time.