One very big problem that I think most Family Historians come up against is when particular christian names within any one family are  repeated over and over again.

This makes it very difficult to actually separate people into  families because these names were perhaps used for a son, then he would name his son the same name, perhaps a brother would name his child with the same name and so on.

Sometimes these same names would pop up in a different geographic location, not that far from where you are researching and that makes it very difficult to decide if this person is the one you are looking for. Did they move away?

People  tended to name their children after their parents and/or grandparents. Sometimes if it was a boy they would give him his Mother’s maiden name as a middle name or even his Grandmother’s maiden name. This at least helped to group children into the correct family.  Surnames being different you wouldn’t have the problem that you had with repeat christian names.

I think also christian names were often reflecting just who was on the throne at the time of birth.  People did tend to use the names of their kings and queens possibly as a mark of respect, who knows!

Hence in the time of William and Mary there would be a rash of Williams and Marys and in Elizabeth I time there were plenty of Elizabeths around.

I have one male family middle name passed down through my ancestors for 250-300 years and this name was originally the name of landed gentry in the county in England where a lot of my ancestors came from. I have never been able to discover just why this name was adopted as a christian name.

One Archivist suggested to me that perhaps a person of this county family had sponsored a child of one of my ancestors and it was a mark of respect to adopt the surname as a middle name.  I have never been able to prove or disprove this because it was in the 1700’s

I don’t suppose I shall ever know the truth of this matter.

There are publications, usually published by Family History Centres will concentrate on a particular place, a village or town in their county.

I recently obtained one from the Yorkshire Ancestors F.H.Research Centre which concentrated on the village of Ebberston in Yorkshire.

For me this was a goldmine of information as I found 4 of my ancestors surnames featured on this CD. It gave me details of baptisms 1680-1880, marriages 1680-1880 and burials 1678-1980 plus other details about the village.

I was able to get many details of each particular surname and some have definitely filled in gaps in my family tree. Other details I shall keep in case I can find out where they fit in, at some future date.

I feel sure that there are numerous of these publications concentrating on particular places and with all the register details they are not only helpful but you can rely on the information being accurate.

I know for a fact that at least one of my family surnames still exists in this village even today. The  reason I know this is because I saw a lady on the television last year with one of my surnames. It was the occasion of an unexploded WWII bomb being discovered in a nearby field and three surrounding villages had to be evacuated until the bomb disposal team had disarmed it and the television people were interviewing some of the residents.

It is often chance occasions like this when you get hints about your ancestor’s surnames. It was so nice to see the continuity of this particular family right from the 1600’s up to modern day. I am sure most families can trace their names back that far, but I just feel it is a little unusual to find this continuity within one place.

My family tree is currently running around 4,200 people by no means the largest tree around but big enough to give me some headaches. My big question at the moment is how on earth do you organise them if you wanted to produce a book?

I have always researched male and female lines therefore nothing is straightforward. If I was just following the male line of one name at a time then it would be quite easy to draw up lines of descent, but by following female lines and their connections it becomes so convoluted.

Obviously you can follow them alright on the computer but I am just a little concerned about how they would appear in print. I just have a feeling that they would appear so complicated that it wouldn’t be possible to follow the connections and really understand them.

I don’t think printing out my family tree would do because I think I would need a spare room and quite a sizeable room at that in order to display the pages.

I could print out a report listing all the people who appear on the tree but that wouldn’t indicate who they belong to.

I could just write a direct line of descent for the main male lines, but then that would not cover all the side connections, i.e. from the female sides.

To just write in general about my journey backwards into history might work but again there are so many people to mention that it might become so imcomprehensible that nobody would want to read it.

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that it just wouldn’t be possible to write a record of all of the people on my tree and make it clear who they all are.

I suppose it all depends upon where you draw the line. I always follow any line I am on to the bitter end, i.e, as far as available information will take me. Perhaps if I had decided to draw the line at the female’s parents or grandparents that would simplify things.

But – what about all the children, how far do you follow their lines?

I simply cannot bring myself to stop when I know there is more information to be had on a particular line and I know that I am making things more difficult for myself by doing this.

Perhaps I should just drop the idea of the family history book and just have a constantly up-dated CD containing this information.

I think I am considering all my descendants, but will they be interested in their antecedents the way I am? Somehow I doubt it – genealogy is not everybody’s cup of tea.

When you have researched for 25-30 years and gathered all sorts of information you always hope that those that come after you will value the work, but maybe I do it for myself after all, just for the interest it gives me more than for the sake of the information I find.