I was very lucky in my family history search when I discovered a link to the Craven families through my 2xGt.Grandmother. I say lucky because there is so much information about the various members of this family to be found on the internet.

I have been able to get back to John Craven who was born 1485, this far but unfortunately no further. There just doesn’t seem to be anything more about him anywhere. I wonder if any of you out there have ever discovered anything more about him? Or, are we all stuck with this same John?

I have to admit that this family tree  connection gave me entree into a whole range of aristocracy. The website I like best for this kind of information is ThePeerage.com because this site always gives you a list of citations. You can see just where all the information comes from and this gives you confidence in the results.

There are other sites who deal with Royal and Aristocratic connections but don’t cite the sources and this always makes me wary of using their genealogical information.

Naturally the ancestors closest to you are more important in that they probably have more impact on your genes, but, through marriages you are going to end up with literally thousands of leaves hanging on your family tree. I have to confess that it is quite a thrill to find that you have people who you have read about in your history books actually on your tree.

Sometimes I stop and think, how is it possible that I have [at this time 28,800] thousands of people on my family tree but the answer is that each generation you go back you are sort of compounding the total. On top of this people had much larger families in days gone by and by the time you have added each of the siblings and their spouses and then their children and so on and so on there is no wonder that you end up with big numbers.

When you have members of the peerage on your tree you are going to find the same families cropping up all over the place because they tended to marry and inter-marry within their own specific sphere. Thank goodness I have software that allows for merging because I very often have put the same person in the records, coming in from a different angle and if the software didn’t merge these duplications then I would have the same names over and over which would be very confusing.

I had been posting new individuals onto my MAWER line and noticed that some families who named one of their sons George seemed to lose him and as they seemed dead set that they wanted a son named George they waited until the next son came along and he was baptized George.

The first George to die young among my ancestors was born to George and Frances MAWER, he was born in 1763 and only lived until 1768, and the very next child was a son so he was duly named George, being born just after the other George died, in 1768.

The next George was born 1767 to John and Ann MAWER and he died before 1768, and lo and behold another son was born in 1768 and called George.

The next family tragedy in line was to George and Ann MAWER, their first son George was born in 1800. I don’t have a death date for him but he must have died young because the next child was another son born 1803 and he was named George.

The final set of Georges that I found in my Family History research was born to a CURTIS family. The man John CURTIS married a MAWER lady, their first George was born 1813 and died 1813 and their next and successful attempt to have a George was born 1820.

It is only when we can look back at our list of ancestors that we see patterns emerging although the families concerned probably were not aware that their ‘George’ tragedy had happened before to other people.

It just seemed odd to me that these problems with sons called George happened,other sons within the various families thrived, so why did this happen? Also why were people so hooked up on repeating names of children who died. I have seen the same determination with various female names as well.

Personally I might have thought it a bit of a jinx.

I seemed to have a lot more success with the old style, finding ancestors I was looking for, place details which would help me in my search.

Going back over some old family history research I re-checked it and if I had obtained the details from the old style IGI, sometimes I just didn’t get the same information coming up with the new style.

To begin with we were given a choice of new or old but that choice seems to have been withdrawn now and I for one am not a happy bunny!

As I have mentioned before, every so often I like to recheck my information and when I don’t get confirmation that sets me wondering whether I just dreamed the first details. I know I didn’t because I always take a note of where I got family history research information so that I can re-visit the appropriate site.

Maybe I am missing something here, perhaps I am doing something wrong but I cannot imagine what. Has anyone else been a bit disenchanted with the changes?

I have been pondering lately just what I should do with all the information I have.

Ideally it would be great to have it all published in book form but I just cannot visualize how it would all work out. I have around 27,500 people on my tree at the moment, on my computer in the Family Tree Maker programme.

It’s easy to move around the software and go from family to family, backwards or forwards, but how on earth would all that transpose into the printed word?

It would amount to several copies of War and Peace proportions I am sure. Has anyone done this, taken the information and details from their computer family history programme and had it turned into a book?

If there is anyone out there who has done this I would certainly appreciate hearing about how this was achieved.

The reason I am thinking of this in book form is so that other family members could have access to everything. It’s easy for me to go into the Family Tree Maker programme and find anyone I want, but when you try to describe someone on the tree to one of your family members they seem to get that glazed look in their eye after a while and you can just tell they aren’t following you very well.

I think if they could see it actually written down and perhaps accompanied by pictures wherever possible, of the individual, it might start to mean something to other family members.

Now they just treat it as Mothers [or Grandmothers] pastime and seem to feel that it is nothing to do with them. How wrong they can be.

I feel quite concerned that 35 to 40 years of family history research is all going to be wasted when I am not around any more. Not being morbid but I know I won’t last forever and I do feel that it would be a crying shame for all this amazing information to go to waste and never see the light of day again, just because I am not around any more.

So – if anyone out there has any help they can give with regard to publishing their Family History I would be very happy to hear from them.

I am sure they have always been there, but it seems just lately that everytime I Google something I find a new site. Unfortunately for me, researching mostly UK ancestors, a lot of these sites are biased towards Americans. Having said that most of the queries I see are from American people trying to trace their roots back in the UK.

I found an interesting one the other day, for the UK, it was Ancestral-Villages and this one allows you to post your village or surname interest free and you can look at whatever else is on there from other people.

I am in two minds about the changes to the IGI. Sometimes I find information on the old set up that doesn’t appear on the new pages and also vice versa. This I find quite strange, you would think whatever was on one database would appear on the other.  Once or twice I have tried actually writing, snail mail, to people whose addresses appear under one of the items I am looking at, birth or marriage etc. but the entries must have been made too many years ago and I never get a reply.

I just love it when I am in touch with a new connection. Sharing information is what it is all about and gaining an extended family is so good. Having someone new to talk to about your passion is brilliant.

Asking Google for certain names and places can be like opening a can of worms. I have tried putting the name and place in inverted commas so I don’t get all the rubbish which is nothing to do with what I want, but then sometimes I don’t use inverted commas and I patiently trawl right through pages and pages of seemingly unconnected sites. I have to say though that occasionally I do come up with a little nugget of information which gives me a new track to follow. It is time consuming though, going through the sites right up to page 5, 6 or 7 of Google.

I have spent hours changing the request around, changing the wording, taking out dates or places etc. just to see what Google can come up with.

One thing I do enjoy is, when I am researching some aristocratic ancestor or somebody who is notable for some reason or other,  asking Google for pictures. This is great if you find one of the person you are looking for. I had a real field day the other week and was capturing all kinds of photos and I now have quite a sizeable folder with just Family History pictures. I am not sure at this stage what I will do with them – but they are there when I decide.

Hi, my name is Jean and I am a Family History and Genealogy aholic!

My downfall all began around 35 years ago when I got hold of some family documents and made my first tree, that was when I started to be hooked.

I seemed to have it under control in the beginning, I could go for periods and never touch it, but gradually I needed to do research regularly, without it I was a mess.

I knew I was getting addicted but couldn’t do anything about it.

Now it has got to the point where I just can’t do without it every day and if I don’t add members to my tree I have such feelings of inadequacy.

I have finally admitted to myself that I am a family history and genealogy aholic – but – I couldn’t care less. I have no wish to be cured, and I am going to carry on just as long as I can.

All joking apart, there should be a health warning with Family History because it definitely is addictive and once you have tasted the pleasure and excitement of making your first discoveries you too will be in the same boat as me.

Unfortunately it can run away with you if you get connected with existing pedigrees. The inclination is to just go on and on adding new members to your family tree, as many as you can find, getting your tree number as high as possible. When you find yourself doing this – get a grip!

You are not the first one to discover royal and aristocratic ancestors, there are millions of people who will have these connections even if they are not aware of it. It is fun yes, but doesn’t really have a great deal to do with you and your immediate family. I will admit to feeling very thrilled when I discovered my first royal ancestor but when you have added literally hundreds of royals and aristocrats the euphoria begins to wear off.

I am still totally hooked on Family History and don’t think I am still not thrilled and excited to have all these people dangling from my tree, but I have had a reality check and have gone right back to the beginnings of my research and am now going over all my first research data. Trying to find out more details of the few generations back from me.

It is sometimes very hard to come up with anything other than the bare birth, baptism, marriage and death details about a person, but wherever I can I am trying hard to find these extra details.

I may not be able to resist going back to the pedigrees and just adding a few more to my tree eventually  - well I’m only human!!

I have so many lines to follow, all ongoing, and there are times when I just feel a bit overwhelmed by it all. My tree stands at the moment at 25,600 so you can imagine I have an enormous amount of names to cover.

It’s just a case of taking them all back a step at a time, I pick one and find that I still cannot take it beyond where I was when I was researching that particular name before. So I try another one and the same thing happens. I just sit there and think – now what!

Have I gone as far as I can with them or should I just stop thinking about it and get on, pick another name and give it another go. I think I am probably in ‘research doldrums’. I am becalmed, I am making no discernible headway and it is causing me a lot of frustration.

What do you all do when you hit this situation? How do you re-motivate yourself? Perhaps you don’t get like this, but if you do and you have any good tips on how to get out of this mindset I would be very pleased to hear them.

I am still passionately interested in my Family History but just for the moment I feel like I am treading water. I just cannot settle to any one name, I am fluttering about, chopping and changing, and this is just not the way I normally work at all.

Perhaps I should leave it all for a week and come back to it, hoping my mind will focus better. I love looking out for my ancestors and really feel links with them – but not this week.

Now I feel I want to back-track and add more meat to the bones of the people I already have. I am ashamed to say that I  found myself totally ignoring all my near relations in favour of all these new names, royals, peers etc. It was so exciting finding kings and queens from all over the globe being added every day – but then I sat back and realized that just about everyone would be able to add these sort of people to their tree if they were looking so it was no big deal to have them.

I read today that most everyone in the UK will be descended from people who were living around the year 1400 who survived one of the big plagues which decimated the population by up to 60%. That makes a lot of sense.

Naturally I am still pleased to have these connections but to be quite honest I hardly dare mention them to anyone because I feel sure they will think I am just showing off and I certainly don’t want to come across that way.

I do enjoy knowing these people are in my past but I am putting it into perspective and realizing that, although everyone in your past has to have had some impact on you through the gene pool, your nearest relatives and ancestors will have had a lot more impact.

Therefore, I am now going back to the beginning and following all my early additions to the tree. Looking at the connections again and trying to find out more details about these people. I do still have some brickwalls that I try to scale now and again, some of these brickwalls are going to stay that way because no matter where I look I just cannot find anything more about them. It is quite frustrating but I have to put it behind me and move on again to someone else.

I have on occasion used information from other peoples tree whose line has crossed mine. I have to be totally honest and say that I have accepted their details as correct. If these have come from Genes Reunited for instance and citations have been added for the information I feel quite comfortable using these details, but I am sure I am not alone in using information which has not included sufficient citations.

These are the sort of areas that I am going to work on and try to confirm the information. It is very easy to think Hooray, all this and I have not had to do any of the work to get it, but beware, the information can be only as good as the source. It might not be good because in turn this information has been taken from yet another persons tree without proper authentication anywhere along the line.

It all does need to be confirmed before you can be totally comfortable that your tree is truly authentic.

I have visited a lot of cemeteries/graveyards in the 30 years I have been family history researching.  I have never felt spooked at all, I just feel as though I am visiting a relative.  In fact, I find them relatively tranquil and a place to take your time and soak up the atmosphere.  You certainly will need to take time because some searches are more difficult.  If you are visiting the graveyard attached to an ancient church to find your ancestor, you may find the grounds quite unkempt.  It is nothing to be wading knee and sometimes thigh deep in grass and weeds, I am talking here about the UK.

It’s a sad fact that some church precincts are not looked after, lack of money I am sure.  You certainly need to take certain things with you when you know the graveyard you will be visiting in your ancestor search, is an old one, maybe even a redundant church.  Some of these redundant churches are looked after by heritage authorities and are kept in relatively good order, but other’s are not.

With some you feel you should have brought a scythe with you!  You certainly need to have a stiff hand brush to use on the gravestones [if they are quite old].  They get covered with lichen and the writing is all but obliterated.  Even though taking a photograph works with newer stones it’s not possible with the older ones.  You need to brush them down even to get to read them.  Sometimes you have to feel the letters even to interpret what is written there.  On some it is virtually impossible to make out the whole epitaph, but if you can at least get the name and dates that is something that you didn’t have before.

I visited one some years ago which was a redundant church – not being kept up by anyone – and it was positioned in the middle of a field.  I had to park my car and walk half way across an acre field to get to the church and graveyard. It was completely surrounded by a high hedge, and when I was looking round the relatively small graveyard, I couldn’t help but think that perhaps it was not such a good idea to place myself in such a solitary position.  I confess I didn’t linger long in that particular churchyard, there wasn’t anything there for me anyway.

Usually members of one family are placed together in these old churchyards, this does not seem to be possible in the large city cemeteries. Unless individuals are placed within the same grave, they will not be togetherand this can make your family name history search difficult. In the older graveyards you probably will find one gravestone and then the others are usually nearby.

I usually take note of their position in relation to the church, which side they are situated, how many positions from the church, and the extra graves with the same surname I take note of in relation to the main one I found.  This helps if you need to visit the graveyard again for any reason.  If you couldn’t take a picture for other family members to see, they may want to see for themselves.  I have done that before, taken older family members to visit any graves I have found.

Concerning the newer cemeteries you can apply to the superintendant to give you a plan of the cemetery with your family grave number marked. It’s relatively easy if it is a family grave and you have the number, but even so they will have a surname index which should help.

You feel quite strange when you do find a relative’s grave.  It’s a very nice feeling though, it places them into context in your mind, taking into consideration the place where they had lived and worked and been buried, this is all part of tracing family trees.  I love going into the churches also and perhaps sitting where they may have sat in their time.

Religion played a bigger part in the lives of our forbears, in fact way back, it was illegal not to go to church and there were people appointed by the church to make sure that you did your duty and if you didn’t you were denounced for this.  It was quite a disgrace.

I am a bit on the fence about reincarnation – I would like to believe it is possible. It would be good to get another try at life to see what you could make of it the next time. However,  even though I would like to believe in it, not knowing of any way to find proof that this is possible, I will remain on the fence.

What I wondered was, if a person was reincarnated – how could you justify Family History? What I mean is, if you had been someone else a number of years before your present life, how could you research way back in history and collect all these ancestors?

Would each incarnation have its own family tree?

Now I write this down it does sound really odd, but I wondered if any other person had thought about this and what conclusion had they come to?

Please don’t write me off as some kind of nut, I am not, I am just curious and sometimes my mind flies off at a tangent and this is the result of one of these flights of fancy.

If anyone has anything to say about this, I really would like to hear from you.