Week 3 (Jan. 18-24): Favorite Photo and Week 4 (Jan. 25-31): Curious - incorporating #MyGenealogyStory
When I first saw the final two week topics for January, I
wasn’t completely sure what I was going to write about; did I even have a
favourite photograph? But then I saw another prompt suggesting writing about #MyGenealogyStory on Twitter (courtesy of Daniel Loftus @DanielGenealogy) and after reading Paul Chiddicks blog post about how and why he got started (here) I decided to try and combine the three.
If you read my Week 2 post about finding a Family Bible, you will already have some insight into why I decided to begin to research my family tree. For me it was all about being curious about who I was/am and where my roots where from (especially on my paternal side).
Having spent over three years from the age of 6 moving house copious times in a strange foreign country, the Communist Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic, having only limited contact with family back home, and then losing my dad at a young age (10), meant I felt a step apart from most of my family. My dad was an only child of elderly parents, his father had died when I was 6 months old and my grandma didn’t really like to talk too much about that side of the family, saying only “there had been a second marriage” that made it difficult. I now know that my Great-Grandmother had died when her children were very young and her husband, my Great-Grandfather remarried and had three more children, following his death his widow took her three children across to the US, but my paternal grandfather and his siblings remained in England. Combined with the fact that Grandma's side of the family were a typical rural Lincolnshire family, with a “life happens just get on with it” point of view it meant that I didn’t really experience any sharing on family stories from my paternal line at all. On my maternal side, I was at least blessed with a bit more knowledge of the family history, my maternal grandmother’s family were descended from residents of the Yorkshire village of Duggleby, (there is a family tree tracing that line back to the time of the Domesday book - here) but again there is less information about my maternal grandfather’s side of the family. I have an uncle and aunt that I can ask questions of, and I was very lucky that my aunt recently passed me some paperwork, including a small address book that belonged to my maternal great-grandfather. All that aside, I have found that there is still some inconsistency and mistruth, woven into the few stories I have been given.
Therefore the motto of the #Curious part to the #Foundations of my journey into my family history is, as I’m sure it is for many “Who am I and where do I come from?”
I think my research into the family tree truly began not
long after the break-up of my first marriage; sitting by myself once the
children were settled, the question of ‘Who am I’ was quite large in my mind
and so I tried to piece together what I could jotting down notes here and there
and asking my mum, who was still with us at that time about her family and
grandparents. She made notes for me of
what she could remember, notes which incidentally I’ve recently come across
again, and it’s worth noting how family stories and what we think of as factual
information can actually be incorrect. My
mum told me that her grandfather had been married twice (true), that his first
wife had died (false) so he was free to remarry; this was important as they
were from a strict Catholic background. I’ve since found that he actually
divorced his first wife on the grounds of her adultery, which would perhaps
explain his subsequent move to a new area with his second wife. I’m not
convinced it would explain the 3 year reduction in his recorded age though, which
was even carried through to his funeral notice, perhaps he just mis-remembered?
That 3 year difference, combined with the fact his surname had been incorrectly spelt, Cairns instead of Kerrin, made
finding his Glasgow birth record difficult, but I did manage to track it down
eventually. The fact that the Scottish records have additional information such as parents marriage made me certain I had got the correct record.
Once my children had both started school, and with the advent of online records becoming more available I started researching with more earnest. Alongside my mother’s notes mentioned above, I’ve also come across a lot of printed searches and small family tree entries I made in 2006. Again, I can see the lessons I have learned since. On some of my early forays into online research, I made the basic, but easy, mistake of taking a suggested tree at face value; if their details for the members I knew were correct tallied, I would often add the details for the extended family members. I know, I know, rookie error!! But we live and learn, and I have managed to tweak and correct the errors as I have come across them in my recent research foray which began when I turned 50. My current aim is to write up the lives and details of my grandparents and great-grandparents. I decided that once and for all I wanted to produce the best researched family tree I could for my, now adult, children. They may not presently be that interested, but as I am the last person who can at least give some personal context to the family stories, I want to make sure that if they do develop an interest, they have something meaningful to refer to.
I’m returning to the prompt of Curious again here, as part
of the next stage of my genealogy journey. My desire to bring meaningful,
realistic and valid stories to my ancestors lives led me to join the wonderful
Curious Descendants Club, the brain child of the equally wonderful NataliePithers. Within the club’s pages lie a vibrant, supportive forum of other family
historians, and a whole range of workshops and challenges. There is a wealth of
information amongst the members of the club, which includes people from across
the globe, who are able to provide suggestions for locating records in areas we
may not be used to. For example, until it was mentioned by one of the members,
Jenny, I was unaware of Trove, an amazing body of Australian online papers,
gazettes and magazines, and surprisingly it’s free. I took a look, and have managed to use the
site to locate funeral notices, court reports and some articles giving a small
insight into some of the social life for an Australian great-uncle. The main
focus of the club is to help us to hone our skills in writing about the various
individuals on our family trees, and there is always someone to offer valuable
feedback on a piece of writing.
Due to a frustratingly long flare up of the costochondritis and intercostal neuralgia that I experience as part of my fibromyalgia, I have been experiencing, what even for me, is a prolonged period of inactivity over the last few weeks. However, my wonderful husband, who has been watching my renewed enjoyment of genealogy research, bought me a belated Christmas/early birthday present of a photograph scanner, he then brought down the boxes of old photographs that have been living in the attic for far too long, putting them in front of me with a smile. Incidentally it was within these boxes that I also found mine and my mother’s notes referred to above. He knew that this would help me take the next step in reaching the level of research I need to in order to produce a comprehensive family record.
As I began working through them it was incredibly hard to work out who a lot of the people were and which side of the family they belonged to, I had for the most part kept any from my maternal and paternal sides separate but there were some that had slipped into the wrong pile. Cue many distracting moments trying to expand on faces without making them too blurry and flicking between one photo and the next to see if I could recognise any similarities! I believe that I have now correctly ordered them into the right family groups, but I still have many more to scan.
Whilst going through this process I was also trying to see if I could decide on what would be my favourite photograph for the purpose of the #52Ancestorsin52Weeks prompt. I lost count of how many times I changed my mind!!
Would it be the one of my dad in his early RAF days when he took part on an inland waterways canoeing challenge with some colleagues?
A beautiful photograph of a young lady dated approximately 1910-15 which I believe to be my paternal Grandma?
Or even a delightful photograph of a young boy (a 1st cousin 2x removed) sitting in a pedal car in 1920s America?
Amazingly, just two days later I was in touch with Jen, the daughter of the young girl in the photo who was also the bride in the other photos. Jen explained that her maternal grandmother was the sister of my grandfather, my great aunt Sarah, making Jen my 2nd cousin!! So far we have exchanged brief information, and I’m hoping that at some point over the next year I can meet her and her brothers face to face. Jen, sent me copies of two photos, one of which shows our great-grandparents and their 5 children, it’s just amazing, and has totally stolen the title of my favourite photograph!!
So, where am I now? Where has my curiosity brought my genealogy story? My initial careless meanderings through family history is evolving into more thorough genealogical research, into which I am beginning to incorporate real context using additional record sources. I have a new-found favourite photograph together with some newly found relations; and I have a proper goal of what it is I am wanting to create, and why.
I am excited to see where my journey takes me next!!
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