Why and when did you start on family history? (General)

by julien , Monday, January 12, 2009, 06:01 (5866 days ago) @ admin

Several triggers: After my Mother died, lots of interesting letters & photos emerged.
My Father died when I was very young so I knew little about him or the family.
An exercise when my son was at primary school - find out names of Grandparents - my mother knew very little about hers, and less about my Father's.
My husband's father did a lot of work on his own family - that was an inspiration.
I finally got started by sending for my Grandmothers' birth certificates in 1997.
I interviewed my Uncle - his info was accurate but he knew nothing beyond his own grandparents.
I made very little progress until the census became available online - that was when I discovered the Forest connection.
Through this website ( and help from Slowhands) I made contact with my third cousin in New Zealand. Through him I was able to find my father's cousin living in Devon. She has a wonderful collection of photos - and lots of info all started to fall into place.
It's a very addictive hobby - I fall into the majority category, but my son who is in his 30s has traced his own family quite a long way, especially the Gloucestershire ones.
This website has a real community feel - I much prefer it to Genes for instance and the Parish records section is a great help to locate the record which saves many hours trawling through microfiche at the Archives! Keep up the good work!
Julien