Who Do You Think You Are Magazine Forum

[Norfolk Nan]

Two houses! Oh my, Guy. I'm guessing yours isn't a common-or-garden labouring family if you can get back into the 14c. I remember the days when you had to do all research on-site and heave heavy indexes etc about. In those days I copied everything 'just in case' hence the huge pile of paper and the long-held 'just in case' habit. I don't think I'll ever have an archive as big as yours - I can't afford another house!

[Guy]

Two houses! Oh my, Guy. I'm guessing yours isn't a common-or-garden labouring family if you can get back into the 14c. I remember the days when you had to do all research on-site and heave heavy indexes etc about. In those days I copied everything 'just in case' hence the huge pile of paper and the long-held 'just in case' habit. I don't think I'll ever have an archive as big as yours - I can't afford another house!

Yes in the main Ag. Labs and farmers with few exceptions back to mid 14th century, I bought one x-council house through right to buy which we had lived in for about 20 years previous to buying it and later inherited a house my mum bought in the 1950s which I was brought up in until I left home. Both are modest properties and jointly worth less than many single houses in towns and cities up and down the country. I have an attachment to the house I was brought up in and would love to live in it full time and my wife has an attachment to the house we brought our children up in, In addition due to having a disabled granddaughter who depends on us we cannot leave Yorkshire. (I will not go into details so please do not ask).

As I have mentioned before I was virtually born to be a family historian (given my mother's maiden name to keep her family name alive, cleaned family gravestones in school holidays, traced original parish registers in churches to help me learn to write, given a copy of the Guy pedigree to keep me quite as an infant, etc., etc.) A joy and a responsibility.

In addition I was also given the "rubbish” no one really knew what to do with when older generations died, grandfathers working pedigree sheets, samplers from 1778 & 1810 and old daguerrotypes that also seemed old fashioned in the 50s & 60s along with the accumulated assorted family papers that people keep, such as my mother's diaries an insight to family life from the 60s through to 2002. simple mundane entries such as lent Diane money to buy life size drawings of the Beatles (I can't remember how much they cost offhand but I think it was about £3), walked the dogs with Guy today, rode Morny (Morning Cloud) a young horse she had from its birth which she reared and broke in to ride single handedly. Simple entries but boy do they bring back memories to me.

I have been very fortunate in that I enjoy family history and have been lucky to have been given many unique family records and memories I need to pass on.

Sorry for rambling on and sidetracking the thread.
Cheers
Guy

[Norfolk Nan]

Not rambling at all, Guy. I find it rather a nice change from my own background of broken marriages going back into Victorian times with the bitterness passed down through the generations. No one had a good memory to share and very few wanted to talk about the past ‘what do you want to know that for?’ It’s heartening to know there are happy families - I always thought we were the norm, thank goodness I was wrong! And thank you!

[meekhcs]

Guy

A pleasure to read your ramble!!



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[daughterofronny]

Like most researchers I have a 'ton' of paper and of course research stored on my computer. I use Familysearch family history program 'PAF which is now out of date, Ancestral Quest is the later version. For the paper records I have set up a filing system using four colors for my four grandparents - red, blue, green and yellow. All direct ancestors are then filed in their appropriate color hanging file. Each family group sheet is stored in a manilla folder with most of one long edge cut off leaving a tab which I then color with the appropriate color and the two surnames of the family group, these then all go into their appropriate color, this sounds complicated, but, I enjoyed doing it, I also store copies of certificates and census sheets with each family group sheet. I found this idea on a website which I cannot remember. Of course I spent a few dollars buying the colored hanging files and the manilla folders, but, it was worth it. I now have to work out what to do with all the other papers - notes, letters, emails etc. Happy hunting, Annette WATSON

[Norfolk Nan]

Oh Annette, there’s always something extra to fit in, isn’t there! All part of the fun...

[paulr1949]

Guy

A pleasure to read your ramble!!



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I agree!


Paul

[brunes08]

So pleased to discover that I am not alone. I started researching my family in the early 1980s and like all of you have a mountain of paper files, photographs, documents, computer files etc etc etc. I have a system for organising it all but every so often it causes difficulties because it just does. New information becoming public, seemingly every five minutes, is often difficult to slot into my system. I keep working at it though. So thanks all of you for cheering me up.


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[fhb]

I started in 1998 and have folders of prInt- outs of film images (LDS), certificates, census, plus letters, photos etc. As I knew I would need to biew all these documents in various ways I decided to simply keep them by type in a folder and number each sleeve. I then built a database on the computer and kept all the details in each document there, plus the number of the sleeve and the folder name, plus a link to a scanned image of the document. So I can simply type a detail request and the database spits out all entries matching that detail plus a view of the scan. Then if I need to get back to the original I have the sleeve number for me to find it.

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[Guy]

Here is a picture of one of my Grandfather's "working trees". (Not very clear at the top as it is a photo rather than a scan)
Normal people may possibly say it is rubbish as you have a copy of his clean finished work, but to me it is one of my most treasured possessions.

http://anguline.co.uk/Tree/Working_tree.jpg

Yes, it is foxed and stained, dog-eared, scored out with faded pencil writing on it, but it is one stage of his long effort to develop a family pedigree, in addition to other similar copies of the above pedigree I have inherited three of the printed pedigree books of wills, inventories, photos etc., of his/my lineage the most recent I received from the family solicitors in 2011, 56 years after my grandfather died, that copy of the book was inscribed to my mother (To Nita, 1 July 1948 J.P.G.) who unfortunately did not live long enough to receive it as she died in 2004. I think this third book was intended for my sister as she had been born in December 1947, and that would explain why my mum "received" three books.
Each of the pedigree books contains a fold out copy of the above pedigree, but in each copy the pedigree contains not only printed additions, pasted in place but also hand written additions (some missing from the other books) written by my grandfather.

These books plus the various charts & pedigrees form a unique archive of a part of my grandfather's family history quest almost a 20th century Who Do You Think You Are journey.

One of these days I may even get down to the Society of Genealogists in London and view the printed pedigree chart he deposited with them in 1947 and see if it contains any differences to the ones I hold.

Cheers
Guy