Extreme genealogy

It's a great pastime. After 3 weeks already back to late 1700's and found two second cousins. Now subscribing to WDYTYA magazine in the hope I can get help to go even further back..thanks for a great magazine

For family historians starting today life is much easier than those of us who started in the 1970s or earlier. My wife and I began in the mid 1970s and then decided to make it even harder for ourselves by emigrating to Australia. There was no internet in those days and letters took forever to go back and forth. We did return to this country and gradually the work has become easier—for getting started that is.
I have started off searches for members of my family (nephews and nieces marry and bring in new lines to start off) and found whizzing through census returns and birth, marriage and death indexes online is like a walk in the park. The hard [part is filling in the details. After all we are not collectors of names and dates, we want to know what these people did, how they lived, who they worked for etc. etc.
Names and dates are the easy part of family history in most cases. It is filling in those details that is still hard. Not that I would ever want to give up.
I began with my Pierce family in Machynlleth in ther 1970s and at that time I managed, after about three years, to get back to John Pierce, born in Machynlleth or nearby around 1727. Over 30 years later I still know he was born around 1727 in or near Machynlleth and that is it.
On the other hand I followed my mother's Climo line back and am somewhere around the 16th century in Cornwall.
Oh John, wherefore art thou?

What I find so admirable about Heir Hunters is that they do it the hard way by looking at the BMD register indexes quarter by quarter on microfilm as we had to do before they were put in a database and indexed. Genealogy has been made so much easier in the last few years particularly for beginners with so much online.

But it is a matter of luck. I coordinate a Family History Group for parents and staff at my daughter's school and have helped a number of beginners over the last 3 years. Some families are so easy to trace and some are like getting blood from a stone - they are not in the census indexes and literally have to be progressed certificate by certificate. When beginners hit one of those it is very disheartening and I tell them to pick another surname to try and if your family are difficult try your spouse's. Out of 8 names one should be relatively easy! (Well except in my sister in law's tree that is.)

I read an article once by someone researching their family history who said "my ancestors were just waiting to be found". Unfortunately my experience has been exactly the opposite and my ancestors seem determined to try and stay hidden.

I started my family history research a number of years ago and decided to start with my father who, as my parents had separated when I was 2 years old, I knew very little about. I did, or thought I did, know his name: it was on my birth certificate,on my parent's marriage certificate and written in his Sunday School Bible that I had. My mother told me his date of birth so what could be easier than to get his birth certificate - except there was no record of his birth. My research also came to a stop before it had started. The reason why I couldn't immediately trace his birth - he was illegitimate and his birth had been registered in his mother's name from her first "marriage" (in fact my grandmother never married her first husband but she took his name). At the time my father was born his parents were living together as husband and wife but were not married until two years after his birth. This has been the story of my research ever since with frustrations at every turn. My grandfather served in the Duke of Cornwall's light Infantry during the First World War. I have not been able to trace any military records, other than his record card, for him and the DCLI museum does not have the muster books for his particular regiment. All they can tell me is that he was over age when he enlisted (46 when at the time of his enlistment on 06/09/1914 when the upper age was 40) and that his army number indicates that he was a pre-war reservist but try as I might I have not been able to trace any pre-war military records. My great great grandfather died in the workhouse - why was he there? - no idea as the workhouse records no longer exist for this period. I could go on as literately every generation has caused me one problem or another and I am quiet pleased I have achieved what I have - and I am still looking for answers. I love watching WDYTYA but get so envious when people turn up photographs, paintings, artefacts and books. Excluding my parents my photographs consist of:
maternal grandmother - about a dozen
maternal grandfather - 1
maternal great grandfather - 1
maternal great grandmother - none
paternal grandmother - 1
paternal grandfather - none
paternal great grandparents - none

How different researching my wife's family has been. By comparison this has been simple, helped by the fact that I found a book that had been written on one branch of her family that took the family tree back to the 1590s (I am still checking the accuracy of the information but to date it has proven to be 100%)

Luck plays a big part in family history research, whether or not records still exist and how common the name is you are researching. It is like a detective story as you follow up clues some of which lead to a dead end. It is so frustrating but it is what makes it so fascinating

Paul