Genealogy Chat

Lyla Yes, it will take ages to do from scratch I expect!Still, what better way to pass all those long winter evenings? When I am ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE its the same person, I put it on one bit of paper for that person. Any doubt, and I put it on another bit of paper. Sometimes info comes up later which shows its the same person, so info is transferred and one bit of paper thrown away! Example: IGI bmds, I write in pencil until I have proved or disproved who they really are Absolutely proven information i.e. certs,parish records, I write in black ink. I also use different coloured inks for certain records - A2A in red outline, my own direct line all in red, a book I found about the family in green and so on - this means whilst flicking through I can pick out 'categories', i.e. census returns or Ellis Island stuff. For a Family Group I will put the children on the parents sheet in a simple list, each child having a sheet of its own - proven in ink, unproven in pencil. I have actually tried to create a data-base on my pooter but it proved far more difficult to manouevre than a couple of shoe boxes! As I said, it works for me even though its a bit Heath-Robinson. I am actually amazed at how much info I have amassed without consciously looking for it. Marjorie

Marjorie I am going to give it a try with my Flewers line so you may not see me around for a few months! Maybe I'll even find a clue that will help me break down my brickwall in the process! I'm not very computer friendly so shoe boxes sound like the perfect solution for the likes of me. Thanks for the advice - I'm off to start my ONS right now. Lyla

Lyla Good luck, but be warned - you will find yourself in some very strange places! (For instance - 1539, a big family row, culminating in a priest being beheaded - I HAD to check if this was true - it was, but took some finding! Another one, Lord of the Manor, JP, Overseer of the Poor etc etc, having at least seven illegitimate children, all of whom he set up nicely with farms etc, marrying the mothers off to his Estate Workers - I was enthralled. My REAL family research goes on the back burner and I sometimes feel guilty about the amount of time I spend on 'the others', but it is so addictive, I cannot stop. Lots of these people have been much easier to trace than my 'real' relatives, incidentally!) Marjorie

I'm in too late for this thread, but wanted to let you all know that there is some good advice in there.

I have fallen into a 'one name study/one tree study) for the Vernon family. Fortunately there is a lot of information taking the noble line back to 996AD and I've charted out 31 generations of the family already and linking in other lines as I go. No, I haven't found the link to my own family which is slowly working backwards - up to late 1600s so far, but I am enjoying visiting all of the great houses and castles that the family lived in, built or bashed down.

So, if you are a Vernon or one of the at least 10 variants that I have found so far, please get in touch at [email protected].

The other lines of research haven't come to a complete halt as I have cousins on my mothers side doing that family, and some on my fathers side that are interested. I'm thinking about conning my cousins children into transcribing the bmd indexes for me for a bit of extra pocket money as I have only done 30 years of deaths and have over 2500 names already.

Are we mad? Yes. But very very very happy.

Helen Vernon