Visiting the places your ancestors came from? [Archive] - B-G Forums sponsored by Parish Chest Ltd.

vetsy

11-10-2006, 12:15 AM

I travelled from Australia to England last year and spent several days in Somerset tracing my family tree. Unfortunately I didn't get any "vibes" and was very saddened to find the place where my great grandfather was born and grew up had been knocked down. That said he grew up in slums so it's only right that the buildings were knocked down but in its place was a block of flats and it just didn't feel right.

GeoffD

11-10-2006, 06:02 AM

I've never had the chance to visit any of my ancestral places, except the local one just down the road. However, looking at pics of Mousehole I feel that I could very easily find an affinity with that place. :)

Geoff now goes into daydream mode.
If I did return to UK to chase the ancestors, it would be an interesting road trip. Starting in Essex (Chelmsford), I could then head for Pinner, visit a few birthplaces around Pancras before heading off to Darenth to try to find Philip Drew's burial site. Then on down to Southampton to visit some living rellies, before heading for East Devon and a really good rellie rally. After that, call in on Terry at DFHS then cross over into Cornwall and head right down to the pointy bit. Backtrack to Redruth, then up to Clifton/Chipping Sodbury before turning east again through Somerset and Wiltshire on the way back to London. Side trips might be required here and there to visit living rellies (or bludge a bed for the night with compliant BD-Forumites :o ). That just leaves Fermanagh out on its own - maybe that could be fitted in by interrupting the trip at Bristol, and zipping across to the Emerald Isle.

Now, to win the lottery :D

Ed McKie

11-10-2006, 06:14 AM

Being the seventh son of a seventh son- I have always had feelings of dejavu in various places, and since taking up family history research some umpty dumpty years ago this has been reinforced. In fact my discovery of connections with places I had previously visited and felt at home in, I have found quite uncanny.For instance, I always liked Germany long before I knew that I had German ancestors.

Cheers..ed

Ed McKie

11-10-2006, 06:16 AM

I might add Geoff, that I never felt at home in Bris.....
But my Dad visited Bundy during the war and have always wondered why I feel at home here......always looking for rellies :-)

ED

JeanetteH

11-10-2006, 07:04 AM

I'm planning a trip to Oxford to visit the places where my Great great grandmother etc lived,grew up and wondered if anyone whoever returned to the places of their ancestors felt any sort of presence or familarity/tie with the area.

I must admit to experiencing an interesting feeling of being "comfortable" in and "at home" in Winchester when I went back to England aged 18-20. I liked it a lot and thought what a lovely place it would be to live. Back then I didn't realise the extent of my maternal roots there, not until many years later. I like to think that I (fanciful perhaps!) felt a sense of ancestral connection to the place.

Jeanette

JeanetteH

11-10-2006, 07:08 AM

MarkJ

11-10-2006, 11:52 AM

I've never had the chance to visit any of my ancestral places, except the local one just down the road. However, looking at pics of Mousehole I feel that I could very easily find an affinity with that place. :)

Geoff, should you be fortunate enough to win the lottery, make sure you visit Mousehole at Christmas time - in the evening! The tiny harbour and streets are filled with illuminations - little tableaux of various festive things. The shops are open - little quaint shops, selling tea and cakes etc, together with small shops selling gift ideas. In many households here in Cornwall, a trip to Mousehole is a must at Christmas - but it is very very busy!

Mark (who lives in the parish where his father, grandfather, greatgrandfather..... were born!)

Geoffers

11-10-2006, 12:08 PM

I'm planning a trip to Oxford to visit the places where my Great great grandmother etc lived,grew up and wondered if anyone whoever returned to the places of their ancestors felt any sort of presence or familarity/tie with the area.It depends on the area. Some places have not changed very much apart from evidence of advances in technology. Other places are vastly different and so any connection is limited.

What you find in Oxford, depends to a great extent on what part of the city or surrounds your family lived. Very little of Cornmarket, Queen Street or 'The Paradise' would seem familiar to a Victorian - but then parts of Jericho, backstreets around the colleges and St.Giles amongst others, would be easily recognised.

Geoffers

GeoffD

11-10-2006, 01:02 PM

joette

11-10-2006, 01:18 PM

I was born/brought up in the West of Scotland.Now as some may or may not know there is great" rivarly" between the West & East especially between Glasgow & Edinburgh.
I feel such an affinity to Edinburgh to me it feels like" home".My paternal Grandfather & back three generations came from Midlothian.I never knew him or any of his side as he died when my Dad was a young teenager.
I felt such a thrill visiting the address where my GGGRandparents lived at in 1824 when they married at St Cuthberts.
I wandered the streets of Penicuik were my Grandpa had been born & I could visualise them all.
I have found a cousin three times removed & he lives in Penicuik & despite the fact we have never met feel really comfortable with him & his sister.
My heart leaps when I see/hear anyplace connected with my ancestors.
It has been a revelation to discover my connections to Ireland which I had little clue of.Will visit one day although I have no idea whereabouts they came from in the Emerald Isle.

MarkJ

11-10-2006, 01:42 PM

Mark J, I have seen photos of the Christmas Lights in Mousehole. Bit afraid that if I get there a couple of days early, I'll be made to eat Stargazy Pie. :D

I like the little note on a lot of websites about Mousehole; "would visitors please leave their cars outside the village and walk."

And your website isn't working for me right now, for some reason.

Ah yes! Tom's eve ;) Not my cup of tea either - disgusting thought, eating that!
They do turn the lights off for an hour or two on the 21st I think it is, in memory of the crew members of the Solomon Browne RNLI lifeboat which was lost at sea in the early 1980's.
No idea why the St Enoder site is down currently - it runs courtesy of a kindly supplied free account on a friends hosting account, so it does seem to have its moments of madness!
I keep thinking about moving the whole thing to my own server, which runs much more reliably, but I haven't done so as yet. It should be back up later I expect.

busyglen

11-10-2006, 01:58 PM

busyglen

11-10-2006, 02:04 PM

Mmm, I relate to this so much!

Jeanette

Strangely enough, I have similar feelings. My mother was born in Deal, Kent, and although I don't get there too often, and have never lived there, it is a place I feel really at home and comfortable in. Actually it's a place I fancied retiring to, but we are still in our place of birth.....too comfortable I guess.

Glenys

Diane Grant-Salmon

11-10-2006, 05:51 PM

Geoff, should you be fortunate enough to win the lottery, make sure you visit Mousehole at Christmas time - in the evening! The tiny harbour and streets are filled with illuminations - little tableaux of various festive things. The shops are open - little quaint shops, selling tea and cakes etc, together with small shops selling gift ideas. In many households here in Cornwall, a trip to Mousehole is a must at Christmas - but it is very very busy!

Mark (who lives in the parish where his father, grandfather, greatgrandfather..... were born!)

So guess who did that every Christmas, 1990-1998 (two weeks hols from approx. 19 December every year) whilst staying in the Company flat at Penzance? Not hubby's Company, I hasten to add, but the firm he worked for ...... ATS near Tesco! Mind you, we shopped at Safeway. :D

We literally bumped into two people in Safeway once ..... Jan Harvey and the bloke who played Ken in *Howard's Way* on TV ...... long before your time!

Great place to be at Christmas and New Year ..... then grave hunting at Constantine and Wendron. ;)

GeoffD

12-10-2006, 01:37 AM

No idea why the St Enoder site is down currently - it runs courtesy of a kindly supplied free account on a friends hosting account, so it does seem to have its moments of madness!
I keep thinking about moving the whole thing to my own server, which runs much more reliably, but I haven't done so as yet. It should be back up later I expect.

Yep - temporary glitch. Seems OK now. I wonder if there's anybody in there that is of use to me?

A short time later: The surname of my High School English and Music teacher features very heavily in that parish. I wonder if that is where F L Bullock's family originated?

MarkJ

12-10-2006, 01:42 AM

Yep, it sorted itself out later on. Annoying though.
If you do have any vague connection with St Enoder, I also have the list of headstones in the later cemetery, next to the church which may be of interest. Or - and I don't do this offer for everyone - I could let you see my own secret website - which lists my family tree ;)

GeoffD

12-10-2006, 04:19 AM

Thanks for the offer, Mark, but not a parish name that turns up much in my mob (so far). However, there are some familiar looking names in what I have looked at so far - surnames of spouses-of, that sort of thing.

I'll let you know.

Some pertinent names here (http://www.british-genealogy.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16667)

MarkJ

12-10-2006, 11:47 AM

Ah yes, I have seen the Penwith list before. Not many names which are common up here in the middle of Cornwall - although of course, Hocking and variants appear all over the place!
It is a long walk/pony ride to this part of Cornwall from Penwith though, so I suspect there was not a huge amount of movement until quite late in the 19th century. I would expect a lot of Penwithians travelled by sea to various port locations though.
The Bullock surname is a common one here - one of the several Wild West characters named Dead Eye Dick came from here - Richard Bullock.

waspexile

13-10-2006, 01:34 PM

Most of my family live in Sussex and until I started doing the research this March I was unaware of the familys Hampshire/Wiltshire roots.

It was my great grandfather who instigated the change, became a coachman, and moved to Brighton. As a coachman he moved houses very often, I've found at least 9 addresses in 30 years.

Having now lived in Burgess Hill for quite a few years, I'd been to St Johns 3 times for weddings and christenings and with a certain degree of inevitability found out recently that one of his daughters was christened in St Johns in 1901 and they lived alongside the main road during the census.
Both places less than 800 yards from my front door.

You never know whats just round the corner.........

Peter Goodey

13-10-2006, 03:10 PM

You never know what's just round the corner......or in my case, what was just round the corner.

I lived for five years in Sheffield blissfully unaware of my ancestors' roots just down the road in Nottinghamshire. Before that, I lived in Reading and didn't have a clue that my paternal ancestors came from a short distance north in Oxfordshire.

patvp

30-10-2006, 04:59 AM

Have recently returned from the U.K. (Yorkshire) and was so lucky to be able to walk the streets where my ancestors came from, a few of the houses remain so photography was in order... it also had a lot of use in the cemetary ( I am busy trying to print out copies for further research) met family not seen for 40 years, no feeling of deja vu... but... Featherstone is not that big a place LOL unfortunately did not get to Staffordshire, maybe next time.

HelenVSmith

30-10-2006, 06:22 AM

I have been lucky enough to do a few trips to England. I visited Coombe (Long Combe) near Oxford and felt a sense of homecoming. Would be very happy to live there. My lot left there in 1882 to come to Queensland. However maybe the fact that of about 30 houses in the village around the common 23 were inhabitated by the various BUSBY members may have had something to do with it.Haven't really felt it about the other areas as places even though the people have all be very welcoming and so many people ahve helped me with information about their areas.

Helen

Ladkyis

30-10-2006, 09:10 AM

As part of the TV programme they took me to one of the addresses my 2x great grandparents had lived at. In 1871 it was a furniture and picture dealers showroom but today it is an empty, five storey office building that used to be the offices of Stagecoach, the bus company. but it didn't matter because I stood in the doorway and looked across the street at a neat litle victorian church and I could imagine my great great grandfather standing at the door of his showroom waiting for the customers to come and buy the Rubens or the Joshua Reynolds he had just acquired

Omega

30-10-2006, 12:33 PM

I might add Geoff, that I never felt at home in Bris.....
But my Dad visited Bundy during the war and have always wondered why I feel at home here......always looking for rellies :-)

ED

You are probably living too close to the factory and breathing the fumes Ed. |biggrin| |biggrin|

Deirdre

samhuzz

02-11-2006, 08:07 PM

Do you think that's why I feel so comfortable in pubs, as 3 of my ancestors ran pubs in Leicestershire (where I live)? Or is it the love of beer?

Cheers

Samantha

JeanetteH

03-11-2006, 12:59 AM

Do you think that's why I feel so comfortable in pubs, as 3 of my ancestors ran pubs in Leicestershire
Who can say for sure? But I think it's a wonderful excuse . . . I'd love to be able to use that one! :D

Jeanette

|cheers|

Reeve99

03-11-2006, 04:43 PM

I am lucky to be living only a matter of a few miles away from where most of my ancestors came from and grew up. A few weeks ago, dropped the kids at school and spent the rest of the day driving round the area, over the North York Moors to look at the various villages they came from, checking out the churches and graveyards etc. Found a memorial to the family and definitely felt a comforting feeling in a couple of the places. Generally had a relaxing and enjoyable day. I would advise anyone to do it if they can as it really brings things to life. Reading the local history on one church, led me to search for ancestors in the Methodist community which was increasing whilst the Anglican church was decreasing so much so that they only held a service once every 3 weeks!

Anna

DavidA

30-11-2006, 09:50 PM

It gave me a strange feeling, about a year ago, when I discovered that a great grandmother had lived a quarter of a mile from where I now live.

From family anecdotes I'd assumed Hannah Gray (nee Matthews) had lived all her life in Dorset. But when I started to research my family history I found her in the 1881 census as a housemaid in Headington Manor House (now - sadly - just an admin block in the John Radcliffe Hospital) on the outskirts of Oxford. I'd passed this house nearly every week for several years! Moreover she and my g.grandfather were married in the local church, St Andrews (where I'm an occasional bellringer), in 1882. They must have moved to Dorset immediately after they got married; my grandmother was born there in 1883.

My mother (who died a few years ago) had a capacious memory for family history, but even she can't have known about Hannah's time in Headington!

RLucyg

04-12-2006, 10:28 PM

When I moved to Tadcaster 4 years ago, I thought I had no links to the town....how wrong that has proved to be! I have since found at least 8 (5 direct) ancestors buried in the cemetery 50 yards from my house. A house I looked round, that was for sale, I have since found my 4x gt grandmother lived in! I drive past the remains of a pub my 3x gt grandparents used to run. Along with many streets I have found ancestors living in on various census, houses though have long gone.

It was while wandering round the churchyard, soon after I moved to the town, that got me started researching my tree. After I found a headstone with people sharing my surname, not a common one in Yorkshire, and had to find out if I was related (I am!).

India during the Raj has always interested me since I was young, so when I found my 2x gt grandfather has been a soldier in India in the 1880's It all seemed to fit together.

I have also found a convict, send from Tadcaster in 1835 to Hobart, but I have no affinity with Australia!

merry traveler

24-03-2008, 12:54 AM

I visited Mousehole in September of 2002. It was my grandfather's birthplace, surname WEBBER. I felt as if I was coming home. I could imagine my grandfather as a boy, fishing on his father's boat and running through the streets. It was a very moving experience for me.

*bunty*

24-03-2008, 03:08 AM

I have grand dreams of walking the streets my ancestors walked - I think I will be rather fit since my 2 x great grandfather was born in Chirk, moved to Staffordshire, then Durham, before settling in Featherstone, Yorkshire. I might be a while ;).

I am not sure how I will feel - I am excited just thinking about it.

yorkshirecath

24-03-2008, 07:33 AM

I recently found the house in which my mother would have lived when she was born. It's in the same city and i went to visit it last week. Was very emotional thinking that my mum used to be in that house and maybe played as a toddler in that garden.
Made me sad but very happy at the same time :)

mfwebb

24-03-2008, 11:48 AM

I worked for British Coal before retiring and during the 1970's I had many occasions to visit the village of Thurgoland Yorkshire. I always took the opportunity to walk round the churchyard and always felt "at home" there for reasons I couldn't explain then. I later discovered that my grandmother was called Laycock before she married and was born near Thurgoland. There are numerous Laycock burials in Thurgoland Churchyard (now known to be relatives of hers). I later learned that my great grandfather, Chales Webb and ggm Mary Couldwell, are also buried there in the same unmarked grave.

For many years, my ggf Charles Webb was the focus of my research as he was a mystery in many respects. When I found he was born in Houghton Conquest Bedfordshire, as were 3 generations before him, I visited there for an extended period in 1996. I had no "feelings" of belonging whatsoever and was quite disappointed.

It is only in the last 2 years that I have discovered that ggf Charles Webb didn't live in Houghton Conquest long enough to have ever walked the soil there. He was born there in December 1843 but was living with his widowed mother in Hillmorton Warwickshire, who remarried there in February 1846.

Charles lived there for almost 20 years before moving to Yorkshire and marrying there in Silkstone Church in 1866.

I am really looking forward to visiting Hillmorton during the summer.

Malcolm Webb
Lincoln UK

Jan1954

24-03-2008, 12:11 PM

For nearly 30 years, Mr P and I have visited Suffolk - the area around Leiston, Aldburgh and Southwold. I love it there and have always had a feeling of "coming home" but always thought that my roots were firmly in Essex, Cambridgeshire, Kent and Sussex.

However, a couple of years ago, I discovered that one branch of the family came from Theberton and were the blacksmiths there for many generations. I found my 6 x great grandfather had been buried in the churchyard - he died in 1759 and his gravestone is still legible.

We still visit regularly and sit in the pub opposite where he used to live. (Mr P also likes the beer in that neck of the woods!)

suedent

24-03-2008, 01:31 PM

Like Mark I was lucky enough to grow up in the area where my ancestors were born, now I live 400 miles away & can't get back as often as I'd like. I just wish I'd started my research whilst I was still living there, it would have made life so much easier.

My mum's paternal ancestors were mainly in the St Neot/St Cleer area & my dad's paternal ancestors were from the Polperro area. Mind you when researching my mum's family I found that she too had Polperro links. Unsuprisingly it's the place I feel most at home.

My early years were spent on the coast near Looe with lots of visits along the coast to the "ancestral home". I spent my teenage years living in a tiny village near Liskeard. I knew that my dad's mum had been born there. Since doing my research I've discovered ancestors there going back to the 1700s & probably beyond. It's possibly why we always felt comfortable there.

Incidentally the pic in my avatar is taken outside Talland Church on the day my sister & I were Christened in the "family church".

Lindad

24-03-2008, 02:28 PM

My cousin and I have been able to visit various ancestral villages in Wiltshire, Devon, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Northamptonshire and Gloucestershire - and have loved doing so! Not only does it bring the names of places to life, you can simply let your mind run riot as you imagine how your great greats lived... We've toured villages, churches and records offices. We've explored by foot and by car. We've taken hundreds of photos - and have hunted high and low for graves (all too often in vain, but what a treat when you find one!)

We just loved Wiltshire and felt really at home there, although it wasn't a county that we previously knew. We struggled to imagine how any of our ancestors coped with the move from extremely quiet, extremely rural villages to the noisy hustle and bustle of West Ham in London. :confused:

In Oxfordshire I was able to find Duttons shop in Bampton - which was in my family for several generations (and, even though it is now long gone, the name of 'Duttons' is still above the door). :)

In Northampton (where just about all of my ancestors and their relatives) were shoemakers I found their ancestral village of Harpole - and wondered how on earth they all managed to make a living in such a small place... :confused: (Am still working on that one...)

In Suffolk we found the house where one of our ancestors used to be the toll-keeper in Great Blakenham. :) In Ipswich we found one my ancestral homes is now a carpark... :(

I could go on - but, needless to say, my advice would be: if you have the chance to visit - take it! And make sure you take your digital camera and imagination with you. It sure beats going cross-eyed over a computer screen or spending hours pouring over dusty tomes.

Barnzzz

24-03-2008, 10:02 PM

Before moving to Bristol some of mine lived in small Somerset villages, which we spent a day visiting last year. I can't say I felt any affinity with any of these villages, what struck me most was how isolated they all were. I just noticed the lack of shops, library, chip shop etc. Years ago they would certainly have been 1 horse towns. In fact it would have taken a person all day on a horse to reach Glastonbury, the nearest civilisation.

You can tell I'm a proper townie !

Sue

Dargie

25-03-2008, 12:54 PM

In 2005 I was fortunate to make a trip to Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk where my mother was born.
I saw the house in which she was born , the little grammar school she attended and the Abbey gardens where she played. My grandfather's newsagency shop was now remodelled into a Men's Wear shop but very little else had changed.
During our entire visit to Bury St Edmunds, Stowmarket and surronds my daughter and I both had the distinct feeling that we had been there before. We somehow belonged. A very strange and new feeling.
In August I am making a return trip. Thanks to extensive research and help from this forum I now know of a lot more villages from whence came my ancestors. It will be interesting to find out if that feeling of belonging returns.
I hope so!

Border Reiver

25-03-2008, 01:54 PM

I have visited the places in Cumbria where my ancestors came from, and more locally Wentworth, near Rotherham.

I have felt an affinity with all the places but, disappointingly, I've never felt a presence.

Curiously though, I have lived in Johannesburg, South Africa and Auckland, New Zealand only to finish up a couple of miles from Wentworth, where some of my more recent ancestors lived for over a hundred years.

Marisan

28-03-2008, 10:13 AM

I am lucky to have grown up in the area where most of my ancestors originated,and those who came from further afield were not too far away.When I was a small child I had the misfortune (mostly through my own carelessness,I might add) to fall into a canal near to my home one summer day in 1964.I could not swim,and was in the water for only a matter of minutes (it seemed longer) but I was panicking.Luckily,a man was fishing nearby and hauled me out,cold,wet and scared,but otherwise unharmed.However,the experience gave me a life-long fear of canals and to this day I cannot walk along a tow path without my stomach churning.

It was only last year while researching my Family Tree,that I found out that my great-grandfather (paternal) had taken his own life by drowning in the very same canal in 1921 while suffering from an incurable illness.Was it just luck that I was saved or was my ancestor watching out for me?

vic1

28-03-2008, 11:53 PM

I grew up less than a mile from where a lot of my ancestors had lived. local church has seven generations buried there. another has even more but stones are illegible damaged beyond repair. i live twenty miles away now but coming over the hill and seeing the valley beyond is an experience beyond words however stressed i am it goes . its the view and the valley if i follw the valley river i follow the almost a family track right up to the welsh dams. i get the same feeling in the presselli mountains and guess what i have family roots there. am wondering if i am looking for my brickwall in the wrong place as where i am looking holds no affinity YET go across the bristol channel to illfracombe and it feels familiar and did the first time i went there age15. I would class it almost like a very mild pale feeling like youn get when you find the person you've been looking for, for ages. and suddenly there they are that feeeling but mild - there agfain maybe i' m very very odd :o|biggrin|

vic1

28-03-2008, 11:56 PM

I am also a very bad typer -shouldn't be was data input clerk - think the curse of old age is hitting (45) least that what daughters say.

GeoffD

29-03-2008, 11:53 AM

merry traveler

13-04-2008, 08:52 PM

GEOFFD, What surnames are you researching from Mousehole? Maybe we have a connection..
I have BLEWETT, WEBBER, MATTHEWS, WILLIS and many others

joycelyn

02-08-2008, 10:13 PM

I visited Falmouth, Cornwall recently to tread in our ancestors footsteps. My mother, two sisters and myself felt truly 'at home' there. Visiting the addresses, and taking photographs for the genealogy file, gave us all such a feeling of belonging and our imaginations ran riot! As our ancestors originally came from Germany it would be great to visit the towns of their birth and see if we get the same feelings. It was so uncanny, that feeling of being brought closer to them.

On the down side - both my mother and one of my sisters felt a depression come over them while visiting Helston in Cornwall - this lifted as soon as we drove out of the town. Bad vibes, do you think? About 18-19 years ago now I visited Mevagissey in Cornwall. It was only to be a very quick visit because on walking by the water there I suddenly burst into tears - I still remember the feeling of utter sadness I felt and couldn't explain it. That feeling disappeared too as soon as we left. I haven't found any link to Mevagissey yet but my ggrandmother's family have lived in Cornwall for centuries, if not forever, and all around the Helston area! I haven't been back there and I really don't want to!

Spooky or what?

Jo

ash33au

03-08-2008, 02:06 PM

My partner and I have done a lot of travel in recent times exploring our ancestral places here in Australia - mainly Victoria. I spent a year living in Tasmania in the same neck of the woods as my great gf was born and always felt like I belonged there.
For our honeymoon later this year we plan to check off a lot of places from our list.
Probably my biggest feeling of belonging came from when I recently visited the old mining town of Creswick to photograph some grave stones and do some investigative work. My Whalley ancestors were pioneers of the town and two of their sons went on to create a number of newspapers. Being a journalist, I felt such a connection to that line of my family, for the whole time I was there and didn't want to leave.

benny1982

03-08-2008, 07:35 PM

My ancestors lived at Evelyn Buildings in Holborn, London in the 1880s. I found the exact location within the street they were down from rate books. The buildings had replaced Nos 1 2 and 3 Dorrington Street. I then walked there and found the building that is there now is very Victorian looking.

I thought "Could the building still be there? I know Holborn was bombed during WW2.

Having looked into this from newspaper articles, ratebooks, property records and the a2a website, and even the St Alban, Holborn Churchwardens, I found that the buildings is the original 1881 built building and is now a hostel that survived Hitler's bombs. That had made my day to find that this is one of the very few out of the hundreds of Victorian built London tenement buildings that still stand today. And that my ancestors had lived there from 1882 to 1889.

Ben

sindylin

05-08-2008, 05:51 PM

This is an interesting subject and makes a change from the usual "Facts and figures" of tracing family history.

I have been researching my mother's side of the family for over a year now and have found it tremendously comforting and luckily for me most of the residences, places of work, graves and so on are still in existance and local to me. I find it really satisfaying to find the past home of someone and to just look at it for a while, a lot of them still look as they did all those years ago. I haven't had any weird experiences, but it brings the person to life for me.

I am also lucky to have lived in the house that my Great Grandfather had built. He bought some land in the late 1880's and built a detached house, my parents still have the original deeds, plans etc....and they were fabulous to read as they were on a waxy paper written very elaborately in brown ink, sealed in red wax, the lot! My grandad was also born in the house as was his younger brother who sadly died when still a baby.

Which brings me to a bit of a grey area, I don't know whether I beleive in "ghosts" as such, but my mum and I always felt sad and depressed in the "front room", it has always felt very cold and oppressive and we never knew why. When I told her about her would be uncle dying in the house we wondered perhaps if he had died in that room? It was never talked about and until I told her she didn't even know his name and thought he was an older brother.

Another thing I have found interesting is that the main family gradually spread out from the original town they were brought up in and settled in other areas, all of which have had relevance to me in one way or another. One couple moved to a village where I now work and their grave is a stones throw away. Two of their children moved to the next village to ours, others have lived where I used to live when I was first married. Another chap settled down the road from where me and 2nd husband stayed while waiting to move to the place we live in now. The various areas are in a 45 mile raduis. I sometimes feel like I am following in their footsteps quite literally!

sindylin

Browneyes

05-08-2008, 07:30 PM

We had planned to visit Cornwall last year including Tywardreath, St Blazey & Boscoppa Downs in St Austell where some of my Chapmans lived and/or died, but our trip fell through. I was also hoping to get to Paddington Cemetery as I know the numbers of two graves of my ancestors but again that fell through. If I did a round trip I'd have to travel via Paddington, Essex, Buckinghamshire, Windsor, Suffolk, Cornwall, Devon and Dorset. Would I want to leave Cornwall though I ask myself. I was hoping to find that Paris featured in my tree as I feel completely at home in Paris but no luck so far...but I have Chappell ancestors and when I went to the Pere le Chaise Cemetery I did keep seeing that name everywhere. Maybe one day....

Browneyes.

sarahsmurf

10-08-2008, 12:48 AM

I used to live in the house my grandparents used to live in. When we were children neither me or my bro and sister would like the small front bedroom and didn't like going in there as it felt cold all the time and sensed something odd. We found out that my great gran, and grandad both died in the small front bedroom and my mum always used to say she'd hear footsteps on the stairs at night when everyone was in bed.

Another thing is when me, my bro and 2 cousins were young we'd always used to play in the graveyard not far from the house. For some reason we were just like magnets attracted to the graveyard even though there was a park, dirt tracks and fields we could have gone play in. The odd thing I found out this year about that graveyard for family treeing is that there's at least 13 rellies (minimum) buried there (including 2 grand and 2 great grandfolks) and found it weird to think if there was some sort of feeling of a connection there when we were younger, and its not like its a big cemetery either its rather small.

The place where me and my bro & sis grew up also is rather creepy now as my dads side of the family came from a small quiet village in Cambridge that we visited 4 yrs ago and it was near enough a mirror image resembling of where we lived then, had a quiet small village with small cemetery & church with fields. And couldn't help feel an odd sense of wonder why my grandad moved all the way upto Staffordshire to live in a nearly identical little village all his family grew up in.

EricS

10-08-2008, 09:53 PM

I recently visited Fordingbridge in Hampshire along with other family members (we arranged a 'reunion'). Found the streets mentioned in the census returns etc., but old houses either couldn't be identified or have long since been knocked down.

However . . . on visiting the church, St Marys, we found a brass plaque on the wall commemorating my 2nd Great Grandparents which had been placed there by their son-in-law my Great Grandfather. What a gem of a find for us!|jumphappy

Eric Tiller-Sheppard

bwarnerok

10-08-2008, 10:51 PM

This Spring I decided to pop over to London and one day I hopped on the Tube to go over to Aldgate to have a look around and see how much it had changed since 1830.

In addition to the usual annoucements in English to be wary of pickpockets, etc... there was another language broadcasting as I stepped off to the platform - something from a bit further East I gathered.

Wandered out on the street and there was St. Botolph's just where it should be and looking little less the wear for it's age (except of course for the graffiti and the bums sleeping on the front steps). Hoped to find some monument or tombstone but decided hurdling the bodies wasn't worth the effort. Walked around the perimeter and could find no other way in.

Walked a bit north on High Street and found some buildings that dated back to the time period I was interested in and realized that my ancestor's shop would've been just next door (or across the street) but it was long gone.

Otherwise rather deserted and not too many people around and my "tourist radar" told me to get back to civilization quickly!

-b-

billysax

11-08-2008, 12:42 PM

We recently visited Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, where my family, at least as far back as the 18th century, came from. Fortunately we had a local guide, a third cousin who lives locally. Left to our own devices we could have found my gg uncle Henry Saxton's grocers shop, simply because it's now the D.H.Lawrence museum, and the church where many of my family were baptised, married or buried. Apart from that, we would have felt lost, but the local knowledge shared by Bill made for a really fulfilling experience.
I don't know what we really expected to find by our own devices, perhaps we thought that Eastwood would look as it did a century and a half ago, which of course it didn't.
Standing near the counter of gg uncle Henry's shop was an experience never to be forgotten.

Denise47

06-09-2008, 12:22 PM

I have just returned to NZ from a visit to the UK. I went to Kentchurch, Grosmont, Llantilio Crossenny, and Upton St Leonards. As indicated on Google Earth Kentchurch was a bend in the road, although I did find the local church and found Davies' gravestones, but newer ones, not old ones. Grosmont was a quaint village and I had a conversation with the local historian. Llantilio Crosseny's village centre was no longer, but by talking to a local farmer I did find a cottage (Brynderry), indicated in the 1861 census as being my gggrandfather's residence. At Upton St Leonards I happened to ask a lady for directions. I told her what I was looking for (Bowden Hall/Bond End Cottages). She lived in the Bond End Cottages, so she took me back to her cottage, where possibly my ggrandfather had lived according to the census. How serendipitous was that! I had no feeling of connection to any of these places in particular, but I do to the UK in general.

Marie C..

06-09-2008, 01:51 PM

I find all this fascinating.
Fifteen years ago I pushed my infant grandaughter in her pram around the streets of a place I had never been to before, Northampton, and couldn't understand how my feet knew which way to go. I found my way as easily as if I'd been there all my life. I stood in a churchyard in a Northants village and felt a strange familiarity.
Three years ago I discovered Northamptonshire roots. My great grandmother was born less than 500 yards from where my grandchild was born. Some of my people had been buried in the churchyard I had visited.
The same familiarity was felt in Theberton in Suffolk and when I visited Ireland it was as if I had come home.
M

Barnzzz

07-09-2008, 12:02 AM

This week we've been off work and have visited the church where GG grandfather got married in Street, Somerset. Then on another day we went to Bath and visited the Old Police Station where he worked (he was a detective). Its now a Brown's restaurant and they do a mean sausage sandwich and coffee. It does give you a strange feeling when you visit 'places your ancestors came from'.

I wonder if this explains some feelings of deja vous. For some unknown reason I felt completely at home and fascinated by Gibraltar whereas everyone I went with was totally underwhelmed. I wonder if I'll find some connection to Gibraltar and I won't be at all suprised if I do.

Sue