How long have you been 'AT IT'?

[Sue Mackay]

I started when my son was a baby. he'll be 30 this year

[busyglen]

I tentatively started in 1968 when my father died, but as he originally came from London (and I live in Kent) I didn't get too far. I then picked it up again in 1973 when my Grandfather died, and with help from my mother, managed to get a bit further. What with work and other distractions, I didn't pick it up again until my mother died in 2000. Once I got a computer and joined BG I didn't look back, but still `try' and do bits as and when I can find the time.

[Mutley]

I'm not sure who is going to win the cup, maybe Colin for his cheek.

I recently helped a friend find some of her ancestors in the census, she also asked me to make a Christening card for a baby born last year. I duly handed over the family history stuff and the card (I make them for charity), well pleased with myself.

She brought the card back the next day, "any chance you could change the date, he is being christened not buried!"
I'd put 1911

[Sandra Parker]

Happens to us all, Mutley!
Sandra

[spison]

I began by helping my mother research both branches of my ancestry sometime during the 1970s. She'd say look here and read so I did. I started my children's ancestry before I had any - in the late 1970s and did the easy bits. The brickwalls on their father's side I didn't have time to work on until about five years ago but I did chip away at them and make small breakthroughs. I also did some historical research on the Second Fleet for Australia's bi-centenary in 1988 even though I had no ancestors there. I'm now completing some local history research along with my family history.
Jane

[Colin Rowledge]

I'm not sure who is going to win the cup, maybe Colin for his cheek.

I recently helped a friend find some of her ancestors in the census, she also asked me to make a Christening card for a baby born last year. I duly handed over the family history stuff and the card (I make them for charity), well pleased with myself.

She brought the card back the next day, "any chance you could change the date, he is being christened not buried!"
I'd put 1911

My comment may have been 'tongue in cheek' but what you did, my old darlin' was priceless [and I'm not being sarcastic - just feeling slightly more 'human'.

Hope you lot can live with that for the next while.

Colin

[Guy Etchells]

I have been "at it" virtually all my life.
I was taught to write tracing parish registers, holidays included washing family tombstones in the churchyards as a result family history is part of life.
It is not a hobby it is not an occupation; simply a natural action like eating or breathing or walking.

Back in the 1970s when I used to drive trucks for a living, mine was often seen parked outside a church where I would be spending my compulsory break from driving searching gravestones or reading registers (if they were still available in the church).
Cheers
Guy

[Julie.Spavins]

For me its since about 2006, the problem I have is that I so want to spend all my time researching, visiting my ancestors villages, meeting new family I never knew about, pieceing together what life was really like...... and dratted work interferes! Still, I suppose it gives me the pennies I need for subscriptions, certificates and the like, so I shouldn't really complain I suppose!

I just find it all so fascinating, even reading the posts on here that have no relevance to my family lines is just so addictive!

Julie

[JenniLl]

Like Guy I have been 'at it' nearly all my life. My Gran used to tell me about her family when I was a very young girl. When I went to stay with my Gran and Grandpa my favourite occupation was to spend hours in the Churchyard opposite their house in Epsom. I would go armed with pencil, paper and an eraser to draw the table tombs and headstones. Diligently copying down the information, this was 1948/9, many years before the Family History Societies were formed.
Unfortunately I never wrote down what my Gran told me and it was not until some twenty years later that I started recording the information - and I'm still 'at it'!
Jenni

[DorothySandra]

I started just 2 years ago, wasting a bit of time trying out the Free Trial on GR: I filled in all the people I knew - I was lucky, I know, because I knew the maiden names of 3 great-grandmothers, and had not much trouble finding the 4th. That took me back to 1860. One grandfather presented no problem: his parents lived in Hampshire (where I live) and their families had been in their respective villages for several hundred years, and I had a lovely time in the Records Office at Winchester reading parish registers, wills and such like.

All the rest of the English have been traceable to the early 19th C, in the Midlands and Cornwall; the Scots (Aberdeen), Welsh (Anglesey) and Irish (Dublin) to about 1850. I've exchanged information with distant cousins in Australia, Canada and the US; complete strangers have provided much needed guidance, and altogether it's been an interesting and rewarding experience.

I don't know how much more information I'm going to find, it's slow work, but a little more comes to light every month or so. I skitter about from one branch to another, chipping away at the brickwalls.