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Why are you a family historian?

I started in the late 70s, after finding a little, privately-printed book of poems and essays by one of my grandfather's forebears. Most were about the writer's family, so I was able to piece together who they were and to draw out my first wobbly tree from that. The family turned out to have been Staffordshire stonemasons, then civil engineers building canals and later railways - and of course that led me into a wealth of social history, plus contacts (and even visits) with today's descendants in Hungary, Australia and Canada.

Like Viv, I have been wondering how to get this down on paper in a readable form. The computer is great for organizing tree info, but nothing beats paper for longevity.

Of course, as the "family historian" one is the butt of humour for everyone else in the family, but I expect they will be grateful in the long run...

Angela
 
Family historians can add a personal touch adding oral history & photographs to the names and dates found on paper, it brings the person back to life in a way that can answer long searched for questions.
 
I started my family history because my family never really talked about their past , both parents were only children so when they both died in 1993/1995 I began to get curious.My son introduced me to Computor searching and that began my obsession with not only my own tree but helping others with theirs.
I visited Staffs records offices to get way back into my family history and have a briefcase full of paperwork.
Luckily all my family were born in and never left Staffordshire.
 
I think for me definitely turning 40 had a part to play and it made me reflect on my own life and the people who came before me. Ive always been drawn to history and cemeteries, so ancestry felt like a natural extension of that. So although I still build on my own family tree, ive now started to help others locate family to using find a grave :).
 
I was curious because there were family stories about being connected to famous French people. They were not true but it started me on a never-ending interest. I'm a Brummy and so were the ancestors who were supposed to be French!!! I'm not so mobile anymore but I used to visit graves in places like Warstone Lane Cemetery and imagine relatives standing there years ago. Sometimes it's so sad to find a relative died in the Workhouse Infirmary or a lady died in childbirth but other times it's interesting to find someone went to Canada or Australia, or prison. I did find a long-lost uncle, the family knew him by a different name and that's why Mom couldn't trace him.
rosie.
 
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