How did you start down this road? .....

[And It Makes Me Shine]

Interested to find out how other started down the Frustrating/exhilirating road to theyre family history. Mine was a bit accidental really. My mothers mother (My Gran) was always shrouded in secrecy. It was something that haunted my mother all her life because she died when my mum was only 7 or so my Mum thought but noone would say where she was buried or when it exactly happened or how. Noone would tell her anything and she had no father so was raised by an Aunt. My Mum still worried about this in her sixties and I decided to investigate. Unfortunately the death records for that year were not open and I had to sit and wait. My mum died at Christmas and I decided to try again and the records were now open at Scotlandspeople. She did die when my mum was seven from TB the only skeleton was the fact she was unmarried. I had credits left and decided to check out the other family members. The McGuires in the 1891 Census had 8 in the family and two lodgers and two windows. That was it finished I had used my Credits. Apprx. 3 weeks after, I was in Hamilton Museum with the Kids and picked up a book with Edwardian photos of Hamilton and low and behold the front photo was a photo of the exact Street my ancestors had stayed in within 10 years of the photo. I was hooked I have now managed to get one part of my family back to the 1700's. The lady died in a place called McGhie Street in Hamilton and I could not find this Streetm any where. Eventually I found an old Ordanance Map from the 1800's and McGhie Street is now called Montrose Crescent. Guess where my mum stayed and died, yes Montrose Crescent. I have now took a rest from the family tree and I am investigating all the old photos I have and trying to put names to them..

[ninatoo]

Back in 1998 my dad's uncle Fred died back in Scotland. He had lived with his sister (my Gran) all his life, so the flat had her old stuff in it as well as his. As the only surviving relative, Dad had to go back to Scotland and clear out the flat.

When he and Mum returned, they had a small box of photos of family I had never known (where did the rest go??? ), numerous diaries, and three actual certificates from Dad's grandparents' marriages and a birth registration for Gran. Also Gran's marriage certificate, divorce papers and birth certificate of a baby son who had died.

I was fascinated by all of this and decided to one day 'get stuck into' the tree. But I never really had the opportunity until my first dabble in 2002. I got nowhere fast, and didn't persevere as I had many other things going on in my life at the time. But I took the reins up again about two years ago and really got going when someone at another site did a look-up for me. I was hooked and have never stopped since. In fact I get withdrawal symptoms if I can't be researching for more than a day or two!

Nina

[Russell]

Know the feeling of withdrawal Nina

My wife says it only takes half an hour for it to set in with me. She exaggerates. I can last at least an hour

I only checked out a photography site and found a potted history of my
g-grandfather who was an early profesional photographer. The story was too incomplete - I knew better of course! so I got in touch and added missing details. That merely showed up the gaps in what we knew so I dug around with Google and came up with a bit more. Then I realised how many dedicted genealogy sites there were and spent 3 months just exploring for nothing in particular simply enjoying the generosity of all these dedicated family researchers who would happily go out of their way to help a complete stranger on the other side of the world.
My mother, under gentle prodding came up with a box load of old photos, birth certificates, bits of an old family Bible, wee snippets of paper with scribbled memories from 2 generations back then told me I was now Keeper of the Family History (say that in severe, sombre,stentorian tones please!!!)
I was was as happy as a bunnie in a carrot field
Figuring out how to get the best use out of scotlandspeople took quite a time, but I think I've cracked it now!
That led to TalkingScot so now I'm in another carrot field

Now please don't distract me ....."If he got married in 1674 then he must have been born in.... mumble, mumble"

Russell

[ASGROOMBRIDGE]

Like you I started when my mother died in November 2003, I knew nothing of my grandfather although I had a very beloved Grandmother I was never allowed to ask any questions about my Grandfather in fact until my mother passed I only knew that his last name was McGowan and that he had abandoned the family just before my mother was born, she never had a good word to say about her father (and who can blame her) I never heard my Grandmother say a bad word about him and I would like to think she always loved him. They never divorced and although I have traced my grandfathers family back to the 1600's (and have been welcomed by some wonderful people) I have never found my grandfather Andrew McGowan. He did not die in Scotland or England and as his parents moved to Glasgow from Coalburn in the early 1900's the family lost touch.
From being an only child I now have many cousins who I love dearly, I started out trying to solve a family mystery and ended up with a very addictive hobby no sorry it is now a way of life that I cannot ever imagine being without. I have many new friends especially all the lovely people on TS.

Thank you all for becoming my friends.

Here's to a great addiction

Audrey

[Tracey]

Finding a Post Office Savings Book dated 1899 - Stewart Street Portgordon Branch belonging to my gt grandfather. I had the internet and so i was off.................. Simple

[CatrionaL]

I was frequently asked: Are you related to

David Livingston, the explorer
The Mayor of London or
Jonathan Livingston Seagull?

Got a bit weary of having to answer "I haven't a clue", so decided to find out.

Catriona

[JimM]

A few years ago my mother was showing me some of her wedding photos.. an old postcard fell out.
It was a postcard my grandmother had written when she was 12 years old.
The postcard was sent from Alnwick in England to St. Vincent street in Glasgow.

My grandmother died when my mum was only a few months old.. so I decided to try to find out as much as I could about her ...

The rest as they say is history (and a bit of geography)

[WilmaM]

An effort to track down the Spanish GG[x?] Granny that my husband is supposed to have

If she existed, I sure canny find her

[joette]

I was always the one pestering Grandparents/Great-Aunts for stories of their childhood.I loved it when my Mum told us tales of hers"Tells us about the emeralds & the chickens?""Tell us about apple scrumping when you were evacuated"
My Mother's Mother died when I was a baby & as my Aunt/Uncles were still young we moved in with them.So I was always surrounded by people.
My Father's Mother then married my Mother's Father& so the bond was strengthened & we never had the dilemma of which set of Grandparents to visit at Christmas!
My Father as an only child inherited all of his Father's mementoes,photos,letters etc.I was always fascinated by Sask Kate my Grandfather's sister especially when my Granny told me that all the Scott sisters were 6 ft tall! The photos of her & her family on their homestead in Sask was a World away from Clydebank.
I am also LDS & one of the tenets of our faith is to "seek out our kindred dead" so my first dip was on the Microfiches & films at the Family History Centre-no tell a lie it was to St.Andrews House in Edinburgh way back in 1973! I found out a little but it was an expensive slow search.
I kept plodding away & the IGI opened up other avenues but the biggest leap has to be the Internet.I am not a patient person & so glad apart from other reasons to be Scots as the SP gives you instant!!!??? answers
to your queries-the English system is so slow & expensive in comparison.
Now I have uncovered links to USA,Australia,Canada,England(SCots born)
& Ireland with the latter being the most challenging.
I have uncovered scandals,heartbreak,loss & great fortitude.I am so proud of my forebears-mainly Farmers,Ag Labs,Blacksmiths,Weavers & Masons.They lived their lives with a great dignity & just got on with it as best they could with humour & patience.
I have found things to true & that some stories are inaccurate.
Oh & I finally found Sask Kate-Catherine Scott then Linley then Anderson who lived to be over ninety & am in contact with her GGGranddaughter.
There is always something else to find & as one line falls I switch to another & then back & forth.
Addiction what addiction?It's a hobby & it is untrue that I ask people when I meet them "Where did your such & such ancestors come from?"

[Tracey]

Wilma we have one of those too - somewhere !