Family History

D

darkroom12

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I the oldest surviving member of my family with my son and daughter and my 4 grand children following on. After my mother died in 1999 (my father died in 1970) I found a whole pile of letters (some dating back to 1885 - 1900) and a number of birth and death certificates and a mass of photographs, some including one set of Great Grandparents. I also found out that my maternal grandfather was a submariner in the 1914-18 war and was quite highly decorated for bravery. I don't know why. but these were never ever talked about when my family were alive. I have found out that those that went to make up my family were farmers, coal miners, a Royal Navy officer. later a Merchant Navy Captain. Policemen (3 generations), painters and decorators, and a Confectioner. Some of the female members didn't go out to work, but others were 'in service' for the landed gentry, also office workers and at least two served in the armed services during the 1939/45 war There was one member who was a criminal who had served time 'inside' but I cannot find anything out about him.

From these snippets I developed an intense interest in the people who went to make up who we were and in the intervening 21 years have amassed information going back to 1830. This has taken me all over the NE and NW of England. I have found direct relatives in both Australia and America. I also found out that a photograph of me aged about 18 months old was taken on a farm with me sitting on the shoulders of who was a German POW, waiting to be repatriated after the war ended.

I set out a project at the beginning of the 1st lockdown to assemble these photographs, take as many more as I could of places where my forebears lived and worked. Then to write all the information in chronological order to be passed onto my Grandchildren so the family history is not completely lost. Who knows, in future years with a foundation like this, hopefully they may be able to dig even deeper into who we were. There is an album and the written history for all the grandchildren each containing about 90 old photographs.Plus about half as many again of new ones taken during my searches in Northumberland and Cumbria. The project is now finished and the fruits of the effort are ready to be handed over.
 
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Great story.
You're the oldest surviving member of your family, but far from being the last ;)
 
Pics required!
 
Good story, I did something similar but not to the same extent when my mother dies a couple of years ago. I inherited all her photographs, old family birth and death certificates, a few war time records etc, and in the same way it did you, it ignited an interest in me. Spent a few months tracing the family tree through ancestry, and took my dads side back 8 generations. Found a horse thief, soldier, sailors and a few emigrants.

Assembled the best of the photos, including one of my great great grandmother, the only one from that generation, produced a high quality photobook, including the family tree, for my daughter and gave it to her last Christmas. We have only the one child, and she's 28 with little interest in starting a family, so it may well be the end of my story, but at least it's now recorded in some detail. Volume 1 ended at my daughters birth, Volume 2, should I go ahead, will follow on from there.

It was a time consuming endeavour which at times became obsessive, but I'm glad I did it
 
The sad part about the history is, it seems both of my contacts in the US and Australia have both died. This has been confirmed by the family in America but they do not appear to be interested in continuing contact. The one in Australia has not been confirmed an all attempts at trying to penetrate the Australian Data Protection laws have been totally fruitless. Apparently they have what is loosely called the '100 yr' law where all information is protected for 100 yrs after the death. Even writing to the Australian embassy has yet to be answered.
 
I have done extensive research on my family tree going back as far as 1420 ..... the problem is for every answer you get every descendant you find there is always more questions than answers.
 
Yes I know. When you are younger you never think to ask questions and I only really started to get into the family history after my mother died. One thing that is niggling me is my grandmother who was married to the Sea Captain Matthew Hall, remarried a few years after he was lost at sea and his name of her new husband was Jim Turnbull. Although my mothers maiden name was Hall I didn't question why I always referred to grandma as Granny Turnbull. About 3 years after mum's death I visited her sister who lived in Derbyshire and over Sunday dinner I mentioned that I was looking into the family background and innocently asked 'Who was Mr Turnbull? The reaction was as if I had asked her to amputate an arm! 'We don't talk about him!' End of conversation and the atmosphere turned quite icy? I have no date of birth for him, I don't know when they got married, nor do I know if they ever were divorced or did he just die. Certainly my mother and father never talked about him. A mystery man indeed.
 
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I know what you mean, I wish I could talk to my mother or father again as I never really asked them much while they were alive, and for this reason I have written "My Life History" and saved it for my grandkids to read when they are interested, telling of my childhood, where we lived, first school, earliest memories, where I met the wife and what we did for a living ... all the things I never really knew about my parents.
I do find the 1939 register a good source for info, so maybe if you havent already tried you may find some info on you Jim Turnbull.

It's fascinating, hard work and a headache at times but so addictive.
I have had my DNA done and found that I have ancestry from Egypt, so may be I'm a long lost Pharaoh .... lol
My wifes results showed she had Viking heritage, to her great excitement .... lol

Paul
 
ShropshireLad said:
I know what you mean, I wish I could talk to my mother or father again as I never really asked them much while they were alive, and for this reason I have written "My Life History" and saved it for my grandkids to read when they are interested, telling of my childhood, where we lived, first school, earliest memories, where I met the wife and what we did for a living ... all the things I never really knew about my parents.
I do find the 1939 register a good source for info, so maybe if you havent already tried you may find some info on you Jim Turnbull.

It's fascinating, hard work and a headache at times but so addictive.
I have had my DNA done and found that I have ancestry from Egypt, so may be I'm a long lost Pharaoh .... lol
My wifes results showed she had Viking heritage, to her great excitement .... lol

Paul
Click to expand...

That is the main reason I carried out the project. I have 4 grandchildren who are at the moment quite young, but they will get a copy of the photographs an index and a written history as I know it. I have had to search most of it out myself and at least one of them may well be interested in looking further into what I have found so far. They may be able to find out about the mysterious Jim Turnbull.

My daughter has had the DNA check done and as suspected we are basically from Northern England with Scottish and East Anglia thrown in.
 
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