Genealogy - advice required

[snatcher]

One of my cousins from Australia is over on holiday here at the moment.He was telling me yesterday that has had quite an extensive delve into his family tree and has got fairly deeply into it - which includes my mothers side of the family.It gave me the idea of trying to do a bit research onto my fathers side of it.

I am really up against it here.My grandparents had died before I was born.Everyone has passed away,my parents,older sister,aunties. There is no one left to give me any answers!!!

I do have my parents wedding certificate though which is my only source material.I would like to know more about my grandfather on my dads side - at least I have his name from the wedding certificate.he was dead when my dad got married. My dad also had a brother and I have lost that connection,and his christian name !!! I know that he had a family and that they moved on to Toronto,Canada.

I had a bit dabble last night on the internet and basically everyone in this line is out to line their own pockets from you.All ideas are welcome on this one as to what my next move should be

John

[mark]

bizzarre co-incidence but been doing a it of mine last few days, Aye. its annoying that they all want some cash for looking at what is free, public information - well, free if you can go to the public records office in Kew

Cost me a tenner thus far, using 1901 Census of England and Wales Online

quite a few surprises too - never really gone beyond my grandad on my dads side - never even met him (or my nana), but mostly mariners/sea captains !
1841 census, my great, great, great grandad - ocuppation - ship builder in whitehaven!

my great great grandad is down as a scouser - on account of him being born on a ship and the first port of call was liverpool where he was registered


really interesting but imagine it can start getting expensive after a while

[pottsy]

I started doing my family tree last summer. I have got back to 1700 on all sides quite easily by using Ancestry.com For a monthly fee of around a tenner it gave me access to copies of all the census info and births, death and marriages. There is also information on shipping records so you can check out the family who moved to Canada. I only paid the fee the once as I managed to get goods leads quickly. It helps that the system cross matches your finds against others researching the same family and gives hints. Not always right but they do help.

It has been a real eye opener for me a Scot born in Glasgow with a mother from York. I discovered that on my mothers side I had roots in Tynemouth and North Shields - some of them owning a grocers on the fish quay and others who part owned the Tyne General Ferry Company. If they had money it was long gone by the time I came along

Good luck in your search - the hard bit is the last 100 years as after that you have census records that are amazingly helpful. They give details of where people lived, their occupations and where they were born. I found that the family who lived in Tynemouth had servants and even a dressmaker living with them so that meant that they had serious money around 1850.

Hope this helps get you started

Ali

[mark]

been a real eye opener for me, knew a fair bit about the northumberland/Alnwick connections with the family, but the seafairing bit was a new one. Always had a fascination with the sea and boats, seems it runs in the family.

just googling around and discovered a 3 masted sailing ship built by my great great great great grandad is still in existence, well sort of, its a rotting hulk of a wreck at goose green in the falklands (hmmnn rotten wooden boats... starting to sound familiar) and was quite famous in its day

Vicar of Bray

just spotted ancestory.co.uk a offering a 14 day free trial, might be worth hammering it for a fortnight then cancelling the account

[tonyfromalnwick]

Mark

What is the Alnwick connection with your family ?
My family go back to 1810 in Alnwick, and I've got back to 1684 in Essendene (Ashington).

You never know, we might share an ancestor !

Just for a bit of your amusement, in the 1700's, I discovered that at a g-g-g-g-grandfathers wedding, two of the guests drank themselves to death !! Now that's a party!



Tony

[mark]

Hardy Bros, founded by my great great great uncle (might be an extra 'great' in there), from what I know, and what my dad told me before he popped off last year, there was a bit of a split in the family in the 20's/30's, unfortunately (for me) my dad was on the side that left, one went north, settled in berwick, think he started a publishing company or a printers or summats, and one ended up in kent

I'd never been back further than late 1800's.. then decided to pay for the info, opened up several avenues, some were in stockton - shipping agents and accountants, some were 'sea captains' and one was a boat builder in whitehaven I just found out, which has cheered me up no end, it was the baotbuildy bit which came back to northumberland from whitehaven when the shipbuilding bit went tits up over there and started the tackle company from what I can make out.

fascinating stuff, and the buggers bred like rabbits, 8 or 10 kids each generation

[tonyfromalnwick]

and the buggers bred like rabbits, 8 or 10 kids each generation

lol

My great grandfather was married twice....16 kids with his first wife, 5 with his second !!

[Red5]

Me mams side, Her dads family lived and worked (mainly agricultural)around the Longhoughton area as far back as the 1700's, Me gran on me mams side came from up in the hills, but originally from the Isle of Skye.

Me dads side, on his mums side were all staunch catholics, from Ireland originally, settled in Newcastle in the 1800's, worked on the barges on the Tyne, and aparently one of the people in the Blaydon races song was a relative. They all seemed to come up good financially in the end......Went wrong a bit on me dads, dads side, again they came from newcastle, but me granda was C of E so, bit of a family rift there. Me great uncle was a merchant captain during the 2nd World war and was torpedoed twice and in his latter years became a bit of a hermit, me granda died when I was young, but he owned the pub at Boulmer, and then me dad took over until 1986,when we were hit bad.
Me dads side of the family were quite seafaring as he was also an officer in the Merchant Navy.

It's all really interesting when you get into it, and I would also check with any living relatives to see if they have already done any research as often this is the case and it saves you a lot of looking about

[tonyfromalnwick]

Me mams side, Her dads family lived and worked (mainly agricultural)around the Longhoughton area

My wifes mams lot came from around there too...farm workers as well !

[The Great Wallsendo]

I've always fancied doing this - my Grandad started a while ago and found links in the Gray clan to the Border Reiver families of Northumberland

Border Reivers Northumberland border history

[Charlie_Thompson]

Most of my family are dead - you're all just showing off

If I do not get married and have a male child our family name dies with me! As my main activities these days are centered around the X Box and a big old fishing boat I guess it's goodbye "Elliott". Our kid has a couple of sons, she's not formally married and the little uns have been given their father's surname - he's got 4 brothers ffs. I did have words but ........

[The Great Wallsendo]

Most of my family are dead - you're all just showing off

I haven't seen my Dad since I was 12 years old - last I heard he was spotted on a bench in Sainsburys in Bath couple of years back (I kid you not )

...if you're looking in Dad send me a PM as it was my birthday last week and I've grown out of the mountain bike you bought me

[Charlie_Thompson]

I haven't seen my Dad since I was 12 years old - last I heard he was spotted on a bench in Sainsburys in Bath couple of years back (I kid you not )

...if you're looking in Dad send me a PM as it was my birthday last week and I've grown out of the mountain bike you bought me

Sorry to hear about that m8, at least he wasn't wasn't found in a bath in Sainsbury's on err ..........

Did you really grow out of a mountain bike Tony must of us come from mummys tummys, Have you got a handle bar moustache and horns because the bell don't work

Most of my family died from the 1990's back to the stone age or earlier, the modern ones are still left. Sorry for any confusion I may have caused.

[codseeker]

i found my lot in the sea are ignorant the tw@ts keep swimming away from iz onto other folks hooks big family members aswell so i wont speak to the rest of them thats left till next winter

[Charlie_Thompson]

My apologies - fascinating thread