British Expatriate Network

I spend less time here nowadays because I spend more and more time tracing and building my family tree. If I'm allowed to I can bore people to sleep with my endless talk about discoveries made and trails followed. Just as they reach the point of terminal boredom I try to wake them up by suggesting digging into theirs and sometimes their history is even more fascinating than my own (if that's even possible!!). I find it fascinating to find my ancestors on census returns and to find out that I'm related to several families in one village.

So, people, fascinate me with your family history or bore me by telling me what grips you as much as genealogy has gripped me! If you don't I'll start telling you about my interminable lines of Arrowsmiths and Williams'.

My Dad has done the same thing on both sides for me. Apparantly my family goes back to living in Oxfordshire since the 16th century. There is some website he uses and he talks to other people distantly related trying to form their own tree.

This is a good site.
http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/

My brother has done extensive research into our family tree following a teacher's comment when he was at school that inquired as to whether we were related to Sir Hugh Dowding of the Battle of Britain fame.

Mark's webpage is here

What I find fascinating is the family resemblances that skip a generation or two. Our great grandmother, Amy Laura (when she was younger, certainly) can be seen in the features of my twin aunts Ann and Judy, also my cousin Ian(not pictured on the website), is the dead spit of our great uncle Frederick Brewin!

As I get older I find that I am turning into my paternal grandmother!!!!

Hope you enjoy the site...you will find a wonderful picture of me taken when I was 22 or so...I had just returned from watching Tony Knowles play in a local snooker tourney!!

Debs x

Debs - I remember you showing me that website before - it's very nicely put together. I like seeing all those northern names. Any relation to Deirdre Barlow by any chance?

Keith - that's where I started and found a couple of new cousins, but now I'm mostly on Ancestry.com and British-Genealogy.com They are all useful in their own way. Some of my ancestors came from Hertfordshire, by the way. I think one of them probably slept in the Great Bed of Ware, actually

Adeshell - I think genealogy has caught on in a big way in the UK and it's helpful to be able to find out so much online. There are, I suspect, many "old school" genealogists who did a lot of research BC (before computers) who don't like the newbies coming along and finding things so easily. I don't count myself in either group - I started BC but learned a lot more online.

I have recently found a snippet of information about an elusive relative named Jack Griffiths, who has rather piqued my curiosity over the years, but this new information fits nicely into his timeline and ties up a loose end.

Anyone else got anything to add?

I got a real head start on my family name through this site. I was born in Shenley Herts. http://www.kiff.net/kiff_1name/kiff_1name.htm

I used that tree as a basis for Genes Reunited and actually found a long lost cousin now living in Seatle. I've had 100's of messages since then, too many to follow up.

Excellent!

Have you looked at the Old Bailey Proceedings? I believe I have found an ancestor there. I have also just found a word I never heard before - if I heard it on American TV I would think they had made it up.

"THOMAS LOVING (19) , Burglariously breaking and entering the dwelling-house of John Sutton, and stealing 1 coat and 2 books of Abraham Lewis Jessup. No evidence was offered.— NOT GUILTY"

Hey KG, does your signature translate as "my digital camera can leer through your windows"?

HA HA HA HA!!!!!!

I tried to trace my family tree and found it very complicated. I therefore concentrated on one single thread... and found that way back in time my family was related to Queen Maud.
My Aunt who had already known all the info died without leaving much in the way of paperwork but she had told many family members that we were in fact descended from royalty.
My sons always said that meant we were probably court jesters or something like that.

I did find out however, that Mr melhug, American by birth, had ancestors who lived about 20 miles from mine in Sussex during 1066. His family and mine were on opposites sides of the conflicts and his were awarded lands in Yorkshire!!! We have no idea where or what happened to them.

These days my time is taken up other things... too boring to most to even tell!

Love the whole idea, but lack one single freakin minute to myself... ummm I just needed that. I'm on hour of 32 this weekend alone and I only had 3 hours sleep yesterday/today. Is it Monday? I think I'm off Monday!

On geneology, what makes it important to me is I might be the only one that cares to do it. Will children or grand-children one day want to know who I was?

50 years from now I want to be still mentioned somewhere by someone. Can you imagine if we could know as much about a person many, many generations ago?

It's a bit like a book you've been saving to read I suppose. I'll open it when I can enjoy it. Unlessssss you want to do it, which is totally fine with me.

Some distance cousins on my father's mother's side owned a couple of pubs in Shepshed. Tracked them toa place called Britannia Inn in the 1850's. Last time I was in England, I stopped by to take some pictures, went inside and had a beer. Very strange feeling knowing you family used to run the place some 150 year ago.

I was in a rather nasty spit-and-sawdust pub last year that was once run by my great-grandfather. I'm not sure what he'd have made of the daytime drinkers and pool table we found there.