anyone done it?
If so any advice on where to start, books to read etc?

I just want to trace my grand parents (both sets died before i was born) and great grand parents.

Both my parents are still alive but do not really want to answer any questions – makes me think there could be some dark secret somewhere!

I’ve done a bit, but my cousin has spent many hours on our family, particularly my Grandmother on my father’s side, the Drake family. There was equal silence about circumstances concerning my Great-grandmother, Annie Drake. Seems she up and did a runner from my Great-grandad and went back to London, re-married and had children, one of who’s offspring was one of the Great Train robbers! Your local record office should have all the census records available on-line, so that should be your first stop. There are other on-line sources, try google with family names, but be prepared for a fair bit of searching through similar names, unless the family name is very unusual. Good luck.

My Mom did it. Her grandad was called John Left, because he was left on the step of an orphanage as a baby. She never managed to trace anything beyond that. However she traced other branches way back.

I find it the most pointless waste of (a lot of) time. She has reasonably close relatives (2nd cousins etc) that we’ve never bothered to meet, but seems to have more affinity with somebody who died in 1742.

Both my parents are still alive but do not really want to answer any questions – makes me think there could be some dark secret somewhere!

Diamond in the family tree?

Try talking to any aunts or Uncles. Be-careful though, your parents might not want to talk about it because there is something that is very painful for one or both of them.

Army records are a good source, here is an ex soldier who offers a service.
http://www.findasoldier.co.uk

and a plug for me:
I do recolouring of old b&w photos for people researching family trees etc.
http://www.black2colour.com/gallery.htm

Could do a special STW discount 🙂

BigJohn – Member
My Mom did it. Her grandad was called John Left, because he was left on the step of an orphanage as a baby. She never managed to trace anything beyond that. However she traced other branches way back.

I find it the most pointless waste of (a lot of) time. She has reasonably close relatives (2nd cousins etc) that we’ve never bothered to meet, but seems to have more affinity with somebody who died in 1742.

If you can trace your family tree back a few hundred years you are nearly guaranteed to friend some sort of relationship to some sort of important historical figure or event. This is then useful for telling others that you are actually related to the Barron of Wensleydale or the inventor of the cup.

This can be used in this way to make you feel better better about your own failing because someone in your family achieved something. Alternatively make you feel vindicated in your opinion that your family is clearly excellent because if you have been moderately successful at anything the existence of a connection to someone else in your family history having success clearly shows it runs in the family. Inhale.

ancestry.co.uk is the easiest way imo, although i think you can get all their resources for free by other means,

one bonus with ancestry is that other family member may have done your tree already, i found this out very quickly where a group of 5 family members (3rd/4th cousins) had traced one line of my family all the way back to 1600s and within a week of contacting them i had pics of my grt, grt, grt grandfather and grt grt grt grt grandparents, brilliant,

my gf also traced family members she hadn’t seen for 20 odd years through ancestry,

this is sounding like an advert

Well the nearest I get to famous is that I share a great great grandad with that mega famous actor (wait for it) Martin Shaw. Makes me feel a WHOLE lot better about myself.

No, we’ve never met.

It dsoes seem an odd past time. I loved being in Colarado Springs where everyone seemed really into it . Our taxi driver was a descendent of Charlegmane. If you do the maths it would be extriemely unlikely not to have both Charlemagne and Gengis Khan in your family tree.

I tried a couple of times with little luck, then found Ancestry and it’s brilliant. I have traced back years, and also met some interesting people and relatives in Oz. Well worth the fee, if you going to give it the time it takes.

And go with the documentation. One of my aunties is convinced we are related to Neil Armstrong and trots this out all the time it’s embarrassing. There is also a long held belief in my family about Greek ancestors, which seemed fun, until my mother quietly explained it was made up to cover up somebody’s husband’s Maori descent, which happened back then…

So IMHO family stories nearly always made up.

I can trace mine all the way back to Noah. It gets a bit fuzzy between 1530BC and 1820AD, but apart from that I’ve read a book somewhere which tells me I’m his Great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandson.

As TheBrick says, it’s gratifying when you find that a family ancestor really achieved something, or lived an exciting life. During her research into the Drake side of my family, my cousin came across this gentleman, John Drake, my Great-great-great- grandfather:
http://www.btinternet.com/~palmiped/Drake.htm
An old Chinese curse says ‘may you live in interesting times’, and he certainly seemed to.
[edit] the episode when he was serving with the Waterwitch involved him being smashed over the head with a belaying pin and having his throat cut while asleep in his hammock, whereupon ‘he rose roaring and bleeding from his hammock’, and proceeded to beat his two assailants to death, according to one report I read.
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