Why we started our family history research

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Duncan

Whilst I have always had an interest in the history of our family, I have never felt I had the time or the inclination to take it very far.   Stories of the family members who had died many years before I was born were interesting but somehow I couldn't find the time to write it all down.

Then in 1996 I received a letter from a firm of solicitors saying that a relative had died and a letter from us was one of the few possessions he had which his executors could use to identify his family.   (His wife was my 'first cousin once removed' - well that's what our genealogy program says - I always called her Auntie!!)   What struck me about the letter was that it referred to Authur E. Clarkson, I'd always known him as Tim and had no idea that his real name was Authur and to this day I don't know what the E. stood for.

So as a result of a letter calling a relative by a name I didn't know I decided to find out what I could about my family and record it so that it is not forgotten.   One genealogy program and many many hours later I am still hard at it, annoying relatives with questions about 'great auntie so and so' and collecting photographs of as many family members as I can.

Another relative, Uncle Dave, provided a vast amount of details about our family together with copies of wills, photographs and handwritten records dating back to the 19th century.   Without his knowledge and store of family memorabilia my notes would be much the poorer.

So why this site?   Well it started as just being the family tree on the web so that we could see if anyone could find a link with their own family.   Then we started taking photographs of churches in and around North Wiltshire (any excuse for a lunch out!) and put those on the site so that people from around the world could see the churches their relatives attended.

Well that's my half of the family and how I got started, my wife has a family too and here is a bit about them and her (or more accurately her father's) research.


Mandy

Mandy's father Donald Lea became interested in family history when his mother, Queenie, told him that his grandfather, Albert Edward Glass, was killed in the first world war.   Don went to the local library in Swindon and was able to find some information about his grandfather and other members of the family.   This sparked an interest and he decided to follow his direct line back as far as possible.

It is fortunate, I suppose, that the Lea family have lived locally for a long time, so tracing them through Parish Records (PRs) has been comparitively easy.   A few trips to the County Records Office in Trowbridge to copy down PR entries showed quite clearly that Leas have lived in SSM back to the 1600s and beyond.   So Don was able to draw, as accurately as these records allow, his family tree.

As his interest grew, Don contacted older members of the family, who were glad to reminisce.   Auntie Edie lived to the fine old age of 97 (she died in 1994), so was a great source of information to Don.   Another great help was Dennis Lea (died 1999 aged 92); Dennis and Don became firm friends and often visited local villages when weather permitted.   Don also contacted descendants of family who moved to America in the 1890s - this branch of the family settled mainly in Ohio and have been kind enough to send Don photographs to add to his collection.

As Don doesn't use computers, he kept notes of what he found.   To these notes he added documents and photographs of the places relevant to our family.   Eventually these pages were tidied up and put in a folder - a folder which now is a gold mine as far as the Lea family is concerned!

This is where Mandy stepped into the picture.   We had recently bought a genealogy program which did all the hard work of creating a data base of names, draw trees, calculate relationships etc etc.   Mandy asked Don if she could borrow his book to copy the information he had already collected.   The book is fascinating - how he found out all the personal details about people is amazing.   Mandy decided to scan and copy the entire book.   It is good to know that should Don's book be lost through some awful occurrence, at least the information can be reproduced and thus safe for future generations of Leas.   Doing this also gave Don the opportunity to add to and update his original work.   This is still an on-going project for him - the trouble is family keep having babies, marrying and dying.   I'm sure the book will never be finished - but this just reflects that we are a family.

Mandy has now published Don's book at our family history website -   Lea book

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This page was last updated on 7th July 2007