Another extremely popular guest was our expert on family history, Chris Rolfe, aka the Genial Genealogist. He’s kindly blogged this….
Hello,
It’s not just astrologers who are intrigued by dates. Genealogist are too. For example, was a wedding date: on a Sunday or Christmas Day; more or less than nine months before the birth of the first child. A Sunday indicated they wanted a quick wedding & not losing a day’s work. Christmas Day also saved the loss of a pay and everyone would be present.
So when Mike launched this website I was intrigued by 20th August. It would’ve been my Great Aunt’s birthday.
She was born, worked & married in the BBC Solent & BBC Sussex area. Trained as a teacher she was holidaying on the Arun when the Great War broke out. In 1918 she was married & widowed. Then she went out to South Africa, on the Kenilworth Castle, for a year before returning to England. After her return she married her second husband, then buried him, remarried & was widowed in the terrible winter of 1947. Under a month after the sudden death of her second husband, my grandfather’s first wife also died. A year later my Great Aunt introduced her brother to my grandmother and the rest is history. But for the Great War she’d have married her first husband & probably remained in Hampshire. Therefore she’d never have moved to Sussex met my grandmother so that she could introduce my grandparents. Thus I wouldn’t have been even a twinkle in someone’s eye.
Such is the importance of dates & the Great War on so many people’s family histories. This is just one small instance and it made me wonder do you have significant dates/events in your family history? Perhaps you’d like to share them….
Chris Rolfe, 30 August 2014
Mike – the picture is quite appropriate for genealogy don’t you think? It features the amazing talents of tree sculptor Keith Jennings.
More at…..
http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/keith-jennings-spirit-trees
Enjoyed reading that, thank you.
Hello Chris, thank you for sharing,I am doing quite a lot of research on family history ect. . At the moment I am searching for records of my dear dad , who was in W.W.1 in the Army, my nephew has his medals and was able to obtain his Army number.through this I have found the name of Regt and Battalion., as for anything else I come across , is a blank……he spent about two years in Victoria Hospital Netley Nr Southampton., and I have pictures of him in Uniform with my mum, and another with the hospital nurses, and other patients.Unfortunately Victoria hospital did not keep records , so could not help , they invited me to go to the City Archives as they hold one or two pictures that may be of help. I was 15years old when my dad died , Why did I not ask questions then .there was always this large picture of mum and dad in his uniform hung up in the sitting room of our family home . As I am an inquisitive person , I keep asking myself Why did I not ask the questions , I now need to know?
Hi Elaine & Barbie,
As I always said on air Ask Your Relations. It took me 14 years to discover something which apparently my Great Aunt had discovered & had passed onto a cousin rather than her nieces & nephews.
So be sure to pass on your Wisdom & Family Lore NOW don’t delay …
Enjoy
Trouble is when you are young you tend not to be that interested in family history. I regret not asking my nan about her early years and family but at the time I wasn’t that interested. Now I am researching my family history. Its much easier these days with the internet but very time consuming……and sometimes very frustrating when you come to a dead end.