My inspiration to get started

I was always intrigued by the fact that members of my family, including my aunt, were born and lived in India. I talked with my grandmother and aunt at the time; just to get some more ideas. My granddad was already dead by this point, so there was no additional information to come from there.

Then there were the photos. Again, these were at my aunt's house and showed people I vaguely recognised. The photo is here on the left. This is my grandmother as a small girl with her mother and father and brother Reginald. This photo was taken in Mauritius. She was born in 1904 so this must be 1907 or 1908. There is another photo, when she is older, with her other siblings. I'm still trying to get a copy of this photo.

There were also cards for the deaths of other members of the family (Memorial cards). These also intrigued me, especially as three of them were for my grandfather's mum, dad and brother and were all within a few days of one another. They all died of cholera in India, and my grandad was a young boy and was sent back to the UK under the ward of a returning family unknown to him. He was adopted by his grandfather and aunt, who brought him up on his return. 

I have been dipping into my family history for a few years, started some collaboration with distant cousins (geographically and biologically) and have now reached a stage where I realise all I have been really doing is collecting ancestors on my family tree.

Getting started

Not entirely true. I’ve been started for quite a few years, but this is the first time I have started documenting anything about genealogy in this blog.

A lot of my interests lie in India and the British Raj, as so many of my family were born, lived and died in India. There is also a connection to the military, mostly the Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment which was in essence the family regiment (many of them came from Halifax in West Yorkshire).

Previously, I spent a lot of time looking into the members of the family, working to build my tree with as many people as I could find (currently 700+ individuals) with little checking or referencing going on. Latterly, I have thought more about who people are rather than how many I can find. There is no value in listing loads of ancestors; their stories are really my history in a way and each of them have their stories to tell.

I am not keen on paying for a premium genealogy membership; I don’t spend enough time on this project to justify the cost; maybe another time. I aim to get most of my details from items that already exist within the family and free archives, leaving the last chunks of information until I can go no further and am forced to cough up for a subscription to Ancestry (or one of its ilk…)

I aim to upload a picture and a story as often as I can, probably not too often though, knowing how busy I get with everything else!

My family and other animals...

Family history is a fascinating way of finding where you come from and who you are.

This blog is going to be used to chart my findings as I rummage my way through my family. I will not be limiting myself to one line specifically, but criss- crossing my way through whatever I find. Like I say, it is fascinating. I will work through my own direct family and also those connected in some way, and also will hopefully peek into my wife’s background as well.

This is not really to provide a body of knowledge for reference, but just a way to get my research into a format I can come back to and edit.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or can unlock any parts of my past!