General Chat

I joined as i just got married and wanted to find out more about my Husbans family..... his father is one of 13, and his father before him 1 of 8 and with a very unusual surname I thought I'd track it for my grand-daughter....... yes I know I'm a fast worker..... It was that I heard Grandchildren were much more fun than children so I started with them first!! ;o) Nanna Dee

I think I joined like most people because of a death in the family(Death is also a family name!!) and hoped to find other relatives to help me solve the riddle of photos and certificates, I have found lots of friends and distant cousins and solved a few puzzles but I think it will take a long time, I see some have been searing 20 years or more. good luck to all and a happy new year sandra

My father-in-law and brother-in-law started tracing the Seldon family history about 15 years ago after the death of my F-i-Ls brother, Bill. Bill had been adamant that we were not to attempt to trace the family history so it had to wait until his death. They didn't get very far - this was before the days of the WWW. I saw Genes Connected advertised on Friends Reunited site, joined and I was hooked! Within a couple of days I got further back than Dad had managed and within a couple of months had found a second cousin of my husband and his brother that neither side knew existed! Their grandfathers were full brothers. Was this the great mystery why Uncle Bill got so upset about trying to trace ancestors? We don't think so, but why were the brothers unknown to their descendants? The rest of the family were known to our side, including half brothers and sisters and stepmother and their ancestors. We have photos including one of a family wedding where we didn't know the groom, but thought he was related because of the strong family resemblance. The groom is the unknown brother. We met up with the cousin (the groom's granddaughter) in June and the family resemblance is so strong, she and my husband (the groom's great nephew) could be brother and sister! I have managed to trace back to the late 1600s, but still cannot solve the mystery! Ah well, lets hope 2004 will provide some answers! Sue

i started 40 years ago originally to trace my background. i was born in dublin ireland. to this day i am still trying. i am glad i found out about genesconnected, bridgett.

I started about 20 years ago originally to trace family members with little success. What I didn't do was to ask the older relatives that were around for their memories etc. which would have been the sensible thing to do! I found this site through FR and hoped to just be able to piece together some of the information I had and have 'met' up with 4 second cousins - 3 share one set of great grandparents - from my father's side - having thought his father was an only child he turned out to be one of 11. One shares another. We have all been able to help supply information, correct information and supply tit bits! I have a lot of photos which I have passed on and received some as well - many dating back to mid to late 1800s. Now all I need to do is put together all the info into an understandable format. I have been disappointed not to have been able to go further with the Irish branch but at least I know I am not alone in this!

I joined mainly because very little was known about my dads side of my family. His paternal Grandfather is still proving to be VERY elusive as no-one knows exactly when and where he was born, and his maternal GGrandfather was Danish!!! Hopefully I'll be able to find out more this year and knock a few more bricks out their walls Kay

I was given my gt grandfather's photo album which had photos of the 7 children from his first marriage in it as well as the 5 from his second marriage(inc. my grandmother). He was born in 1836 and died in 1929, born in Wandsworth moved north, as a master engineer, in the late 1850's and settled there until moving back south in 1903. Fascinating - how could I not be pulled into the Genealogy world!

It would be interesting to find out what motivated us to join this site.