In praise of the internet

[Margarett]

This week we have been having a major clear out in our study, as we have bought a new desk and storage. I was going through all my family history stuff, which goes back to the 1980's, and it struck me how much easier it is now to research genealogy. I found paper photocopies of IGI , which you had to research by name by county,( so you got the whole county even if you needed just one or two names!) and census returns that I had sent away for, and letters from agents I had engaged to "find" people and obtain certificates for me, this sounds so old-fashioned and cumbersome now that all that info is just a click or two away, and often free! So now I have much less paper in my new filing cabinet, and a whole pile of re-cycling!

[MarkCDodd]

But I trust the old fashioned research far more.

Recently several family trees have been handed to me that were done the old fashioned way.

No jumping to conclusions. No following bad data because other people have it in their tree.

Real research that cost both time and money.

I have recently solved some long standing Brick Walls by ignoring the online transcriptions and looking at the actual church registers.

On one occasion a little side note in the margin by the Church Warden explained the odd maiden name of the bride.

Her new step father was paying for part of the wedding and insisted she use his surname.

Since he married and died between census, I never even knew he existed.

[Northern Lass]

Just moved this to gen discussion

I think it is great when we all share info makes it so much easier.
And the online sites are fantastic.
Look at our own BCC
Of course folk need to verify and look at the info themselves too.
As Mark says there are those little notes in margins.

But taking on board the need to verify it is heaps easier than when
others started.
We have on the BCC tree a family tree of some Darlaston folk researched by a
gentleman that passed away last year. And I have to say that his research
without a computer was excellent.

[snoopysue]

I can see the benefit of both methods. I've used the internet to research my mothers side of the family and to confirm my fathers side of the family (my aunt did most of the leg work the old fashioned way). Not that it was all plain sailing - it took me ages to find my gr gr grandparents, not to mention my gr gr grandfathers correct birth - luckily I didn't trust somebody else's tree as this would have sent me on the wrong path.

I've started researching my Danish husbands family - and although the interent is a great help, as most of the parish registers are available on line, as well as census's - very little of it is on a searchable database. Which basically means that unless I know which year, and which parish to look in, it's a needle in a haystack. If the family moved around I probably wont be able to find them . I do miss a searchable data base

[Annie]

I use online to find BMD and then verify at the archives, I love trawling through all the old records and reading those little notes left in the margins, I also find the old newspapers very helpful, it's much easier finding the census on line but have spent hours in the past going through those at the archives in the past.

Annie

[Antie Em]

There was nothing on the internet when I first started - I spent so many hours sitting in the archives and I'll never forget my first printed census copy. I was among the volunteers adding the content to FreeBMD and loved looking through the GRO pages they sent me for input - even though they weren't my rellies. It's so much quicker now, but I haven't lost the need to "prove" everything. I have the bare bones of my family tree on Genes Reunited - just for making contact and it surprises me how many people have their family on there who have only copied it from someone else's tree and admit that they haven't done any research - seems a bit pointless to me, the fun is doing the research and discovering new "rellies".

[Annie]

the fun is doing the research and discovering new "rellies".

I agree with what you say above Auntie Em it's no good to me if I can't prove it all and I like to know the thread through needle about them all.

My cousin and I have been looking for one of our Faulkners for 5 years and just found him it's a wonderful feeling, he was taken away age 3 years when his mother died .

Annie

[snoopysue]

Not just finding the rellies, but fleshing it out.
My husband has a gr gr gr grandfather who was a soldier in the 1840's /1850's - just got a book from the library about his regiment writain in a little antiquated danish. He was a soldier at the time of the Three Years War (translation from the danish) and I'd wandered how he managed to be at home during this time and fathered my husband's gr gr grandmother - but now I know!! He seems to have ended up as a type of warrent officer. Now the next step is to find out when he died - I don't think he would have participated in the next war with the germans where a whole portion of Denmark became part of Germany.

Somehow this person who I've found out things about is more interesting than the famous (only in Denmark) farmer who saved a sailors life in a bad storm. The family has always known about him, so there's not the excitement of discovery.
I remember the day when I saw the 1911 census which is the only place I've discovered the profession of my gr gr grandmother - I always knew it - but to see it in black and white and have proof positive (as I was beginning to doubt it) was brilliant!

[MarkCDodd]

THe 1911 census was terrific becasue, if your family was literate, you had something they had written.

[Margarett]

Sorry, I thought this post had been lost in the ether! I agree, it is a good idea to verify research with the actual records. I always do this, but now many originals are online. Obviously my tree has been compiled using the internet and old methods e.g. snail mail, listing interests in magazines etc., but now I save a fortune on postage(all those stamped-addressed envelopes!) and I can have ongoing chats with fellow researchers, instantly, on sites like this.
But we should always be aware that the internet is crammed with people who want info instantly, and will just assume everything on here is correct!
My earth shattering genealogy moment was back in the 1980's in the old archive in Dudley when I found my great-grandparents on the 1881 census, they were approx the same age as me and my hubby, and with children of similar ages too. It was magic seeing it like that, and that was before the 1881 census had been transcribed to form part of the IGI.

[snoopysue]

THe 1911 census was terrific becasue, if your family was literate, you had something they had written.

There's a lot of good info on the 1911 census that isn't on the others - like number of children both living and dead, and number of rooms in the dwelling (2 adults and up to 9 kids in one 4 room house is beyond my understanding - no way would I have been able to share a room with my sister without one of us killing the other!!), number of years married too.

[peterd]

THe 1911 census was terrific becasue, if your family was literate, you had something they had written.

There's a lot of good info on the 1911 census that isn't on the others - like number of children both living and dead, and number of rooms in the dwelling (2 adults and up to 9 kids in one 4 room house is beyond my understanding - no way would I have been able to share a room with my sister without one of us killing the other!!), number of years married too.

share a room more like share a bed top to tail

[snoopysue]

THe 1911 census was terrific becasue, if your family was literate, you had something they had written.

There's a lot of good info on the 1911 census that isn't on the others - like number of children both living and dead, and number of rooms in the dwelling (2 adults and up to 9 kids in one 4 room house is beyond my understanding - no way would I have been able to share a room with my sister without one of us killing the other!!), number of years married too.

share a room more like share a bed top to tail

God the thourght of those smelly feet next to my head - it'd be those that finished me off