Not sure if it is correct protocol to discuss ones progress but this is what I have done so far.
I am tracing the Boynes and the Aitkens from Aberdeen in Scotland. I did join the FHS in Aberdeen for a short while but found it too difficult to operate from Wiltshire.
With the help of other family members I have traced the Boyne branch back to 1770. To begin with I sent for or downloaded copies of BDM certs but this got expensive(they had big families in those days) so I was happy to make an entry on my tree once I had "eyes on" a cert. (I know this may be wrong but needs must) It is strange how you begin to remember family stories and rumours, we have dark hair and I remember a Scottish aunt telling me we were descended from the crew of a shipwrecked Spanish armada vessel. Couldn't prove that(although there are Aitkens who married Del Gano's in the same area)but during my research I discovered a family branch moved to Cruden bay where an amarda vessel had been shipwrecked!
I may have traced the Aitkens back to 1702 but as yet cannot prove it (not had eyes on but have seen an entry in a book)
As a detective I began to get very good, as time went on I could target my searches and ensure that I didn't "make" the information fit the hole I was trying to fill instead of reading the information correctly. I made a few discoveries, sets of twins and workhouse tenants and suchlike but my biggest problems arose just 2 generations back. My Grandfather left his family and went to America or Canada. I may have narrowed the time and date to one boat in particular but unfortunately on that boat there were 4 people with the same name and no other details so I was unable to clarify who went where when they landed. I need a trip to the records office now to discover the exact year of death because I'm not sure on that one.
So one more generation or so and I will have traced my family back to the Jacobite rebellion. I know people with my family name guarded the Scottish crown jewels at Dunnotar castle but I don't think I could ever prove that one!!
Is there a way of finding out what side they were on? I understand the Gordon clan supported both sides just to be safe so perhaps my ancestors were required to do the same.