Who Do You Think You Are?

My dad died when I was 10 years old and my brother and sister were only 7 (they're twins).  Unfortunately as a consquence I lost touch with that side of the family. I had only really had any contact with my nan anyway but that faded a few years after my dad died.  He had been estranged from his brother for many years so I had only had intermittent contact with cousins.

It was probably as a result of this lack of connection or knowledge about my dad's side of the family that prompted me to start to explore my family tree/history on that side.

I started with the knowledge that my dad had been bought in Portsmouth, had a younger brother and that my     nan had some "spanish" connection through her mum.  Not a lot to go on admittedly but enough to make a start.

I registered on the Ancestry website and started my search.  I began by checking the records for the information I knew, my dad's birth, marriage and death, and then from that my nan and my grandad.  As I found records which I thought matched my relatives I ordered the certificates to confirm my findings. Not all enquiries were successful and I did end up with copy certificates for completely unrelated people who just happened to share similar names!

My Great Grandmother (from Gibraltar)
 and one of my nan's sisters

My Great-Grandad, married in Gibraltar

Eventually I began to build a picture of family members and dates of birth, marriages, deaths and extended family members.  As a result I have learnt that my nan gave birth to a still born daughter, my uncle changed his name, my nan had two sisters (which no one else in my family seemed to know about) and her mum was from Gilbratar which is where my great grandad met her when he was posted there with the army; a trip to the National Archives at Kew helped me to locate the record of my great-grandparents marriage.

National Archives at Kew 

I have managed to trace my nan's side of the family back to the 1600's and have learnt that various generations were in service for the de rothschild family (we clearly have no fame or fortune ourselves but can be great by association!).  I was also able (through the Ancestry website) to make contact with one of my nan's sister's family (one of my nan's neices and her son).  For someone who has spent over 30 years with no  connection with that side of the family this was a HUGE deal.

It even led me to finding out that one of my nan's sisters was involved in a bigamy scandal!  Apparently she married her husband whilst under age and he then subsequently married again.  As she was underage when they married the marriage didn't count so her husband was let off!

My nan's younger sister (the bigamy scandal!)

Tracing my grandad's side of the family back has proven a little more complicated.  I appear to have the oldest living relative in history as I can find absolutely no record of my great-grandad's death!  I know that my great-grandmother died a widow just before WWII in August 1939, but try as I might I have been unable to find any record of my great-grandad's death before hers.  Given that I know he was born around 1882 that must make him the oldest person alive!

I am determined to try and locate my great-grandad's death details and plan to start working on my mum's side of the family soon.  My daughter has caught the research bug and has made a start on my husband's side of the family, which may prove just as problematic - so far it would seem all the men in the family had the same name!

Have you done any family research? What have you found, murderers, aristocrats, inventors?  I would love to hear your stories.

Sharon x