Winter Hobby

During the summer months, I'm usually busy with my garden and allotment as you will see from my other blog, The Good Life, however, during the winter months I have more time to devote to another of my hobbies, genealogy.

I've now been researching my family tree for about four years and it's thrown up quite a few surprises, such as my great grandfather being born with a different surname to the one he took some years later, meaning that if he had kept his original surname, I would have also been born with a different surname. Some discoveries have been sad, one of my great great grandmothers gave birth to fifteen children, of which only four survived infancy.

In the early days of my research, I came across someone who was researching the same part of the tree. It turned out to be my mum's cousin's daughter. My mum had last seen her cousin at the age of fourteen, so, nearly sixty years later, we arranged for them to meet again and they're now in regular contact.

I've also been in touch with people who are very distant relations, but who have been able to provide valuable information to help with my own research, or who have very generously shared photos. I'm now in possession of photographs of my great great grandparents, Thomas and Charlotte who were born in 1851 and 1852.

I've researched all branches of my family tree, both on my mum's side of the family, and on my dad's. I've managed to get back to the 1700's in some instances, but I still haven't given up yet, there's a way to go.