For several years now my daughters have been asking me about my family tree and therein lay the problem. I was born in Germany to German parents but was adopted by my aunt as a baby and brought over here (she was married to a British serviceman). The picture my adoptive parents painted of my real family was not good so I made no further enquiries and had very little contact. However, my children made me realise that I felt I didn't really belong to either set of families. My adoptive father never talked about his family in Scotland either so I had very little family history to pass on. Anyway a few weeks ago I decided to contact a genealogist to research the Scottish adoptive family and I should be getting the report in the next few days, I can't wait!! I know it's not my biological family but it's the nearest I can get as I don't feel drawn to the German side at all.
Perhaps as you get older you have a need to know
I'm not worried about what I might find out (in fact I'm hoping for some intrigue!!)

hi
i know how you feel. when my father died there was only me left of my original family, my mother and sister having died some years before and it became really important to me to find out about my family background. before i knew it i had become virtually obsessed and have now got back to 1545, not found anyone famous just ordinary people but it does become compulsive and is good fun. good luck on your journey and i hope you find everything you want to know

Well done I hope whatever the results are it will give you knowledge of your family

Good luck with your research.

Cathy

Oh thanks everyone, if there's a real rogue, I'll let you know!!!

OOooooh I know how you feel, its exciting innit My mum was adopted and has no family left so I've been researching her birth family - its huge and I've found some major skeletons I've found her birth mums details so now i just need to make contact!

My Mum started researching hers and has really enjoyed it so far. The best part though was finding her grandfather's grave. He died in WW1 (Oct/Nov 1918) and was buried 'in France'. My son realized that the front would have been further east by that point and armed with that realization it was easily located at Ypres. She visited on the 90th anniversary of his death last year and was the first member of the family to be able to do so, his wife and sons being already deceased by that time. It was all very moving.
good Luck with your quest.

Lots of skeletons in my family on mum and dads side. Dads been traced back to 15 hundred and something, as usual with that time on the wrong side of the sheets to a very wealthy family as far as we know. lol

Well done selfraising - you'll find it so interesting! I've done a bit of tracing on my dad's side and got back to the early 1800s, had to give up at that stage - the parish records were in latin - and I don't do latin! Do let everyone know how you get on.
Bernie

Originally Posted by bluemoon

My Mum started researching hers and has really enjoyed it so far. The best part though was finding her grandfather's grave. He died in WW1 (Oct/Nov 1918) and was buried 'in France'. My son realized that the front would have been further east by that point and armed with that realization it was easily located at Ypres. She visited on the 90th anniversary of his death last year and was the first member of the family to be able to do so, his wife and sons being already deceased by that time. It was all very moving.
good Luck with your quest.

I can imagine it was very moving. My husband collects medals so does a lot of research on them and some of the stories are really harrowing. How lovely though that after all these years someone was able to visit his grave.

Originally Posted by jackie j

Lots of skeletons in my family on mum and dads side. Dads been traced back to 15 hundred and something, as usual with that time on the wrong side of the sheets to a very wealthy family as far as we know. lol

Wow that's a long way back! I've got a feeling that we won't have landed gentry but a lovable rogue will do!

My OH started doing research on his family. He traced his grandad and found that he was killed on the first day of the Somme.
He visited the Teiphal memorial and found his grandads name inscribed on it.
It was so moving.

Originally Posted by bramble

My OH started doing research on his family. He traced his grandad and found that he was killed on the first day of the Somme.
He visited the Teiphal memorial and found his grandads name inscribed on it.
It was so moving.

I'm sure that must have been very emotional but he also must have felt very proud of his grandad

The catalyst for this seems to be loss of a loved one. My various aunts started tracing the family tree when their mother (my grandmother) passed, but didn't seem to get too far. I have now thought of taking up the challenge - I have just lost my own mother recently and all the birth certs/photos/general info has come to me.

I've got as far as a relative being hanged at Jedburgh for sheep stealing about 300yrs ago - I have a feeling we're all going to wrong uns

I was given a small family tree by my nan years ago for a school history project. It recently got unearthed and given back to me in amongst some other stuff Dad had knocking around his house. I had a go at filling in some gaps but did not do very well. Nan died a couple of weeks ago, and family members I haven't seen in years, (and some never met) were there, and my Dad's cousin is now in touch with me on FB and he has posted old photos, I commented that it made me want to have another go at the tree, but my aunt has said she has done it to about 1750 and she will copy it all for me when she has time. Its so interesting.