Family History Ancestor Questions

There are plenty of templates out there for asking questions to existing family members about their ancestors. 

In the past, I mentioned one site that helped me put together some key questions to research Idris and Iris Davies, my paternal grandparents.

A couple of months ago I put together a simpler template of questions that I sent out to all the family members who knew Ernest Frederick Hilton, my maternal grandfather. 

I've received a couple of these back but there are some family members who are holding out on me! So in an effort to jog their memory and share my own approach I figured I would post the questions here.

General Information

Name of person answering:

Relation to ancestor:

Name of Ancestor:

Name of ancestors parents and siblings:

General Facts

Birth Date:

Address/es:

Date of death:

Physical appearance

Height:

Hair colour:

Eye colour:

Anything else distinctive?

Memories

What was their favourite food?

What was their favourite pastime? (Do you remember anything significant about this.)

What did they like to read (If anything)?

What is your favourite memory of them, when did it happen?

What are some things you did together and when?

Can you share one funny story?

Can you share one serious story?

What was your favourite thing about them?

Additional

Do you have any photographs of them or memorabilia you can send back?

**** I've been pleasantly surprised with some of the details remembered, and with the photographs and other records family members have rediscovered. I'll be sharing those in future blogs.

The Marriage Of Harold And Annie

I promised my great aunt Ruth that I would transcribe Harold and Annie's marriage certificate. So here it is. I originally sent off for this record 5 or 6 years ago so I'm happy to finally put it in blog format.

Date: 1911
Marriage Solemnized at: St. Paul's Church, Cwmtillery in the Parish of Abertillery, in the county of Monmouth.
Number: 136
When Married: July 31st 1911

Name and Surname: Harold Griffiths.
Age: 19
Condition: Bachelor
Rank Or Profession: Collier
Residence At Time Of Marriage: 55 Powell Street, Abertillery
Father's Name And Surname: Thomas Griffiths
Rank Or Profession Of Father: Collier

Name And Surname: Annie Simpkins
Age: 19
Condition: Spinster
Rank Or Profession: Blank
Residence At Time Of Marriage: 11 Earl Street, Abertillery
Father's Name And Surname: John Simpkins
Rank Or Profession Of Father: Collier

Married in the Church Of St. Paul according to the rites and ceremonies of the established church
on after Banns by me.

This marriage was solemnized between us, Harold Griffiths, Annie Simpkins, in the presence of James John Simpkins, Emma James.

D.O Loyd Williams Officiating Priest.

****

There's a couple of things to note about the information in this marriage certificate.

1. Cwmtillery had the church of St Paul built in 1890 and it was not opened for worship until 1891, so it was relatively new at the time of the wedding.

2. Cwmtillery was considered a very beautiful place before the coal mining industry became the prominent player in the local economy. According to Wikipedia and local sources there were 4 explosions within the mine its self. The mines closed in the late 1900's and the town is quickly reverting back to a place of beauty.

3. At present I am not sure if the two witnesses James John Simpkins and Emma James are both family members. James John could be Annie's father also listed as John Simpkins in this certificate. He could also be a brother, I need to do a little research. The 1901 census shows a Jas John Simpkins as Annie's brother. It's possible Jas is James. Annie's mother was named Elizabeth, so Emma could be a wife of a sibling, or she could just be a friend.

4. The ages on this marriage certificate are 19 for both. However, I currently have Harold born in 94 and Annie born in 96. The 1901 census has Harold's age as about 6 so I am fairly confident he was born around 94. Annie Simpkins is also listed as 16 in the 1911 census. This would make them 17 and 15/16 respectively. Until the Age of Marriage Act in 1929 the age of marriage for males was 14 and for females was 12. Either I have their birth dates wrong, or they lied about their age on the marriage certificate.

Pushing Open Doors

I haven't blogged in about 10 days. I haven't had a lot of time, but I've been busy behind the scenes. My Uncle Michael sent through information on my Grandad's funeral. I was unable to make it back to England to attend so I read the list of those present with great interest. At the bottom it mentioned members of Haverstoe Bowling club. I remember watching my Grandad play bowls when I was younger. I ran a google search but couldn't find anything about it. At the last minute I decided to contact the Grimsby bowling club. My Grandad lived in Cleethorpes, which is right next door to Grimsby where I was raised.

The manager of the club said that Haverstoe bowling club had closed but that he knew some of the ex members. I explained that I was looking to see if anyone remembered my Grandad and could tell me a little more about his experiences at the club playing bowls. I had heard once that a trophy was named after him. To cut a long story short, through a series of conversations the Grimsby manager was able to contact an elderly member of Haverstoe who remembered my Grandad. I received this email earlier in the week.


"I've seen the Haverstoe people again. They have a member called Mr Alderson who knew your grandfather well. He's going to compile a report and either send it to you direct or via me."

I am currently looking forward to receiving this report. 

All of this started with me sending out a questionnaire to my family. Here's a copy.

General Information

Name of person answering:

Relation to ancestor:

Name of Ancestor:

Name of ancestors parents and siblings:

General Facts

Birth Date:

Address/es: 

Date of death:

Physical appearance

Height: 

Hair colour:

Eye colour:

Anything else distinctive?

Memories

What was their favourite food?

What was their favourite pastime? (Do you remember anything significant about this.)

What did they like to read (If anything)?

What is your favourite memory of them, when did it happen?

What are some things you did together and when?

Can you share one funny story?

Can you share one serious story? 

What was your favourite thing about them?

Additional

Do you have any photographs of them or memorabilia you can send back?

I have received a lot of other information with more on the way. Birth certificates, death certificates, photographs I had never seen before. All this to say, I've not been idle while not blogging, but I am also awaiting some information on my other grandfather, Idris before attempting to blog about the end of his life story. My questionnaire template can be modified if I think of other questions but I like the way this jogs people's memories and I've found it really useful in finding out more about family I knew and family I never met. 

The Treasure That Keeps On Giving

Earlier this week I blogged about finding the article for my Great Great Uncle David John Davies' funeral. I was left with two more questions: how did he die? Who did his wife remarry?

I've discovered both, although I don't know much more than that about the second. The reason I discovered both is that through talking with the publisher of "Heroes of the Faith" magazine I was led to an online digital archive of old pentecostal magazines. The archive is kept at University of South California.  Redemption Tidings (The one that records David John Davies' funeral) is in the archive. To date I have searched through 24 volumes of it from 1924 - 1950. 

I began by searching for more on David John Davies and then his wife. This led me to discovering mentions of my Great Grandfather Price and even a couple of my Grandfather Idris. Then on a whim I searched for my other Great Grandfather involved in the early Pentecostal movement and found him as well.

The copyright is out of date but I wrote to the British AOG who published Redemption Tidings just in case there was a problem and they have given me permission to write about anything relating to my family that I find in the Redemption Tidings archives as long as I don't make money off it. They also gave me permission to do so for those articles that are still under copyright, which was very nice of them!

To date I have found 40 mentions. Many of them are just references to preaching, some contain photographs, some addresses and there's the occasional reference to bible passages they spoke on. There's even a written account of my Great Grandmothers healing and of course on David John Davies' death. From all of this I should be able to record some of their movements and places which they lived. This is invaluable since the 1931 and 1941 census' in Britain don't exist due to WW2. 

The search engine on the site allows you to download whole volumes or perform searches for key words. As I searched for "Davies" I also found myself discovering the story of two missionaries called "Davies" who travelled to Japan, and were there as WW 2 began. The tale of their return across war torn seas was enthralling. Another side benefit to the research. 

I haven't finished searching yet so I will keep working on it. I won't share pictures here because they will all come out in blogs in the future. I never thought it would lead this far and it's a pleasant surprise, if your ancestors were involved in the early American or British pentecostal movement I can recommend the archive as a place to search!

Bronwyn Mary Davies

Bronwyn is the name of my auntie who died at one month old. Born in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) I had previously heard little bits about her but knew very little. Uncle Glyn, Auntie Wendy and Dad all told me she was born with Down Syndrome and died of Pneumonia. This was only a couple of years before Dad was born.

On January 24th I discovered that FamilySearch has a copy of the microfilm for the complete death records of Zimbabwe from 1904 to 1976. I decided to dig into them and see if I could discover a death certificate for Bronwyn. At the time I only knew her name as Bronwyn Davies. Glyn thought she died in 1954 but he couldn't recall a funeral. I was unable to check immediately with Glyn's brother Wendy who was older when Bronwyn died and might be able to recall the year of her death more definitively. So I started the search at volume 1 of 1954 and fortunately discovered Bronwyn in volume 2, nearly 300 records later.

Here's what it says:

Christian Name: Bronwyn Mary Davies

Sex: Female

Usual Place Of Residence: 4 Taylor Avenue, Morningside, Umtali

Age: 1 month

Birthplace: Southern Rhodesia

Race: European

Whether Single/married/divorced or widowed: Single

Occupation: Nil

Date of death: Eleventh of August 1954

Place of death: 4 Taylor Avenue, Morningside, Umtali

Intended place of burial: Umtali Cemetery 

Cause of Death: Dehydration, Hyperpynexia, pylorostenosis and mongol

Duration of last illness: (3 weeks and 4 weeks.)

Name and place of residence of medical practitioner: Dr. R. Levitt, Umtali

INFORMANT
Original Signature: Davies

Qualification: Father

When Registered: 12-8-54

Number of entry: 275/54

A few notes about the cause of death. Dehydration I think we are all familiar with. Hyperpynexia is used to describe a high fever, usually about 106 degrees.  Pylorostenosis apparently has to do with the the inability of the pylox valve in the stomach to open and pass food off to the duodenum. Mongol is a word they used to use to describe Down Syndrome.

The current practice of doctors is to list the cause of death first, then the contributing causes and then any underlying cause, condition or disease. I do not know if that was the practice in the 1950's but if so then in this case it would be death by dehydration, with high fever and Pylorostenosis causing the dehydration, with Down Syndrome being an underlying factor. 

Since the date of registration is written in British format, it is the 12th day of August 1954 that the doctor was notified. 

It has always been believed she died of Pneumonia with the underlying issue of Down Syndrome. I don't know if that would fit with what is recorded here or not. Back then many people ascribed respiratory problems to Pneumonia, whether that was the technical medical truth or not. 

Researching Idris

In the course of interviewing people for the blog series I am writing on "The Grandfather I Never Knew," I have ended up with many pages of interview notes. One person I queried was my second cousin Roy. He was able to answer a few questions but then asked me if I knew any of the details about Idris traveling to Africa. The totality of this information will be forthcoming in the next blog I  write in the series but I told Roy I would take a look at my interview notes. I discovered that my Uncle Glyn had remembered the names of the cruise ships which his family have traveled upon.

I sent the information to Roy; lo and behold he was able to find the following on the website findmypast.co.uk:

The pertinent information reads:

Name of Ship: Carnarvon Castle
Date of Departure: 22/7/47
Port of Departure: Southampton
Port at which passengers have contracted to land: Capetown
Name of Passenger: I. Davies
Age: 32
Last Address: 318 Longton Road, Stoke on Trent
Country of intended permanent residence: S.Rhodesia
Occupation: Mech Ex

Roy had been looking for my grandfathers information before but he had never known the exact date or the name of the ship. Thanks to Uncle Glyn we were able to discover this. I was also able to let Roy know he traveled alone since the rest of the family departed at a later date so Idris could set up home for them.

The "Castle" line of ships were all former war ships in the British Navy which were decommissioned and became cruise ships after WW2. The last known address mentioned here is the home of Harold and Anne Griffiths where my Great Aunt Ruth lived until she was married. Idris moved his family in with them during the months of his departure.

As for Idris occupation.  This is still somewhat of a mystery. We think he wrote "Mech Ex" though it may have been "Mech En".  This might stand for Mechanical Engineer or perhaps Mechanical Experience? We're not too sure. He definitely did not have a degree although he was quite mechanical minded. In some of the interview notes with my Aunt Wendy she mentioned that at some point she believed Idris to have worked mechanically on airplanes during WW2. We also know he was a munitions inspector.

When he arrived in Southern Rhodesia, Wendy is sure that he worked on farm machines for a while, perhaps he put this down as his occupation because mechanical skills were something he felt confident with.

Iris, Wendy and Glyn all traveled on the Warwick Castle. The relevant pages that have been scanned onto the findmypast.co.uk site are all black and obviously were not scanned correctly. Roy has requested for this information to be updated but it may take several months.

In the mean time I now have this information to add to the story of "The Grandfather I Never Knew."

Faith and Family History

I have been doing a lot of thinking about how to write regarding matters of faith within this family history blog. To date I've focused most of the posts in this blog on my Grandma Iris Davies nee Griffiths, although I've written a few posts about other research. Moving forward the people I write about will be expanding, beginning with my Grandfather, "Grampy" Idris Davies. Idris, like a great deal many of my ancestors was not only a Christian but in the ministry. In fact if you look at the more recent part of my family tree it is full of people in the ministry. My parents are missionaries to Bulgaria, my Uncle is a Chaplain, and he and his wife were missionaries to Africa. Many of my great Uncles were preachers, both my great grand parents on my Dad's side were ministers and so forth.

The result of this is that the more I research and interview family members, to glean stories passed down from one generation to the next, the more I discover stories of miracles. These range from healing's and mass visions confirmed in newspapers, to testimonies either written down or told to another family member about people being raised from the dead. All of these make blogging about my ancestors intriguing, enlightening and spiritually enriching. I now find myself with a question to face moving forward: how will I describe these miracles to you the reader?

I've decided how.

I will share them as they have been passed down to me. If there is evidence outside of just family interviews to support the story then I will make a small annotation and details will be available in a footnote at bottom of the post. Personally, I choose to believe these stories and they encourage my faith. I do not want to interrupt future posts with discussions about whether they are true or embellished, I'm simply going to tell the story. Then I'll leave it up to you, the reader, to make your own decision.

Researching with interviews and photographs.

One of the first tips given to me as a want to be 'family historian' was to start with those that are still alive. I have never been more thankful! If you are familiar with my blog at all you will know that to date it mainly covers the story of my Grandma. The Grandma I never knew. Her name was Iris Davies nee Griffiths. This year I hope to start the story of my Grandpa, Idris Davies. The mini biography I have written was put together using interviews of family members; Ruth one of my Grandma's younger sisters, and Iris' three children. I am sure there are others out there that knew my Grandma but as of today they have not yet contacted me or returned questions about her life.

I remember when I started out asking my friend and avid genealogist Bill West how to best interview people. He hadn't been able to interview many family members himself but did give me a few tips such as showing the family member some photographs and seeing if that sparked any memories. For several months my Dad, Aunt and Uncle were instantly inundated with photographs and requests to Skype with me and share their thoughts. It was a great idea, thank you Bill! If you want to read more of his genealogy journey you can discover it at West in New England.

I knew that I had best make a record of all the interviews I conducted no matter how informal they might be so I created some word documents. The first one contained something like this:
 

House in Rhodesia 18 – Merthyn and his mum

Rhodeisa 17 – 4 Taylors Avenue, Morningside Umtali – sunken garden in front – use to fill up with rain in the rainy season and the ducks would swim in it.

Rhodeisa 16 – Car – Wendy with the Plymouth 1963 – Straight 6 Engine. Bill Mundell, Idris worked on it to get it fixed for Wendy to drive back and forth to work. Dad was messing around as they did. She worked at Eagles High School in the Vumba. It was about 30-45 minute drive from their house. [Can google it]

Eagles High School was the place the Elim missionaries were massacred in 1979 [Double check date of massacre]

Rhodesia15 – Idris downstairs bay window at 4 Taylors avenue

Idris built it! – google earth it

Rhodesia 12 Wendy at 4 Taylors Avenue

Rhodesia 11 – Idris and Iris at Kingsley Fairbridge Memorial – Christmas Pass Umtali

Statue?

Rhodesia 10 – Flossy the Dog, Wendy and the other 2 women?

Rhodesia 13 – Chinky the cat 4 Taylors  avenue – bay window

Rhodeisa 9 January the house boy – serving tea or elvenses on Saturday morning

Rhodesia 8 – Idris, Iris, Glyn, someone else, January and Flossy

Rhodeisa 7 – Wendy, around 63? – Either just before or after going to England to study. 63 if after

.

Rhodesia 6 – Merthyn Davies on left – rest not sure?

Rhodeisa 4 – Iris and Glyn or Merthyn

Rhodesia 3 – 4 Taylors avenue Iris and Norton/ Or BSA Motorbike of Idris or Glyn?

Rhodesia 1 – NO idea

I essentially numbered all the photographs I had and made a summary of all the comments the person I was interviewing made. In later interviews I started recording them word for word. At first glance it doesn't seem like I received much information from them. However, I had an address for the house, the name of several people from many photographs and the name of a house cat and dog. I was fortunate that there were so many pictures to begin sparking the memories. I understand not all can have such fortuitous beginnings.

From here I was able to take specific photographs to specific people. So when I interviewed Glyn I first showed him the photographs that he might recognize and then I asked if he remembered who else was in them or what was going on at the time. Other questions followed:

1) Was this what life in Rhodesia was like?

2) Are there any stories connected with that motorbike? [Short answer - yes and they will come out in another blog post.]

3) Do you know the name of the tree or flowers? - And this led to a story about how much my Grandma loved gardening.

Here are the pictures I began my genealogy search with.

In the course of my questions and research I also discovered much more about Rhodesian/Zimbabwean history than I ever expected.

I can go on and on about this but I shan't. For now at least. There's more to come.

Family History Blogging - A Good Thing!

This weekend I received some priceless photographs. They are digitalized. They are not worth millions of dollars but they are priceless to me. Firstly, Gerald Griffiths emailed me some.

Who is Gerald Griffiths?

Gerald is the nephew of my Great Grandfather Harold Griffiths. I've never met him and until just a few weeks ago I didn't know he existed. I started this blog back in June 2012. I haven't been incredibly consistent due to other pressures, such as attempting to write a novel and Holidays etc.

But I kept the blog.

My Great Aunt Ruth Griffiths-Salmon connected me with Gerald. For many months Ruth had mentioned that we had extended family members who lived in Australia. Due to my blog, which Ruth has contributed to, my aunt knew that I would love to connect with Gerald. Gerald has published his own family history book in memory of his mother.

Without the blog Ruth and I may never have connected and the facebook conversations that are now so dear to me would not have taken place. Without the blog I would not have met Gerald over Facebook. I would not have connected with that side of the family at all.

Without the blog there would be no pictures from Gerald.

My Uncle Glyn and Aunt Norma have also been following my blog. They sent me pictures over the weekend as well. We met up with them over Christmas while my parents and brothers were in town. Norma mentioned the photographs of family that they kept and I asked for them. My Aunt, being the amazing lady that she is, has kindly begun to scan and send them to me via email.

Glyn and Norma know I love the family photographs because of the blog.

My friend Bill West is a proponent of publicly blogging the family research he discovers and the family tree. This is one of the reasons why I concur with him. It's important and it connects! There are exceptions. When I know that my blog will affect or concern those still alive I give them a chance to read the blog and make changes. They also have permission to ask me to edit any previous blog post that I've written if they notice changes that need to be made.

My Mum and Dad brought an envelope full of photographs and birth/death certificates when they visited me this past December. They said that I could keep them. They know I will look after them and that they are priceless to me. They know because despite living in Bulgaria, the best part of two continents and one ocean away; they read my blog.

The point is, blogging family history is a good thing.

And now to the grand finale; my photographs!

[Below my Great Grandfather Harold Griffiths and my great grandmother Annie Simpkins Griffiths]

[Below my Grandfather (Grampy) Idris Davies with my Grandmother (Grammy) Iris Davies and my Aunt Norma Davies]

[Below my Dad with my Grampy and Grammy Davies]

[Below my Grampy Idris Davies standing by the grave of Iris Davies. This is particularly dear to me because we did not think we had a picture of this and now here it is! Since both Idris and Iris were buried in Zimbabwe you can imagine the difficulty of getting back there at this time to search for their graves to take a photograph of it]

[Below my Great Grandfather Harold Griffiths is on the right. Then from left to right are: Ernest, Rees(Rhys) and Will.]

[Below - I believe this is Ernest, brother of Great Grandfather Harold]

[Below - I believe this is Morgan Griffiths, another of my Great Grandfather Harold's brothers and Gerald's father.]

[Below - Front left and right are my Great Great Grandfather Thomas Griffiths and his wife my Great Great Grandma Elizabeth Emanuel Griffiths. I believe Gerald said the man in the middle is Morgan on his wedding day. This photograph is another that is really important to me because I had begun to doubt I might find another picture of my Great Great Grandparents.]

These pictures will no doubt be presented again as I write about each of my ancestors in greater detail. I think this all goes to show, there are always family members or artifacts, or letters or photographs just waiting to be discovered.

Hunting For George Part 2

The last post on Great Granddad George Wright mentioned that I could not find him in the 1891 census and that I had heard he had fought in the Boer War. I couldn't find any information about his military record and I needed to confirm a few pieces from my Uncle. I emailed My Uncle and he said he had fought in World War 1 and that he was 'there for the Boer War' if he didn't 'fight in it.' I'm not fully sure what this means. How could a poor farm laborer from Binbrook, Lincolnshire, be there but not for the fighting?

I also received these photographs.

George Ernest Wright in Military Uniform

George Ernest Wright and his wife Ada. 

My Mum had always said he was in the army. The sign on his left arm is of two crossed anchors with a crown above it and there are three chevrons beneath it. I can't seem to get a clear enough picture of the image on his cap to tell what it is :/. Still, unless I'm completely mistaken from the research I have done this is a Royal Navy Uniform and the chevrons make him a Petty Officer 1st Class. According to my Uncle, George had captained a small ship that helped with the rescue at Dunkirk. I don't think this was military related however.

I found this explanation on a genealogy site that was attempting to explain the uniforms and their ratings.




From 1853 to 1907 the badge of the PO 1st Class and from 1907 to the present the badge of the Petty Officer. (With appropriate crown, that depicted is correct for the period 1901-1953)

The site address is here: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~pbtyc/Uniform/Ratings.html

I'm not positive what the Chevrons mean though.

I must confess to needing a bit more tutelage in this area. So if anyone is out there who can shed a little more light on the what my Great Granddad's uniform symbolizes I'd love to hear from you!

How I found Anney!

I have mentioned before that when it comes to Genealogy I am fortunate to have some other family members that have done the hard work for me. Many branches of my family tree have already been explored to a certain extent. There was one significant branch that was missing; that of my Great Grandmother Simpkins. I initially put her name down as Annie in the searches I made through census records but I couldn't find her. Then I changed it to Anne but still no luck. On Ancestry a picture of a little green leaf appears if the name matches any records they have. The name didn't.

So I waited a few weeks; in genealogy there are always more things to move on to. I'm still looking for information on Great Granddad George Wright and there are the ongoing interviews with family about my Grandma Iris, as well as many many other people to research. Within the past week though, Great Aunt Ruth sent me some information confirming Anne's father was John Simpkins and she had a sister called Lily. Great I thought, now I can search for Anne/Annie in conjunction with her father.

I put in some simple searches and it still came up with nothing. I must state, probably much to the chagrin of my Aunt Ruth, that I was unsure whether she had given me the right names. [The moral of this story - never doubt an Aunt, particularly about her own mother!] As I looked back over the information I had gathered I realised Anne was definitely Annie because I discovered a wedding between Harold Emanuel Griffiths and Annie Simpkins from 1911. I've sent off for their marriage certificate but it hasn't arrived yet. I also realised that they definitely lived in Abertillery at some point. So again I ran the search, and this time a close match popped up. I discovered this!



Anney, there you are. Yes, Anney...with her whole family. So this is how they spelled Annie in 1911. Or at least, that is how the person taking notes for this particular census form spelled Annie. It doesn't help that her mother was recorded as Eliz, when I had it down as Elizabeth. Which brings me back to something I read on my friend Bill's blog once. [His blog can be found at www.westinnewengland.blogspot.com] It is also listed on the right hand side of my blog.

He mentioned how many people in previous times didn't know how to spell their own names and had never had to write them before. Therefore many names were probably spelled phonetically, or close to it. When it came to a census the person conducting the census might have no idea how certain names are spelled. All this leads to a variety of names being found on a census for the same person. If you look closely at this particular form you will notice that John's last name is "Simpkins" and Eliz' last name is "Simkins." It's a prime example of how lax some people were on the spelling!

Now that I had found Annie in 1911 and all of her family, I sent a quick message to Great Aunt Ruth to confirm it was the right one. It is - so I'm pretty sure that with the information from this form I can trace her back through the other records now.

And that is how I found Anney!

Importance of Dating

When I received a genealogy tree from a member of the family it has my Great Grand Father Harold Emmanuel Griffiths as born in 1880. His wife was left blank. When interviewing their daughter I discovered he was married to an Annie Simpkins but I assumed the dates I was given for Harold were correct. It turns out this has been a mistake - and a lesson well learned for this beginning Genealogist.

- Always double check your facts, and when interviewing always ask for dates as soon as you possibly can! -

Today their daughter confirmed that Harold was born in 1895 and Annie in 1896. This changes everything. I believe I may have found their marriage records for 1911. That means they married 16 and 15 respectively. The law stated the man had to be 14 and the woman 12 so this is perfectly legal. Still, I can't imagine being married at that age today! It wasn't long before they gave birth to their eldest either!

I am still short of a picture for both Harold and Annie. Family members are searching and I hope such a blog as this can soon be graced with one.In the mean time I've sent off for the marriage certificate that I believe belongs to them. If it does then I might have a better time tracing their lineage. Annie was often referred to as Nance by her husband. This may have been a pet name for "Annie" or it may have been a name in it's own right. I'm not one hundred percent sure yet!

Stories that lead to stories

One of the great joys I've experienced since starting to trace my family tree is the joy of meeting and talking with people in the family I never really knew. Not only does this speak to me on a profoundly emotional level, but it also helps out a great deal with the giant jigsaw that is a family.

As I've previously blogged about, I decided to try and interview whoever I could about my family. To begin with, I spoke with my Mum and Dad. My parents are moving out of the country, and as they are doing so, they have dug up a few old photographs that had been shared with them. As we spoke about the photos, Dad was able to remember several little events and point out to me who the people were in the photographs. People have names, names lead to questions, which lead to stories, which lead to more things to talk about :)

As I asked questions about Dad's Mum, Iris Griffiths, he pointed me in the direction of her sister Ruth. I do not think I have ever met Ruth but someone had taught her how to use Facebook. I instantly felt a strong connection with her as Ruth began to answer the many many questions I have about Iris, her family and life as she grew up. I now count Ruth as a good friend and I am honored to spend time each week picking her brain for little tidbits of information. As we spoke (or rather, typed) Ruth thought of someone else I should contact. She helped me get in touch with the daughter of her brother David.

Today I had the first conversation with my "First cousin once removed." At least I believe that's the term! Her mother (Betty or Rosemary) is still alive and now I will be able to send some questions to her mother via email. Just from the few minutes I have spoken to my newly found cousin, I have already found out some great information. More details will be forthcoming.

I'm a Christian and deeply interested in my ancestors faith as well. Turns out my Great Grand Parents on Grandma Iris' side were descended from theJews. Rosemary might be able to shed some light on this and I am super excited about asking questions and hearing the stories that will help explain this connection! So this tree here - will hopefully become more than blank slots!





So for those who still have relatives living that can share stories you yourself have not experienced, or remember information you simply do not know - ask them about their life while you still can! This week there are more people I'm hoping to connect with. My Auntie Wendy (Dad's sister), my Aunt Winnie (My Mum's aunt), and my Uncle Michael (Mum's brother). So much to learn and so little time. I can't wait to hear from them!

There's an old African proverb that says, "When an old man dies a library burns down." I think this was made famous during a 70's T.V. program called "Roots." I'm glad that part of the "library" these people contain can now be passed on!

Interviewing Family

As I have been asking my Dad questions about his mum I have discovered one of my grandma's younger sisters is still alive. Her name is Ruth Salmon (Formerly Ruth Griffiths) and she lives in Stoke on Trent, where her family has lived for many years. But what a discovery, for this now means I can ask Ruth many questions about Iris childhood that I otherwise would not have been able to ask and may have never known!

Suffice to say I have been doing just that. Now with Ruth living in England and I living in the U.S.A. I have been asking these questions via email and Facebook. Initially I jumped straight in and asked a couple of questions about Iris first husband William. No one knew much about him in my family and although Ruth was not able to say too much I did discover a couple of little things. From here I dove into my grandma's personality and early years. A friend and genealogy blogger Bill West suggested interviewing via photographs. I have not been able to conduct this method yet because I have no pictures of Iris from situations Ruth will have known. All my photographs of Iris were from when she lived in Rhodesia (Now Zimbabwe.) I am using this method with my Uncle Glyn however!

I used this website as an outline for questions I can ask.

http://genealogy.about.com/cs/oralhistory/a/interview.htm

I found it quite useful and I am sure it will be beneficial for those who have no idea where to start with such interviews! I am now looking forward to a blog post entitled, "The Grandma I never knew." It may still be many days away but I am beginning to create a write up of all the interesting facts about Iris that will help give me a glimpse at who she really is!