Showing posts with label family history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family history. Show all posts

How to Avoid Quitting Your Family History Research

Being able to get a new clue or a link in your family research gives new signs of hope of finally tracing your family history. Its a common reaction that gives you thrills of excitement but sometimes you have to control your emotion for the possibilities of let downs. You might not handle desperation and will discourage you to go on with your family research. Things like these happen probably more times than you expect. Before leaping with joy you better keep your cool and follow up your new evidence with more proofs.

Below are some theories that most people commonly use and end up quitting because they lack the ideas of finding possibilities and investigating further more. Do not rely on the data that you have gathered easily. If you have easily acquired some useful resources of your family history, its advisable to make independent studies about the data you have in hand. By doing this, you are unlocking mysteries and making your family research more accurate.

Always check the number of marriage

Never conclude that the children have a common mother or father. If you are basing your research from the man’s point of view, the children could be off springs from other women. They could come from this present wife, or his wife previously or even a wife after the one you have found. Remember that parentage is one of the hardest things to document, unless you know for sure. Women died in childbirth all the time. It was not uncommon for a man to have 2 or more wives.

If you can’t find a marriage record to support your family research its maybe because of these reasons:

- A lot of early marriages were not documented at the time of the marriage. It could have taken 5 years or so before the marriage could be written down in a courthouse.
- There might have not been a courthouse around or even a church; lots of early marriages took place in homes.
- Hundreds of records were burned during the Civil War.

Extend your family history research and consider every possible turn of events in the past

Don’t always assume that your ancestors came from the same state that their neighbors came from. Family genealogy includes possibilities of migration. In this case migration routes were basically the same but not every person follow the same route. You have to research further.

If you don’t find your ancestor in the next census record and you assume it’s because they were old and died, don’t just assume. Yes, most people did live the normal life span but people did live to a much older age also.

You have to research further, look at the closeness of their homes, how each of them named their children, and court records to see if they witnessed each other’s documents.

Don’t assume that your Jr. you found has the exact same name as Sr. Years ago the words aunt, uncle, Jr., Sr., and cousin were also used when the individual was no relation; in other words they were used very loosely. For example, you may have found land records that have Jr. and Sr. listed but these 2 men just happen to have the same name so to distinguish between the two, Jr. and Sr. were used.

Do not always assume that the name of an individual is a boy or girl’s name. Parents sometimes just liked a name and to us it sounds like a girl but back then it was a boy. Some names years ago were originally boys name but now they are girls. Parents also named their children after a famous person or a long ago relative.

Don’t always assume that a female that has the same last name as her father isn’t married. Women did marry men that had the same last name as they did. This happened a lot back when household were scattered far apart and relation lived fairly close to one another; cousins married distant cousins and cousin’s married distant uncles or aunts.

Keep in mind that divorced women did sometimes take back their original name and widows sometimes did the same.

Don’t assume that your ancestor died in the same place he or she was born and never moved around. It wasn’t uncommon for individuals to move their families many time but as they did get older, most moved back to live closer to their family. The best way of working on this is to create a time line and research many of the areas that they lived.

If your ancestor lived in one town or county and then you loose them, don’t just assume that they picked up and moved. There are other reasons you may have lost them. The county that your ancestor lived could have been broken up into several counties or they could of lived on the line dividing 2 counties. You have to research the surrounding counties.

Being a genealogist or family historian, assumptions is what keeps the research going but you have to recognize the trick as an assumption and prove or disprove them with further evidence.

About the Author:

Stellar Montealegre is the internet sale representative of Family Origin. She can give expert advice, guidelines and personal views on how to properly conduct family research and family tree making. You can find more readings related to family genealogy in her personal blog at Know Your Family History and on Trace Your Family Genealogy.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/genealogy-articles/how-to-avoid-quitting-your-family-history-research-515795.html

Genealogy Websites - Get Your Own Family Web Site Today!

By Govindji Patel
Genealogy has become more than just writing your close family members on a paper tree. It is a completely new invention, technology and business. How far back can you trace your family to? I know one person who traced her family all the way back to the Knights Templar. That is just intriguing.

Genealogy is a wonderful hobby for anyone wanting to find out more about where they came from, and that includes just about every human being on this planet. You can find out who your great, great grandparents were, where they lived, what they did, and more. It just takes research and a commitment. The one thing that will help you create your own family’s genealogy is your own family web site. With your own family web site you can connect to other people who can help you find the information you are looking for, help you get your information out there because someone in your family might recognize it, and it will help you stay organized.

It doesn’t matter if you are just beginning to research your family’s history or if you have been doing it for years, a web site just for your family’s genealogy can help you a great deal.

Features and Benefits of a Family Genealogy Web Site –

Instead of flipping and searching through your folders and files of research, you will have it all digitalized online
You can save all of your genealogy family history on a simple flash drive that usually costs about twenty dollars
Anyone in the world with an Internet connection can find and view your web site
Those people might end up being people you can add to your family history, or they might know some information that you don’t
You can easily market your web site by putting the URL in your email signature and forum signatures
You don’t necessarily have to know anything about maintaining your own web site
The software or web site host you purchase will walk you through how to upload your files
It will force you to re-organize all of your family history information and you can get rid of those scribbled notes
You can print out your family history and genealogy information to be put in a nice binder
That organized binder is a great gift for those in your family – they would love to see what you have done
Show off all of the hard work you have done, you deserve it!

I can list the features and benefits of having your own family web site on and on. However, I think you get the point. Sure, it can seem a little overwhelming at first, but I have never had someone give up after creating their own genealogy web site. They just work a little less and find even more information! That is something I think that anyone researching their family history would want.

About Author

Author: Govindji Patel
Please visit my websites at:

GbpCentral provides services to those outside of the business sector as well. We offer everything from blogs,genealogy to photo galleries so you can instantly share loving moments with your family members
(You are granted the right to reprint this article but the title

and content must remain unchanged and the authors name

and contact information must be included.)

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Family History Information

For those who are searching for family history information, there are a wealth of resources available. These resources can extend from living people, to documents, to government records, to letters, to photographs, to heirlooms that are passed down from generation to generation. By utilizing these resources, you can find all manner of family history information that may just surprise you.

The first place to look for family history information is with living family members. You family members will be more than happy to tell you their own stories, their own memories, and their own opinions about the events and people who shaped who they are today. As well, there are family members who may have already done their own investigations of family history and they will be more than happy to give that information to someone, such as yourself, who is interested in learning more. Family history information is meant to be shared and anyone who has this information wants to share it.

As well, family members can provide you with old photographs, letters, documents and heirlooms that will give whole new depth and direction to your quest for knowledge. Photographs are often useful for seeing people, where they were, and what they were doing. With a little bit of investigation, a photograph in a place you do not recognize will tell you where they were when that photograph was taken. As well, letters are very useful not only for the information they provide, but addresses and return addresses. Heirlooms are often accompanied by stories and family lore that may not always be entirely true, but are family history information all their own. Not quite true stories are often somewhat true. And the lies people tell are often as telling about those people as the actual truths!

As well, a thorough search of governmental records can provide vast amounts of family history information. These slices of bureaucratic gobbledygook are useful because they are almost always entirely true. A land deed needs to be exact, because it is used to determine possession in a court of law. Governments like to know that their information is rock-solid. And governmental information can quickly be turned into family history information, be it death certificates, birth certificates, or just a few lines from a court case that can provide you with information about one of your ancestors. Even if you do not feel like diving into the morass of government documents that could easily swallow a person whole, there are professionals that you can hire to search through these records and unearth the names, places, and dates that you desire.

If you are looking for family history information, you can search in any number of places. Start with people you know, then work out to people you know a little bit, then extend out into people who you may not know at all, but are willing to talk about your family. With a little bit of effort, you can learn a great deal about who your relations were, who your relations are, and just what made those people tick. And then you can proudly call these people family.

About The Author

Trevor Dumbleton - http://www.familytreeshistory.com/ is a categorized resource directory to help explore the world of genealogy, or family trees, including the history of our ancestors.



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Why Research Family History?

Family history research is a fascinating study which once you start it will probably turn into a passion.

Many people have asked themselves where they come from, where are their roots, and these questions reflect a yearning that all of us have. Genealogy is the science of tracing your family tree. It is a kind of detective work or paper chase game. The results are often unpredictable but always fascinating.

Family history research has recently gained a powerful tool in the internet. Now that it is possible to do a keyword or name search almost instantly, it has become much easier to trace a family tree. Easier at least than in days gone by, when a researcher had to spend a lot of time trudging around a dusty archive library, or waiting several weeks for a reply from one records office or another.

Even with the internet though, there are some parts of one's family tree which will be impossible to reconstruct due to certain historical circumstances. One example that comes to mind is the fire that destroyed the Irish records office in Dublin in the nineteenth century.

So you have decided to try to trace your family tree. The question is, where do you start?

Probably the best starting point is to talk to members of your own family, particularly elders, and try to get them to remember as much as they can about the past, and about their relatives and forebears. This can be very useful in providing some jumping off points for further investigations. The facts they are able to give may well help you to refine and focus your search right from the start, thereby saving a lot of potentially wasted time and effort.

Talking to people about the past is something that should be done in a sensitive way, as it can often awaken memories which people would rather forget.

Next you should decide what aspect of your family history you are going to investigate. Are you interested in finding out about everything you can about everyone related to you? Or do you prefer a more narrow focus, such as tracing one particular branch? Or perhaps you will keep an open mind at first until you find something in your family tree that provokes your interest.

Some people even trace their spouse's family. A friend of mine who is divorced nevertheless is tracing her husband's ancestors on behalf of her children, since her ex-husband is descended from an old aristocratic family who were very powerful and influential in medieval England.

There are many different reasons for wanting to research family history, each one of them is interesting to the individual researcher, and all of them have been greatly facilitated by the arrival of the internet.

Getting Started With Genealogy

By Andrea H. Burke

The word genealogy brings to mind a Bible page, mementos or an
obituary, especially when a close relative passes away. A
dictionary definition reads: A record of the ancestry and
descent of a person.

Today, it’s family history, instead of just genealogy. Family
history is about people who lived, worshipped, and toiled to
make our world better than theirs.

These things are what make up a “Family History”, a complete
accounting of their lives, their times and their ways; things
which make each of us unique, and individual. Taken together,
they create the ‘glue’ which holds us together in family ties.

So they are no longer “just” the donors of our unique DNA, or
the building blocks of our biology, they are part of us in a way
that no other small group of people could be- even adopted
children become a real part of our family by taking on family
characteristics.

Begin now to write your own unique history, including you, your
parents and grandparents. Ask questions, find names in Bibles,
legal papers or journals; keep dated news clips and certificates
too.

A local Family History Library can help you get started with a
free computer program; this will help you by grouping fathers,
mothers and children together. It will have a place for notes,
sources, and other important information, like maiden names.

Generally the next step is to search census records as they
list every member in each household. Keeping notes and filing
is important, especially when you get large amounts of
information.

A good way is to use a small tape recorder and record
conversations with grandparents and older family members; it can
be transcribed later and printed. Military records are online
and are great sources of information, and it’s all free at your
local Family History Library (just look in the telephone book).

Next, write your history. It’s a good idea to present the
family information in story form, following the generations as
they move from place to place. Your computer will store
information and pictures of family members along with the
written history and charts. The genealogy programs available
today have places for pictures of each individual. Or you can
print, copy or have them professionally published.

However you decide to do it, your history will be cherished by
your children and grandchildren; they’ll know who they are,
they’ll develop pride and self-confidence as they read about the
accomplishments of their own predecessors.

Andrea Holycross Burke, genealogist/consultant with the Family History Library of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah. Affiliate with the website Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness www.raogk.org; submitter to www.findagrave.com and www.Rootsweb.com



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Family History

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Roger_Hardieway]Roger Hardieway

The systematic narrative and exploration of bygone events involving a certain family, or definite families compiled chronologically is family history. It is done world wide and the Internet gives us the opportunity to help more people search their family history. The Internet is an unfussy yet effective genomic tool that can gather information on genetic, environmental, behavioral, public, and for investigating social risk factors for diseases among family members. Tracing the illnesses suffered by your parents, grandparents, and other blood relatives can help your doctor predict the disorders to which you may be at risk and take action to keep you and your family healthy. One may be encouraged to include events to credit family members no longer living. A current survey found that 96 percent of Americans consider that knowing their family history is important. In the narrower sense of the term, a family history is a biography of a single family over several generations, based on a tested genealogy and fleshed out with the fuller story of the family's place in wealth and rank. With the advances in technology today scrap booking your family history is becoming a full media event. One of best tools for organizing your family history is the program called Personal Ancestral File. Keep in mind that no one's family history is compelling and interesting, until you make it compelling and interesting. Sharing of genealogy and family history is what makes this and all genealogy / research possible. It has been said that genealogy is the study of family history, while family history is the study of genealogy and everything else--including the background, location, and circumstances of people's lives. (The Department of Health and Human Services is highlighting the importance of family history for disease prevention with the U.S. Surgeon General's Family History Initiative. This initiative has proposed that Thanksgiving Day be designated a National Family History Day in which persons collect their family health histories. A new web-based tool, My Family Health Portrait (http://www.hhs.gov/familyhistory), enables persons to collect family history for six diseases (CHD, stroke, diabetes, and colorectal, breast, and ovarian cancer) and identify additional diseases that occur in their families.)

Families and individuals have been passing on their stories about the past by word of mouth from the beginning of time. There are programs available which makes it FUN to trace your family tree. Some can be bought for a price and there are some programs wherein you can search for your family tree for free. Books and internet websites provide family tree charts, genealogy research reports, searches, media, full source citations, and much more. Get busy with your family tree today. It will help you organize your family genealogy research, store your family history data, enter proper source citations, and produce professional-quality family tree charts and genealogy research reports that you can preview and modify, then print or publish on the web on your own genealogy website. How do you choose your family tree software. look up at your library books or periodicals. Search for these titles; Genbox, Legacy , Family Tree Maker,RootsMagic, and other genealogy software programs, and you will understand somewhat how these programs work. Do searches on the internet; enter "genealogy programs" or "family history programs". hopefully, you will discover that some of these programs have all the capabilities that an experienced genealogist would need.

Please leave your comments.

Roger Hardieway is a retired Engineer and Amateur Radio Operator

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Genealogy Search - Map Out Your Family Tree Easily

Do you know where you came from? From what generation you belong? To whom you are related? Maybe you are hearing tales that you somewhat belong to a rich family but then your great great grandfather was disowned losing all the rights from his rich family. A genealogy search can help you map out your family tree and unlock family secrets that you want to discover.

It is a tedious and time consuming activity to map out your family tree and figure out your history and line of ancestors. It involves a lot of extended families, marriages and divorces. Sometimes even adoptions make a family tree complicated and hard to trace. Old family members passed away taking with them the important family stories and traditions. And as time goes on a family history and ancestry became unclear to the new generation.

People have growing interest and curiosity to find out the real story behind their families and to discover long lost relatives. It is also exciting to discover that you have a royal blood somewhere in your family tree and you are related to famous people. But most of all it is important to map out your family tree to keep your family history intact for future generations.

Today’s technology makes it easier for you to map out your family tree. With advance technology and internet you can map out your family tree and discover long lost family members and traditions. Detective tools that used to be available only for private investigators are now available for you to use. Genealogy search allows people to search family history through a huge family tree database.

Unlocking buried family history, traditions and secrets is no more a tedious activity now. You can easily map out your family tree and history to better understand who you are and where you came from. You can easily preserve your family history that you can pass on to future generations in your family.

By using a 100% legal and fully organized genealogy search database, you will have access to complete research tools for obtaining private information about anyone from the privacy of your own home or office. Map out your family tree and start your genealogy record search visit [http://www.peoplesearch.great-discovery.com/genealogysearch.htm#]People Search

To know more about Detective Tools visit [http://www.homedetective.great-discovery.com/]Home Detective

Gerry Restrivera writes informative articles on various subjects including Genealogy Search: Map Out Your Family Tree Easily. You are allowed to publish this article in its entirety provided that author’s name, bio and website links must remain intact and included with every reproduction.

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Online Genealogy Search - Uncover Your Family History

Tracing your ancestry and family tree is something very challenging and yet very rewarding. It is an exciting discovery to uncover your family history and find out to whom you are related. It is a journey to know about your ancestors who are responsible for your existence today.

Maybe you are hearing stories about your family and conducting a genealogy search will uncover your family history to confirm about the tales you've been hearing. It is normal for people to be curious about the real stories of their families. Who knows you might be related to some famous people and that is really, really exciting. Most importantly, genealogy search will allow you to map your family tree to keep your family history intact for future generations.

It could be very challenging and involves a lot of research to uncover your family history. There are things that could make your family history complicated like marriages, divorces and adoptions. Records maybe forgotten and old family members may not be here anymore to share stories.

You may think that it will take months to uncover your family history if you are going to unearth dusty documents and archives from libraries, government records, etc. You have to dig about births, deaths, marriages records and a lot more. Maybe in the old days, that would be the case but now with the presence of internet, things are a lot easier.

Now with the power of the internet, information that will take months to gather to uncover your family history will be a lot faster and you will get results immediately. Getting at the bottom of buried family history and traditions is no longer a difficult task now. You can easily uncover your family history through online genealogy search that will help you understand more about your ancestors and where you came from.

An organized genealogy search database will help you to have access to complete research tools that used to be available only for private investigators. Now you can do your own research at the comfort of your own home to uncover your family history. To get access visit [http://www.peoplesearch.great-discovery.com/genealogysearch.htm]People Search

For people search and background check visit http://www.peoplesearch.great-discovery.com/

To know more about detective tools visit [http://www.homedetective.great-discovery.com/]Home Detective

Gerry Restrivera writes informative articles on various subjects including Online Genealogy Search- Uncover Your Family History. You are allowed to publish this article in its entirety provided that author's name, bio and website links must remain intact and included with every reproduction.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gerry_Restrivera http://EzineArticles.com/?Online-Genealogy-Search---Uncover-Your-Family-History&id=1096993

The Great Genealogical Need

by Leo Talbot

For those of you that are experienced genealogists and have so far weathered the storms of years of research through dusty archives, old Bibles, sweet ancient relatives with unreliable memories, cold cemeteries, civil war records and all sorts of Vital Records, and who are now in the ‘nirvana’ of online research…this article is for you.



Who have you introduced, of late, to this most exciting and worthwhile personal and family past-time, next to the nurturing of our immediate family of course?



May I ask respectfully, but with conviction, when was the last time you shared with somebody close to you a heart warming story about one of their direct, but deceased, ancestors: Perhaps something that they have never heard before? When did you last take a grandson or granddaughter to visit a cemetery, or an old church where they could see some old baptismal records, or to the Social Security Death Index(SSDI) and Social Security Death Records(SSDR) offices, or some other place of relevant interest?



For that matter, again with respect, when was the last time you shared with somebody, who does not get involved with what you know to be of great personal value, something of a ‘testimonial’ about what is going on in the earth in relation to those who are responsible for their being here in the first place???



Of the thousands that somehow do commence the pursuit of genealogy (family history), only few ‘survive’. There are many reasons for this high ‘mortality rate’. One of the most often quoted is, “it simply takes too much of my time”. It’s true! Genealogy does consume time, and lots of it. But this is more than just a search for names, dates and places; it is a search for the discovery of our own identity, and in a sense, the discovery of our nation, as we seek for those of our ancestors who left their footprints somewhere in time. Unfortunately the ‘apprentices’ get worn out before they discover the true joy of this ‘recreation’. This should be genealogical ‘recreation’, not genealogical ‘work’.



What is needed to maintain the interest and commitment of our ‘new’ colleagues? The answer is simple: They need to find the ‘stories’ of their ancestors, not just the data. It’s the stories that will keep them coming back, back to the genealogical libraries, online facilities, the churches, the cemeteries, back to those Vital Records, back to their living ancestors, back for more. But they’ll need more data won’t they? Yes they will, because the data will help them to find the stories.



Encourage them not to get lost in those early days on all the collateral lines, dealing with cousin ‘this’, and second cousin ‘that’. The almost irresistible emotional attraction lay in the sagas of the direct ancestors; the men and women from whom they sprang.



It will help if they understand that each of us is a physical and ‘spiritual’ composite of those who have gone before. We need to encourage them to look for the stories that are behind the names, dates and places, so that they can begin to see and feel who they really are: To see the character traits in ancestors, that they recognize in themselves, otherwise, researching the Social Security Death Index (SSDI), the Social Security Death Records (SSDR), the myriad of Vital Records such as birth, death and marriage certificates, old church baptismal records and the like, old wills, probate documents and shipping lists, will simply wear them out. Rather than searching through the cemeteries for those interesting headstones, they’ll be buried under one.



It may come as a surprise to many of you, but genealogical research needs every advocate and devotee possible. Why? Because the fact is, that the more researchers there are, the more records we discover and the more relevant research we produce.



Since the first Genealogical Society was established back in 1836, more pages of research have been produced than existed in the world at that time. For history to make a contemporary contribution, whether family history or the history of communities or nations, it has to be researched, written about and indexed. It has to be made available, to be given ‘true’ meaning, by being able to be absorbed into the lives of each of us; to touch us, to motivate us, or perhaps to cause us to revile at certain practices of the past. History, and its records, cannot be allowed to lie dormant and unused.



If you are one of those who has a life-time membership at the SSDI or SSDR etc, and you are known in geneological circles from New York to San Francisco, and you are in the Guinness Book of Records for the most names submitted to the IGI, please ask yourself, notwithstanding all the data you have collected, is it not the stories about your direct ancestors that really touch you, and help to fill your heart and mind with the wonder of all that has come to you through them?



Well, if this strikes a chord with you, please, make up your mind today, that you will do something that will stimulate another person’s interest? You might just add another valuable researcher, perhaps the best yet, to Genealogical research?



Leo Talbot enjoys searching geneology records such as the social security death index to build his family tree.




Article Source: ArticleRich.com

Family Trees That Talk - Interviewing relatives

by Wayne Thomas

As a means of researching family trees,

interviewing relatives can be a really enjoyable

experience for both parties. But, there are some

important rules. As with anything worthwhile,

genealogy does have guidelines that must be

followed if you are at all

serious about family history.



5 Simple Rules



* Contact them first - DON’T just turn up on

their doorstep, cassette recorder in hand. Get

their permission to do the interview and be

honest about why

you would like to speak to them.



* Be careful not to offend them by asking

questions that maybe too personal or of a very

sensitive nature. Some people will answer any

question you throw at them

whereas others will be more guarded. Obviously if

you already have a close relationship with Uncle

George, he

will be quite relaxed in talking to you. Aunty

Madge, however, who you wouldn’t know if you fell

over her, is

not as likely to be so forthcoming in laying out

the laundry, clean or otherwise, of the family!



* It’s important to have a list of questions

ready. You may not ask them all or you may need

to alter the focus of some during the interview,

but you should have a list of core questions

ready. Why? Because this will

ensure that you don’t forget anything important

and secondly it gives the impression that you

actually know

what you are doing. Dithering and looking up at

the

ceiling every 5 minutes trying to remember what

to ask next does not inspire confidence and will

likely make the interviewee uncomfortable.



* DON’T outstay your welcome. You are the only

one that can judge when that might be.



* Show your appreciation for their time by either

presenting them with a small gift or simply

saying those magic words, "thank you".





Verify Or Else



Family interviews are a fantastic way to fill in

the gaps in your family trees, and will provide

far more information than you could ever glean

from a marriage

certificate. The quality and detail can be

extraordinary and enlightening, BUT don’t accept

everything Uncle George says as being entirely

accurate. His "true story" may not be true at all.

THE FIRST RULE IN GENEALOGY IS VERIFY -

wherever possible. The truth can be stretched,

twisted, bent and made to disappear altogether.

That doesn’t mean Uncle George is

lying, he may just be repeating what he was told

by someone else or may have forgotten the details

over time.



My Story



Here is an example of just such a point from my

own family history. It is very illustrative of

the need, when researching family trees, for

accurate information.



My great-grandfather George BURLS came out from

England and settled in rural Victoria, Australia.

My grandmother, his youngest daughter, always

insisted that he

was a detective and that he solved a murder

investigation in a nearby town. Well, that was

all I had to go on. Firstly, if there was a

murder the local

newspaper was the place to start. I knew I would

have to go back to the early 1900’s because my

great-grandfather died in 1919 aged 70.



Back at about that time a water reservoir called

the Waranga Basin was being excavated and so

there was a great influx of workers around the

area. Two of the

workers living in the tent city that sprung up

were James Edwards and William Skinner. They were

friends but Skinner got drunk one night and

attacked Edwards

with a shovel. He defended himself with a nearby

axe and killed Skinner. Fearing the police would

not believe it was self-defence, Edwards

proceeded to cut up the body, placed the parts in

hessian bags and threw them into the basin. They

were later found and an investigation ensued. All

these details I got from a

newspaper, The Rushworth Chronicle of 1905.



George BURLS and his son Alfred were rabbit

trapping, which was their occupation, when they

were approached by the culprit, Edwards, who they

both knew from another job site where they had

previously worked

together. Edwards denied ever knowing them and

said he wanted to buy some tobacco. He did so

then left. They were both called to give evidence

at the subsequent

trial. End of story!



The above are the facts of the case. My

grandmothers version was somewhat more elaborate,

granting my great-grandfather, who by the way

only had one eye, with the tracking down and

apprehension of Edwards. But

again, she may have just been repeating what she

had been told.



Handy Interviewing Questions



Okay, so here are some sample questions to get

your family trees talking. These are in addition

to the mandatory ones such as names, dates of

birth, marriage

death etc.



1. Describe your childhood - relationship with

parents, siblings.



2. The greatest joy of your childhood was .......?



3. As a child, what was your worst fear?



4. What was your father’s occupation and what was

the quality of your life like as a child?



5. How would you describe your parents and or

grandparents - physical characteristics and

qualities?



6. What is the most pleasant memory you have of

your parents and or grandparents?



7. What was the dumbest thing you ever did as a

child?



8. What was your most memorable holiday?



9. What was one thing that attracted you to your

spouse? Why?



10. What was the most difficult moment for you as

a parent?



11. What one thing would you change in your role

as a parent?



12. What would you like your children to most

remember about you?



13. What was your greatest fear as a parent?



14. What activities do you enjoy?



15. What do you find really annoying in other

peoples actions or characteristics?



Play with the questions. Add to them if you wish.

They are just to get you thinking.

Good hunting!



Wayne Thomas has been involved in genealogy for
over 25 years. His website has loads of resources
for the beginner and beyond, plus a free ebook.
Visit at www.new2-geaneology



Article Source: ArticleRich.com