by Arlene.
I have finally launched myself into researching my family tree. More specifically, researching my mother’s family.
Quite a few years ago, my Uncle on my dad’s side put together a family tree of sorts. He put together a set of documents and photographs of the Brown family as it was then, put it all on a cd, and gave us all a copy. It is a good starting point, but for me, it had quite a few problems.
Firstly, it only covers the siblings and direct ancestors of the male line of the Brown family. So, my paternal grandparents, their children and grandchildren are the main focus of the research, and my grandfather has his parents and family included as well. There is no mention of my paternal grandmother’s family or parents. I suppose the women just weren’t interesting or important enough to warrant research, huh?
Beyond that, the way the information is presented has major flaws. It is listed roughly chronologically, but sets off at odd tangents, includes a series of “fact files” about various family members (how accurate these facts are, being open to debate, since they are based in family stories – many versions of which exist), and some scanned birth and marriage certificates. There are huge gaps in the information, and irritatingly, the scanned documents are obscured with images of the person in question, superimposed over the top of them.
It took a long time, but I mined the cd for all the information I could, and armed with a list of names and dates, a scrappy sketch of a family tree, and a sense of hope, I registered with Ancestry.co.uk.
Wish me luck.
Mainly Witterings 