Genealogy.
Genealogy, also known as family history, is the study of families & the tracing of their lineages & history. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, & other records to obtain information about a family & to demonstrate the kinship & pedigrees of its members. The results are often displayed in charts or written as narratives.
The pursuit of family history & origins tends to be shaped by several motives, including the desire to carve out a place for one's family in the larger historical picture, a sense of responsibility to preserve the past for future generations, & a sense of self-satisfaction in accurate storytelling.
My interest in my Family Tree.
My interest in Genealogy & my family tree started when I was young with the tales my dad told me about his family. I enjoyed going to Wales & meeting family that I had never met before & listening to stories & tales of relatives both past & present. My interest was further ignited after we discovered that my grandfather on my maternal line was, in fact, from an Italian family but had hidden this fact from his wife & children until he was old & in failing health.
It amazes me how addictive genealogy is & I often find myself spending hours & sometimes days glued to my research, searching out new relatives. I have been lucky enough to discover cousins living in many different countries around the world & thanks to having my DNA tested, I have been able to prove links to cousins that paper records could not prove.
I was born in London, England, but I have grandparents of English, Welsh & Italian heritage. Therefore, I follow the sporting teams England for football, Wales for rugby & Italy when neither is playing. This is great in international tournaments as I can support a team in all significant sporting events.
Genealogy or family tree research.
Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, & other records to obtain information about a family & to demonstrate the kinship & pedigrees of its members.
The pursuit of family history & origins tends to be shaped by several motives, including the desire to carve out a place for one's family in the larger historical picture, a sense of responsibility to preserve the past for future generations, & a sense of self-satisfaction in accurate storytelling.
My Family Tree.
My interest in Genealogy & my family tree started when I was young with the tales my dad told me about his family. I really enjoyed going to Wales & meeting family that I had never met before & listening to stories & tales of relatives both past & present. My interest was further ignited after we discovered that my grandfather on my maternal line was in fact from an Italian family, but had hidden this fact from his wife & children until he was old & in failing health.
It amazes me how addictive genealogy is & I quite often find myself spending hours & sometimes days glued to my research searching out new relatives. I have been lucky enough to discover cousins living in many different countries around the world & thanks to having my DNA tested have been able to prove links to cousins that paper records could not prove.
Organisation of people.
As this family tree grows I will attempt to organise the people on it by their birth dates∗ with the oldest person in each category being listed first.
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∗ If I cannot get a full date of birth only a year of birth I will add a birth date of January 1st to each person whose birth date is unclear but this will only be used for listing purposes & not shown as a date of birth in their details. This should only affect older people on my family tree when birth dates are harder to find using internet searches, & old documents.
As people go through their lives there are a few reasons that their names may change. For example, women may change their names when married. Also in some cases, incorrect names may have been entered on a census record. I will put what is on the census record in the sections showing census records. I will always use a birth name at the start of a page but as a woman's name may change I will alter her name on her page.
You can see this on the page for my grandmother Doris Irene Daniels. At her birth she is entered as Doris Irene Daniels, at her wedding I used her maiden name of Daniels as she was a Daniels when she married. When I list her children I use her married name, Morris, because she was using this name when her children were born. Likewise, when she passed away I used her married name, Doris Irene Morris. When I enter her on census records I use the name on each census return.
In some cases this can be misleading, my grandmother, Marie Elizabeth Jones had her name incorrectly recorded on several census records. In another confusing situation, my grandfather Albert Alberici changed his name by deedpole to Albert Clark so I have listed him using whichever name he used in the record I was looking at.
In one case, on a court record for my great-great-grandfather, Pietro Alberici, he had some pseudonyms entered on the court records so I have added these names to the details on his page.
- Written by: Alan Morris
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