With so many ancestry and/or genealogy blogs currently online, it’s difficult to know which ones to follow. We live in a digitized world where time is short and everybody prefers convenience and would rather spend their free time engaging in their own leisurely pursuits, whether it be reading, gardening or genealogical research and family tree building.
This blog is not meant to be ’unique’ per se, but just another resource for someone who is just starting out who is interested in discovering online resources, articles focused on this subject, assistance, or purely for random comic relief or old political caricatures!
I will concentrate mostly on English ancestry, with the odd tidbit for Canada, Ireland and Australia as my ancestors have been linked to England for as far back as I have traced. I have memberships with ancestry.co.uk and findmypast, in addition to having access to several parish registers that I paid for. In other words, if you would like me to look up a specific record on your behalf, simply send me a message and I will be pleased to do so.
I began my family tree research over 16 years ago however, I didn’t spend the extra hours and due diligence until 2006 when preparing for a trip back to England to walk in my ancestors’ footsteps. It is a great passion and pastime for me and I have enjoyed sharing the fruits of my labour with my Mum, Aunt and Uncle.
Just to share a little bit of personal information about myself, I live in Canada along with my immediate family however, all my relatives live in England with the exception of my Mum’s eldest brother who emigrated to Australia in the early 1970’s. My parents were married in 1951 and with career advancement prospects looking minimal and food rationing still in effect, they determined they would have to start anew in another country. The options were … Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Australia or Canada. My Mum wasn’t too fond of extreme heat, wild creatures or creepy crawlies so they settled on Canada. Mum and Dad embarked on their new life in April 1953 sailing on the passenger ship M.V. Georgic. This was back in the day where the men and women were separated so while my Mum was extremely sea sick, she was having to bunk with strange women and not her husband! They arrived on Canadian soil in Halifax and immediately took the train out west to Vancouver, which was a real eye opener back then. Mum was terribly home sick for years and thought they’d made a dreadful mistake emigrating to Canada, but they held off returning to visit family in England for 5 years in order plant their roots here and establish themselves within the local community.
Even though the blog URL is “dna testing”, I may not include too many personal articles on the subject. Yes, I have taken the DNA test provided by Ancestry however, I have a mixed opinion on it. I am looking forward to taking the 23andMe DNA test in the near future, when it is next on sale. I would love to hear other people’s opinions on the test results, in terms of expectations.
On this site, you can look forward to reading old newspaper articles, town histories and explanations of former occupations. I have a link to Amazon with genealogy related items for your convenience, and if I am able to offer or share helpful advice to even one person, then I will elated!
