meet the team

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Meet the Team

Here are some contributions from other 1861ers.
Why not email your own pen-portrait to the usual address?

We started researching Family History about ten years ago, thinking we'd need something to keep us busy when we retired from teaching. By the time retirement arrived we had found well over 4000 names on our family trees.
Apart from transcribing for FreeCEN we spend a lot of time with our grandchildren, who live just down the road, time in the garden and trying to get out for fresh air (and a coffee) as often as we can.
One idea we've developed lately is to offer our "expert" services in researching family history for other people in return for a donation to charity.

Simon and Chris

Hi folks, I’m Jennifer ... one of the “Canadians". I left England’s fair shores a little over 39 years ago as a teenager, and have resided in BC (various locations) ever since. Have been pottering about with genealogy for probably 15 years now, and as great clumps of Mum’s ancestors came from the Cuckfield area of Sussex – I was familiar with many of the place names, and thought it’d make transcribing a bit easier (might even find a few new rellies, too)

As Jennifer has started things off, I will add my "two bits" worth (two bits is 25 cents in Canada, but one bit is meaningless). I have been involved in genealogy for about 20 years, and have become more active since retiring 3 years ago.

It has been very interesting to get to know a small area in a time where telemarketers were unheard of....following family connections and relationships as I transcribe shows how generations of family and friends looked after the aged community, although some desperate situations have been found. Having never been to England, I have found the Old ordnance map website a Godsend, as I can decipher place names. This project has also given me a much better respect for "good handwriting". I try to get 2 pages per day transcribed, some days less, some more.

My outside hobbies are hiking, Biking kayaking, and gardening (helping my wife Kathy). We try to travel as much as possible depending on budget...and just returned from a lifelong goal of visiting the Galapagos and Amazon jungle...truly "amazing" places. So we are at home trying to save up for the next trip, but the $$ are flying into the gas pumps pretty fast.

cheers to all

Dave
in Summerland BC Canada

Hi, I'm Brian in Sussex so I find it easier to transcribe local placenames - started researching my fam tree a few years ago but have reached various brick walls so eased off for the time being. Nearly finished my first piece -Littlehampton - about 20 pages to go (a few of which may be blank if between districts!) One enumerator has beautiful handwritig but many are more difficult to read. I find I'm getting a very good picture of life in 1861 through going slowly through each establishment - many similarities between families (names, number of children and occupations) the occasional surprise like the listing of a couple of photographers (I thought it started later than 1861)

Phil's story:
I have been researching family trees for 20 years or so. My first copy of Family Tree Maker came on 2 large floppies back when my computer only had 2 floppy drives and no hard drive. I worked with a fellow in England on my GGmothers side and we exchanged paper to proof-read each other's trees as the internet was still just an idea, so over that time I have kept very well informed on all the efforts to make the data freely available.
My first use of the LDS FH Centers was via microfiche, though my nearest FHC is 45 miles away, and I still use those. A number of folks involved in genealogy research knock the LDS for errors but compared to most other transcribed data from all types of fields they are excellent.
If it wasn't for the tremendous help given by dedicated folks working on genealogy we would all be struggling that much more.When I started to look for information there was almost nothing but I found an obituary card amongst my father's effects. I then went on GENUKI, found an email address in Australia... A few hours later I received a tree of about 800 names. Now that is HELP with big capitals.
Others constantly go out of their way to help folks they never meet, as do all who transcribe and check, publish etc, making this interest one of the most helpful I have ever found.

Karen says...
I started family research in the 70's. Mostly to fill the questions in my mind about my family and who was who at all those times of family gatherings such as weddings and funerals, etc. I put it all to paper, but since I was living at the time in England, and my husband's family was living in SSX - it seemed that I would regret it forever if I did not take the opportunity to get his info. Luckily , his aunts had keen minds and lots of memories. Though I do remember asking what was your grandmother's name? and got the reply "Grandmother Page". That shocked me and still does.
I would go to the record offices and read originals of parish records deposited there and return with the info. Most of the time, what I told them, they would say, Oh, that is correct.
I am so delighted to have the resources available online that did not exist then. Primarily our best friend was the mailman, for we would send out multiple queries with a SASE and probably get one answer in ten. I must have a fortune in unused stamped envelopes that were mailed to people and never answered. It really took about 6 weeks to do primary beginning research on a surname. Now it takes about 1 day and I often get answers even years after posting a question on some of the genealogy sites.
Recently I had a query from a gentleman who did not touchtype and when I suggested that I could mail him some forms to enter the data, he disappeared. (That really was a shame - but genealogy does take effort and I could have provided him with quite a bit of info if he was really interested in sharing.) I love this hobby.
Biggest mistake I ever made was to send a working .ged file to another researcher. By working, I mean several points were theories. She shared it with her daughter who promptly put it online. I was devastated for the file had many living people and I felt very exposed . Also since some was theory, it could have all been hocus. It took several weeks to get it removed.
My passions are genealogy, and puzzles. Guess that makes me a good transcriber !

Heather F says:
I was reading the newsletter and see you have a competition of sorts to see who has been doing the family history longest. My husband was Canadian and although he stayed here after the war, we used to go to Canada for a holiday each year.His great grandfather was a James Edward Bloor and in his home town of Toronto, one of the main streets was Bloor St. My husband's grandmother was insistent that we were related to Joseph Bloor, after whom the street was named. I was asked to find the connection.That was in 1977 and every time I went to Canada I was at the Canadian Archives researching Joseph. When we were in England we used to go to Somerset House where the records were then kept, then it was Kingsway, then Islington. I don't know where it is now because it is a long time since I did it the hard way, but the result was that we were in no way related to Joseph Bloor, and when I think of the money, time and blurred eyesight, I am just sorry we did not have the internet then, but it was good training.