Throughout my life I know my aunt and uncle have been passionate about their hobby, researching the family tree. They became members of the local family history society, which they attended for many years. Over time, they became secretary and president respectively. There were no computers, of course, when they were doing their research. They used a lot of shoe leather visiting local churches, investigating births marriages and deaths, and hoping they had the correct venue! They Visited local records offices and newspaper archives, and travelled to the National Archives at Kew. Word of mouth as well of course was a valuably resource, passed on from person to person and generation to generation.
During the 1980’s the internet was becoming more popular and on one visit to Kew my aunt met a reporter from the local radio station, investigating whether the records could be put online for all to see. At the time she was investigating a family member, within boxes of crew lists for fishing vessels – A tedious and time-consuming job. The reporter was amazed at the task being undertaken and aghast at the amount of work it entailed. He suggested to my aunt that it would be much easier if all records were put online, but they were both shocked and told him they hoped that would never happen! Doing the research and being able to personally touch the records was far more satisfying than just finding the information on a computer.
My aunt, and my uncle before his death, continued their investigations for many more years, and never tried to access records on-line. They had cupboards overflowing with records, stories, newspaper articles. I was never overly interested in their relatives research, although I enjoyed the many stories they told me.
When my own retirement arrived I knew it was important that I had tasks which would keep the ‘little grey cells’ active, so decided it might be interesting to do some research myself. Very soon I too became hooked and spent many hours on investigations, mostly on the computer. I can virtually visit any county in England, or travel to any country in the world to find the records I need, and store everything on my computer. But as I have discovered, however easy it may be to find information on our electronic devices nothing quite makes up for face to face discussions with someone who has family tales to tell, especially if they have been investigating the family for 50 years.
I never fail to be amazed at my aunt’s memory for even the smallest detail, and the fascinating stories she passes on. Equally there are some things I can find online that she could never find researching ‘with her feet’. Like my great-uncles who both moved to live in America….I can find the address they lived at, who their neighbours were, where they worked and who they married.
So we have developed a sort of information swap. We write to each other about once a month, proper letters with pen and paper, sent by snail mail. I send her information and records that I have found on my computer, and she writes back with snippets of stories about the people I am investigating which she has collected over her many years of searching. So we are both winners. I get lots of personal stories which cannot be found on-line, and my aunt, a small 89 year old dynamo, learns new things about our ancestors, and keeps her love of family and history alive.
And she still doesn’t own a computer!!
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