Looking at the full picture

I don't know about you but when I first began researching my family history, it was all data collection. I mainly collected all the dates of birth, marriage and death of my ancestors, alongside recording where they were and what they were doing every 10 years on the censuses.

As time went on I started to want to unlock some of the facts in this data collecting exercise that I'd done previously. What did it mean that my ancestor was born in January 1899 or was baptised on 25th December 1888? 

You had to look at the facts around the bigger picture...

• What was happening in your ancestors town, village, street at the time of these significant life events? Eg mass unemployment, opening of a new railway, clearing of slums, new housing?
• What had happened 8-10 months before a birth? Eg, a marriage only months before a birth or a father home on leave from the army?
• What was happening in the World or the Nation? Eg war, peace, temperance movement, strikes, protests, death of a king?
• Was there other events happening within the immediate or extended family? Eg, cousins of similar ages, a daughter old enough to have a baby which the mother was hiding as her own, children helping with house work or child care, the father out of work?
• Where were extended family members located geographically in relation to your relative? Did that have an impact on the relationship the extended family had with one another? Eg in the same or next street, in the neighbouring town or on the otherside of the country?

Harold Poole with his wife Alice Thompson

An example which I discovered in my own family tree once I started to unpack the facts was...

...my great grandmother, Grace Ellen Poole nee Binns died on 31st July 1917 at 2 Rose Avenue, Horsforth, West Yorkshire
...1917 was in the middle of WW1
...did she have family members - sons, husband, nephews, brothers - who had signed up & were away fighting in France?
...her eldest son, Harold Poole, was overseas in France until 1918

...Frederick Poole - Grace's husband remarried on 27th April 1918 only months after his wife had passed away
...Harold, Grace's son married on 26th September 1918 - possibly home on leave?
...remember WW1 ended on 11th November 1918 and even then it may have been 1919 before troops returned home to their loved ones 

...my grandmother always told stories that her father, Harold Poole would never talk to his father Frederick Poole, one wonders whether it was due to the fact that his father remarried so quickly after his mother's death before Harold had the opportunity to grieve for his own mother, Grace.

It wasn't until I had unpacked the facts and looked at the full picture did I realise how quick succession it was between my great, great grandmother's death and her husband's remarriage, alongside the complications of WW1 and her son, his marriage and being away in France.

2014 oh, what will you bring?

2014 has crept up me very quickly and silently this year, I had many plans for time for reflection of 2013 and for the future, but life is so busy it has been cast to one side, although I have a few hours of time for reflection now, so here goes...

2013

It has been really fun to see how the blog has developed properly over the last year. It was my New Year's Resolution in 2013 to do at least one blog post a week on this blog, which I have done and seem to have more people actively following me and reading my blog which is really exciting. I am pleased people enjoy my rambling and random research!!! I started with 2 followers at the beginning of the year (my husband and father-in-law!) and how have 18, which is amazing.

It has been nice to follow other genealogy and personal family history blogs as well to gain ideas and knowledge as well as actively see what what is happening on an everyday basis in the world of genealogy. I have started to use BLOGLOVIN' to follow other's blogs.

I had aimed to finish The Davidson Family as a blog page and as a book to give to family members for Christmas but I have failed to meet that deadline with other work and life commitments, but my aim is to sort it for 2014 Christmas!!!! The written work is finished but I realised if I wanted to make it into a proper book, then I needed to properly reference it, so I'm finishing that at the moment which is taking forever. It has been a challenging project which I will be really happy to finish but I have learnt so much by taking that challenge and writing it.

I have loved getting involved with Julie Goucher's, The Book of Me, Written by You and seeing what that brings up, alongside researching and sharing with you all some of the things within Family History which really make me tick, such as Surname Saturday's, some useful tips for beginnings to researching.

Some of my favourite posts from 2013 are:

• Origins of Surnames in the UK
• Finding a Marriage, Birth and Death Certificate series
• Surname Saturday's

Towards the end of 2013, I found I was spending so much time blogging that I was not having enough time to finish writing and researching so this is where I can start to tell you about what my resolutions are for family history research and blogging into 2014...

...2014

• My main challenge is to finish The Davidson Family and to have it in a physical book format for the end of the year.
• I am not going to pressure myself to do a blog post each week, but am going to share when I discover some interesting research, whether that ends up being 3x a week or only once a month, so be it, but I will continue blogging and sharing what I discover.
• I would like to visit Kew at some point in 2014 but we shall see what becomes of that.
• I would like to visit a local Family History Fair.
• Break down lots of BRICK WALLS!
• Carry on with the Book of Me, Written by You as this is becoming a great way to explore my own personal history and to share it with others.
• For Christmas I received a beautiful hard bound book called "The Book of Me" (no link to Julie Goucher's the Book of Me, Written by You) but a similar idea which has space for me to record ME now with hints and prompts about me in a physical format which I intend on working my way through slowly. I would to love to be able to put really personal information into the book and treasuring it for my future generations.

The Book of Me - which I look forward to writing in :)

Lastly I want to thank all my regular readers and follows of Ruth's Ancestor's for continuing to read my posts and follow me. I would to hear my from you so feel free to leave comments with any ideas or anything you would like to see covered on here into the future.

Here's to 2014, may it be a great one!

The Book of Me, Written by You - Week 14 - Special People (Family)

The Book Of Me, Written By You is a 15 month project set up by Julie Goucher at Anglers Rest.

Each week there are prompts which require answering. 

Week 14 - Special People

Last weeks post when I had to plan a dinner party but could not include family I found it quite difficult as there are so many of my ancestors I want to meet, so I have found this weeks post much easier.

For my dinner party this week I would invite:

• John Davidson (c1800-c1838), my great, great, great, great grandfather - he his a puzzle and brick wall in my family research, which is one of the main reasons I want to meet him. He was a musician in the Royal Marines, so I want to know more about his time with them. I want to know how, why and when he died, who his parents were, where was he born, had he lived in Woolwich, London as a child? I want to find out more about the origins of our Davidson ancestors, were we of Jewish origin or the Scottish clan, Davidson? How did he live daily, what was his house like? Did he enjoy his career? (To read about what I know already about John Davidson see Chapter 1 of The Davidson Family)

• Harold Vernon Poole, my great grandfather - he was a dear father to my grandmother and died only weeks after my father was born, so my father has no memories of him. Since my grandmother passed away I feel as if I have no one to talk to about him. He fought in France in World War I and whilst he was there his mother suddenly past away and his father remarried a few months later. I would love to know more about Harold's feelings towards his father, mother's death and new step-mother, for I know Harold chose to have very little to do with his father throughout my grandmothers life. What exactly caused that rift? Were there more secrets no-one else understood? Also I'd love to ask questions about his years in France and what it was like for him.

Grandad with Spider

• Dennis Sutcliffe, my grandfather - I had a very good relationship with all my grandparents but especially do with my grandfather, but I never asked him enough about his early childhood and his years fighting in France and Africa during World War II. I have recently found photos of him with a friend called Spider, but who was he? Where they know one another from?

• William Presswood, my great, great, great, great grandfather - he committed suicide in 1841 which was really sad but the newspaper cutting about his death, says he was fighting illness, had to raise a large young family and the workhouse was looking eminent for them. What desperate measures caused him to make that decision to end his life? How was life before he died? What was the reality of the workhouse like? How could he have been helped? Was he ashamed he could not provide for his family? I would also send him home with a doggy bag to feed all his young hungry mouths.

• Mary Skipper York (1857-?), my great, great great grandmother - she had an illegitimate child, Alice York (my great, great grandmother). I would love to know who the father was of her child, as she was working in domestic service at the time, so I often wonder whether she was taken advantage of at work or whether she had a one night stand in her youth? 

• John Davidson (1832-1897), my great, great, great grandfather - he was the son of the John Davidson named first on the list.  He moved his young family from Poplar in London to Hull in East Yorkshire, so I would love to ask him why they moved? I also want to know more about his childhood, as he lost his father at a young age and his mother remarried, how did he and the rest of the family cope with these life changes.

• Jessie Ephas Wilcock (1844-?), my great, great, great grandmother - she has such an unusual name I would love to go back and ask about how she came to be called Ephas? Although she may not know why, so perhaps asking her mother or even her grandparents might be better alternative? I would love to ask about her family as well, as again she was another illegitimate child in my ancestry, so did she have any knowledge of who her father was?

• Edward Sutcliff(e) (c1818-c1895), my great, great, great grandfather - I am struggling to find any further information about him and his parents, so I would love to ask him who were his parents. I would also love to know more about him and his life, as he moved about an awful lot, was this due to work or another reason? He lived in West Yorkshire, in which the surname Sutcliffe is fairly common and makes researching incredibly difficult, but I want to be able to trace this family line back further, as I am sure there is much more to learn.

I would just love to learn so much more about the everyday lives of each & everyone of my ancestors, did they go to school, can they read, what was life like for them, what were their houses like, etc?

I would cook my beautiful BEEF GOULASH with rice, as I feel my Victorian ancestors would be better suited to a good beef stew, although I would serve it with rice, although I am unsure how common rice was to the Victorian's.

My beef goulash