This isn't really a standard Family History site as such, more like a repository, a convenient place to put a collection of stories and images we've been scraping together forever, mostly concerning peoples' lives in the UK, Ireland, and Australia.
We started in 1968, which was pre-Ancestry et al, when genealogists were just a whole new breed of geek, who had to mostly rely on the Mormons' embryonic database for anything international, and our State Library and the gloomy basements of Government buildings for anything local. And not a computer in sight. It tended to create bales of paper, but a growing network of fellow believers, which meant that some of the best data and artefacts came from distant rellies' cupboards. It was better than gold-prospecting. And just as addictive.
Now that the journey - which we wouldn't have missed for quids! - is all but done, and much of what we've found has been digitised and spread about in the family for the next generations to have a shot at, we thought we'd assemble some of the more interesting bits that are left over so we can clean out the filing cabinets properly and have a major shred-up.
We've dumped everything into the Pages at the sides, and will go on adding to them as we clear out any fresh bits we think someone might gain value from in their own journey through the ghosts and shadows of their ancestors' stories. These Pages are grouped as...
LIFE STORIES - Those files we've turned into a full narrative.
CHRONOLOGIES - Each couple's life file in date order.
DATA FILES - Sundry files that add to the background.
PHOTO GALERY - Collections of family photos.
... plus a few scattered bits that may be of interest. There's also a Names Index in two parts (and where they're mentioned of course) that might be of help, which can only get bigger and bigger as we sort through.
A couple of qualifiers. We can't absolutely swear everything is error-free, we all make the odd research mistake, but we've cross-checked for authenticity where we could, and said as much where we couldn't. And we may have given an interpretation to our ancestors' lives and times you don't entirely agree with. That's okay, history isn't an exact science.
And the Irish records! When it comes to the Irish Catholic working mug at the bottom, any earlier than about 1900, without all those lost Census Returns from the 1800s, well - take a whole bunch of 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzles of green fields and cabins and people working, tip them into a big bag and shake it up, make a rough sketch of the pictures on the boxes and burn the boxes, then burn two-thirds of the pieces as well. Now start to assemble the original pictures. That's about what it's like.
Add to this the fact that the limited original sources of "old" Irish history have been used by scholars over the last four hundred or so years, but not always interpreted by them the same way, sometimes being outright contradictory, some even discredited by latter day researchers.
Our approach has been to take what we want from a wide variety of those studies, and quote the most-agreed-upon versions. But even then, some of the time you just have to have a damn good punt!
So, be our guest, feel free to copy anything useful.
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