I have watched it I like that program

i, in a moment of boredom, tracked down a  grandad i  had never known, well, i think it's him, he died in 2004 in warwickshire, but you have to go there to look at records or join heritage sites to get more info.

i've been trying to trace my family for the last year but it costs a fortune

I saw it for the first time today Aimee - must be an interesting job!

ive watched it a couple of times Aimee cos mum has watched it.The end results are  full of awww moments. mums into all that sort of thing and doing her family tree.

it would be ideal for a nosey person like me

Not recently, but I did used to enjoy the programme...... fascinating.

a new series is on BBC 1 at 9.15 am   it's so surprising how many people think they have no family and then they find loads

Thanks Aimee Just wish someone would heir hunt me

I watch it most mornings. Part of my degree was in heritage so I'm pretty interested in genealogy. I tried tracing my family tree, but it's not very easy to trace a Jones line in Wales! The Genes Reunited site is free to use and can be quite good though. I was contacted by someone on there who turned out to be related to me via my great grandmother. It was pretty cool actually.

me too baz

i'm tracing my dads family at the moment. they moved all over the place being miners  in 1901 they were in yorkshire, by 1911 they were in wales, thats where my grandad was born, they then moved back to Nottingham and my grandads mum was killed by lightening when he was 14  he was one of 13 or 14 kids, my dad knows nothing of his aunts or uncles as my grandad never spoke of them  yet my grandad was married 2 streets away from where i live now

My aunt (on my dad's side) did ours and she's now doing my maternal side for me.

We got deported.

i'm hoping for a big dark secret  i bet their all losers

Blimey Aims!  I love stories like that, they really make you wonder about your past. I found out a few things about my dads side of the family. I remember both of my paternal great grandmothers, both of whom were born in the 1890's, so I really wanted to find out about them. As I said though, my dad's grandma was a Jones who married a Jones so it just got too  . I couldn't get back any further than my great great grandmother Mary Ann. My dad's mum though was Cornish and her family are still there. That's a much rarer Cornish name - Hosking - so hopefully I'll have more luck tracing that line. I know that my nana was one of around 10 kids and her dad was also a tin miner who died aged 40, so it could be interesting.

We've got Cornish too.  Apparently my maiden surname comes from that area...so there's a lot of rellies (dad's side) down that way.

Like Aimee, my mother came from a huge family.  She's the youngest with half her siblings old enough to be her parents.
My grandparents were born in 1894   and I remember them both very well as they lived to their 90's.  So, it was easy to trace back from there to the great, great's etc.,...

It's fascinating stuff.  I don't know if it's because I already *know* a lot of my family history, but it's interesting when you get to the parts not so well known.


I doubt they're losers.  They probably were part of what kept their village alive.  Many Pit families have wonderful history to tell.
Keep digging!  You may come across some local news with their names associated with it.

Be careful what you wish for...

oh i love it  i've gone back to my great great great granparents but i need a voucher to pay to see the 1911 census  my dad doesn't even know his aunt and uncles names  i've found 4 of them so far

Aimee, save up a load of info and THEN spend a fiver on the census.
I'm sure your money lasts for a week(?).  So gather everything you want to look up and then go nosing.

I'm sure they email to say when you're credit's about to run out too.

Cornish can be hard to trace. The surnames can usually be easily traced and narrowed down to very specific areas but record keeping was a bit more lax down there than in other regions. I'm already struggling because I can't find my nana's birth record - she always told us she was born in Truro in 1923 but I can't find her anywhere even a few years either side of that.

My dad was the same! I wonder if it's a generational thing or a man thing to not be that interested in family? I've told him more about his family than he ever knew!

That's true about the records - they can be wrong or misleading at times.
It's interesting to note that the date of registration is often confused with a birth date and/or marriage/death.

And don't be surprised to find a Spanish connection cropping up.
My Great Grandmother (parental) came to Cornwall from Spain with a lot of her relatives.  She married an Irish man who had migrated down there.
Confused...?  I was!

But it did explain a certain feiry temperament in some people....

PS....and spelling!  They often spelt surnames incorrectly (be it the family themselves or even the official!)

thats what i'm doing at the mo  my last voucher ran out in 5 mins  my dad thinks he has only 1 brother left, but there must be loads of family out there, apparently my great grandad left my great grandmother in wales so she came home to Nottingham with 13 or 14 kids  my grandad was the youngest and no-one wanted him  when she died  thats why he cut all ties and never spoke of them again

me too  he didn't even know his great grandparents name

Aimee, have you tried a local Nottinghamshire expert?  Some of these people are SO into the ancestral history that it's frightening!  Often, they'll search for free - or even a small fee.  And half the time they already KNOW who or what you're on about anyway.
Sometimes one chat with them releases a load of info.

Good luck everyone with your searches.  Night.

You too Cosmo.

Over the years I've done loads of research into my families. I've found so many interesting stories (to the family, anyway) and so much that wasn't known to them before.

I'm currently researching a murder in the family in the 1800's. Some people think family history is boring. I really don't know why they think this, as I've found it all so interesting and often exciting. The social history side of it appeals to me.

There are some free sites out there that can help to a certain extent.

I prefer inquisitive