A Small Start...

Well, here goes a little of nothing, perhaps. With so many blogs abounding in the world, and with many persons far more conversant in genealogical research that I, why add my twopence worth? I thought a blog might be an interesting way of communicating my interest and advertising it to a wider world. I have discovered distant (and not so distant) relatives in different parts of the world that I would not have found if I had not gone looking. So, maybe this will serve as a contact point to those who have, like me in the past and currently, recognise a name on a webpage as belonging to an ancestor. This might also be a way to help ensure that anything I might have discovered in my off-and-on research will not be lost.

Family tree research can grow exponentially. As each person has two parents, each generation back gives two more people to trace, and as those two have parents, four more people to trace, then eight more and so onwards and upwards, or backwards. Well, generally. Unless one discovers cousinal intermarriage on occasion, which can narrow a line down a bit. Then there are inevitable pending areas of research, where you get "stuck", and it is seemingly impossible to get past a certain generation.

I have long been interested in my family tree - the basic idea of where did I come from? How did I get here? Where did my parents parents parents come from and what did they do? I would plague relatives asking about our mutual ancestors, what were their names, where did they come from, what did they do, and who did they marry? These seemed like simple questions to me but did not always have simple answers. Beyond a certain generation knowledge seemed to be lacking. In a place like my country, New Zealand, for immigrants to the country, knowledge went as far as the first to arrive, but no further back. New Zealand's border seemed to be a barrier to much knowledge of those who had been back in the "Old Country", wherever that country happened to be.

In some ways I thought a blog, as fleeting as it may prove to be, might help ensure that information that has been rediscovered is retained by succeeding generations of relatives. I say rediscovered and not discovered as the relatives I research knew who they were, and presumably knew who their parents and children were. However, very often it seems that that knowledge has been lost by succeeding generations.

To some extent my family and ancestors have been luckier than some, for some of the generations at least.

On my father's paternal line we had a reprinted pamphlet "The Shortridges: The Records of a Cumberland Family", by M. Aird Jolly, Reprinted from the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society's Transactions, Volume XXXIX-New series, 1939. This reprinted pamphlet (pages 35-44 in the Transactions) has generations from my paternal great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents William Shortriggs or Shortridge, of Bewcastle, Cumberland (1698-21 September 1753) and his wife Betty or Elizabeth, nee Routledge (died 21 March 1745). It follows them down to my great grandparents, John Wood Shortridge (1852-1921) and his wife Carmela Esposita (1855-20 November 1941). It was John Wood Shortridge, and later his wife, who came out to New Zealand.

For other lines in the family, knowledge was much more variable. My father's mother told me about three of her four grandparents, but only knew of one great grandparent by name.

On my mother's side, we knew back to her mother's paternal grandparents with certainty, but beyond then could get a bit murky. For her paternal grandparents we have been fortunate that her grandfather, at one stage Chemist's assistant (the Chemist being his father-in-law), knew photography and there is quite a pictorial record of family in England and early years in New Zealand. We have been rather less fortunate on other sides where some areas have little or no photographs that have survived, or at least, not that we know of.

Anyway, I intend to cover some of this at least in successive posts. But, a blog should have links, so below are some starter links for beginners in genealogical research that I've found very useful.

Quite a few of my ancestors came to New Zealand from England. For that country, there are some basic sites to get started with.

Especially of importance is the freebmd site. This is invaluable, as transcriptions are made of birth, marriage and death registers in England. Centralised registration began with the September quarter of 1837. Note the name/s, district, volume number and page number the entry appears on, as this will be very helpful - and saves money! - when going on to request a certificate.

Having discovered a likely certificate to order, go and visit the General Register Office, log in and place an order for the certificate(s) that you are interested in. Presently the certificates cost 7 pounds each if you supply the district name, quarter, and page number as well as the name and year (having found these via a freebmd search. The certificate is sent to you by surface post.

If your ancestor left a will you might be able to access it via the National Archives page, which has English wills up to 1858 that were proved in the Court of Canterbury. Wills cost 3 pounds 50 to request, and can be downloaded as soon as you have autenticated the transaction (credit cards accepted!). I have used this page primarily for accessing wills, but then discovered, almost by accident (that is, I'd overlooked them entirely!), a host of other certification available on the site, such as the Royal Naval Officers' Service records, and other records that are available via their Catalogue.

Anyway, this is long enough for now.