I have been researching my family for many years, since 1977 to be exact. I had always been fascinated by this school photo from about 1904 that belonged to my maternal grandmother. What was special about the photo was that it also included her elder brother, Charlie, standing on the left of the second row down, and sister, Caroline, the second girl in from the left on the same row. Charlie was not actually in the same class as his sisters, but Caroline refused to be in the photo unless her brother was there and, fortunately for us, the teachers agreed. My grandmother Selina was sitting third from the left in the front row.
That photo was just one of many old documents saved by my grandmother over the years and, when both she and my grandfather died in 1977, my uncle and I started on the family history journey to find out more about the people mentioned on those documents and in the photos we found.
This was all before the arrival of the internet and the ability to look up records online at all hours. There were many trips to actual Record Offices and the National Archives looking at old documents and copying out any mention of the names we were looking for.
Fortunately most our family was in the local area for much of the 19th Century so we did not have to travel too far afield to find information. At the time, the latest census returns that were available were for 1871. Today it is possible to track individuals right up to the 1921 census and, with computers and search engines, this can be done without ploughing through reels and reels of microfilm hoping to find a relevant entry, and at any time of the day or night!
Over time I have managed to add meat to the bones of the people in our family tree by utilising other records such as military service records and newspapers. I have also gone off on tangents when having been contacted by someone with a connection on our tree such as my great uncle’s wife’s family! Then there was the newspaper clipping that mentioned my 4x great grandmother, Jane Sparshott, nee Parden, when she died in 1857. It said she left 195 children, grandchildren and great grandchildren at the time of her death in November 1857. I decided to see if I could find them all or whether that might just have been an exaggeration. So far I am up to about 90!
Now that I have retired I have been spending even more time tracking down relatives and ancestors who seem to have travelled to all corners of the world..
For several years now we have had our Family Tree on the World Wide Web at Mountifield.org. During that time we have made contact with many people who are connected to our family in one way or another.
Some are close connections, others are more tenuous. I am, however, grateful to each and every one who has contacted us through our site so far. One thing these connections all have in common is the way they add meat to the bones and build a bigger and better picture of those that came before us.
In the last 150 years our family has spread to the four corners of the world so there is plenty of scope!
While the bulk of my research has been about the Mountifield family, I have wandered down the other branches now and then, so the ‘In-laws’ will no doubt be making an appearance too!
Over time I am hoping to include articles and stories about the folks who appear in our family tree, details and descriptions of their occupations, what was happening in their world at the time, anything that will help us understand them a little better. I hope the following articles are of interest to family members and also anyone interested in local and social history. If you have any information you can add to these articles, or have stories relating to others appearing in our family tree please do contact us at family@mountifield.org