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anybody had a go at this family tree tracing lark?
we lost my uncle's "girlfriend" and had her funeral on Wednesday, afterwards he proceeded to give me a guided tour of West Bromwich showing me around his and my old dad's favourite haunts and houses etc. quite interesting and very therapeutic for him following the funeral.
anyhow got me to thinking whilst i've still got the old fella around it would be fun to have a go at this and get him involved a bit too, might even make a nice Crimbo pressie for him. right i'm rambling a bit.
any thoughts, views, experiences greatly appreciated.
UTB, SOTV, i cor play left back and Dexy's were ok.................................................
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Not tried it myself, but I wish I had done this with my Dad when he was alive, I kind of know a lot but nothing specific - I know where he was born and raised and where the family comes from but some of it is general rather than specific. Take the chance while you can Jamin.
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I recently found out my grandfather travelled to Germany for a month in 1938 (his only ever travel outside the UK). There's no one left in the family to ask why.
I dread to think what impact these 4 weeks had on the course of European history.
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11-06-2020, 12:16 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-06-2020, 12:16 PM by ChamonixBaggie.)
My old man tried it a while ago and got to about his great, great granddad who moved to the black country from Newcastle to find work. Beyond that, a random working class bloke with a generic name was too difficult to get much else from. Tbh it wasn't that interesting. Unless you're reasonably sure someone in your ancestry was some sort of big cheese then it's probably going to be difficult.
We'd have more luck with my mom's Irish family but haven't bothered trying.
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My mom was really into it a few years ago,tracing family back to the late 1700s. Turns out I’m distantly related to David Essex,Charlotte Rampling and Richard Burton the explorer (not actor). Was interesting visiting every week after she had delved a bit more and told me more.Dont know if I’d have the patience to do it.
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Had a go on Ancestry free trial this year, highly recommended, got as far back as the 1700s.
Found an uncle (my mother’s younger brother) I didn’t know I had who was orphaned at two yrs and sent to an orphanage in Carmarthen where he stayed till 16. It gets addictive and be prepared for a few surprises but great stuff!
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Something I'd like to do, I know that my great nan was born when Victoria was Queen and it's always fascinated me (at one time we were one of the few families in the whole of the UK with 5 living generations, made it into the Brum mail we did!)...just never got around to it.
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11-06-2020, 02:53 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-06-2020, 02:54 PM by MGalea.)
My wife signed me up to 23andMe one Christmas in an attempt to prove that I wasn't as Maltese as I thought.
Unfortunately for her I've got more Maltese DNA than the 25% I am based on grandparents.
Also quite surprisingly for the family we've got quite a chunk of Jewish DNA - which we're still trying to work out exactly.
My sister did the Ancestry.com thing to try and work out how far the West Brom connection went back but got stuck at our grandparents as there were too many families with our surname to work it out any further.
) 
