My Ancestral Quest
History has always fascinated me, well, local history more
than anything. I mean, it was sort of interesting to learn in school about the
Romans and the Battle of Hastings and all those Roundheads, but when it came to
the topics about things like the two World Wars, my curiosity would lie with
the social aspects of it – what life was like for those on The Home Front and
the effect it had on the local areas. Even outside of the classroom, I was
always looking for pictures of what the local high street looked like years ago
and wondering what the house I grew up in would have looked like when it was
first built.
As I’ve grown up, that interest has evolved, and of course
the internet has helped massively. In recent years I’ve found old maps of where
I lived which was positively mesmerising. Afterwards, I would be out walking
with friends and then take great pride in pointing out that a particular street
we were passing used to be the location of a football ground in the 1890s.
It isn’t just the history of local places that interests me,
either. Ever since I was younger, I have always loved to hear my Mum’s stories about
my Nan and Grandad and what life was like growing up in East London in the 60s
and 70s. It fed into my interest in my family history, where I came from, who my
ancestors were, what lives they led.
I’d dipped in and out of Ancestry at different times but it was
only really in 2017 that I delved into it properly. They had one of those deals
on which gave me free access to all of their records over the Easter weekend,
so I took the chance to get a good head start on some proper research. Mum didn’t
know a lot about her extended family, but she had some names to get me started
and it spiralled from there. I set my focus on Nan (Mum’s Mum) and her side of
the family: her surname was a rather uncommon one, so tracing ancestors who
shared it was a lot easier than looking at my Dad’s relatives would have been.
The ‘Hints’ feature on Ancestry really helped, showing records that were a potential
match based on the information you already had.
Having said that, there were still times when I felt like I’d
come up against brick walls, but others when I’d be on a roll and obsessed with
it all for weeks on end. So, four years on, I have a tree with almost 3800
people in it – a mixture of close relatives, distant ones and even in-laws of
in-laws of in-laws. I’m even getting slightly more to grips with the whole ‘nth
cousin so-many-times removed’ thing!
It has been utterly fascinating seeing all the old records –
like the 1911 Census which not only shows you where your ancestor lived but
potentially even their handwriting if they filled it in.
Then there are some of
the marriage records: if your ancestor lived in the right place, you could see copies
of the Register of Marriage, including details about when they got married, how
old they were, what they did for a living, as well as who their fathers were
and who witnessed their marriage.
I’ve even come across photos of some of the
people in my tree, uploaded by others who share the same relatives as me. Those
are really bizarre to see, not just putting faces to the names, but particularly
as a few of them are from the early 1900s: people stood in formation, all big
hats and high collars, none of them quite sure on what facial expression to go
with. Weird, if slightly amusing.
With all of this combined, I’ve found out so much through the
research I’ve done so far.
Firstly, it seems that Mum is right to be so proud of her East
London roots, as they do go back at least three generations – although it has
quashed the rumour that came from nowhere about her grandfather being Polish. Although,
as I’ve pointed out to her, if we go back far enough, we do also have a fair
few ancestors who originated here in Kent, or at least lived here at one point.
There are distant cousins of one sort or the other who, in
the late 1800s, lived about three streets away from where I grew up.
My 5th great-grandfather once ran one of the pubs
in Rochester High Street.
And at least one branch of the family stayed in Kent, so it
would seem I’m even distantly related to one of the local parish councillors!
Something else I’ve learnt is that folk back then liked the
tradition of naming children after themselves, which often confused matters.
For example, I’ve counted four generations of chaps named John William – and I can
only assume that the first one, born in 1807, was named after two of his uncles
(John and William, surprisingly). Of course, it could just have been that people
had trouble thinking of original names in those times. It wasn’t too hard to
believe that, especially when I came across someone (great-grandfather of husband
of 1st cousin 3x removed) whose first name was John and middle name
was Jonathan. Genius!
There were a couple of names of note, though, which added a
little spark to my findings.
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| Irene Kohler by Bassano Ltd bromide print, 6 December 1945 © National Portrait Gallery, London |
Then there is my great-grandfather’s cousin, Irene Kohler, who was a well-known
concert pianist, touring the world throughout her career as well as entertaining
the troops in the Second World War. There is even a collection of photos of her
in the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Now, while they may not seem the most famous people to be connected
with, the fact that I can Google their names and find information feels like a
big thing, and just adds more substance to it all.
Mum says that all these people I tell her about are just names
to her, she can’t see the connection, nor understand my fascination with it all.
But to me, these people are all linked to who we are, some of whom played a
part in leading us to where we are today, even if they didn’t know it.
That is what I find so intriguing; all these individuals were
just living their lives, going about their daily business, much like we are now,
probably not thinking much about how the decisions they made – like, whether to
move to London or stay in Kent – would shape the future of their genetic line. How
bizarre it would have been to them if someone went and told them that in over a
hundred years’ time, one of their descendants would be looking at their
marriage record on an electronic screen.
This year has been time for the Census to be completed,
which takes place every 10 years. The information in it won’t be released into
the public domain until 100 years have passed, which just makes me wonder
whether any descendants of our family will take the same interest I have, to go
looking for our names on it, hoping to find out where we lived and what our
lives were like. It’s really strange to think that either way, I wouldn’t know.
On that note, I am getting excited to see the 1921 Census
which will be released next year. I’ve recently started looking further into my
Grandad’s family – I never met my Mum’s father, so I have always wanted to know
as much about him as I could. His family history has proved a little trickier
to patch together as his surname is really common, so I’ve actually been
ordering copies of birth and death certificates instead of just relying on the
Indexes shown online. It’s so interesting to see the extra information they give
and it brings a new wave of excitement whenever I can fit another piece into
the puzzle, so I’m hoping the same will be the case with the 1921 Census.
Meanwhile, there is a potential can of worms I have recently opened which is taking all of my focus.
It would seem that my 5th great-grandmother on my Grandad's side has the exact same name as my 6th great-grandmother on my Nan's side.
*pause for dramatic gasp*
So now, I'm trying to trace whether there is any link between them, which is difficult because we're talking late 18th, early 19th century.
I've ruled out the idea of them being same person, given the dates and locations, but can you imagine if they were related in some way, shape or form?
Although, as Mum said, it would explain a lot...
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