Letter L challenge

This was easy to think of this week.

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Creative Commons License Simon Evans via Compfight

Life long learning

When I think back to the early 1970’s when I first began my research, I could have given up so easily as I had to travel to the archives to do any research at all.  I had to search lots of microfilms and microfiche. I had to search many different card index for photos, arrivals, departures etc.

But as a beginner teacher at that time, I knew the value of learning all the time. I became a life long learner.

Genealogy is a life long journey of a quest for knowledge on our ancestors. At least it is easier now using digitized records but it has also become easier to make mistakes by copying inaccurate information from other people.

I can now do all that searching online for Tasmanian ancestors by using a Tasmanian Names Index from LINC Tasmania, which includes the Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office (TAHO).

I made mistakes with one branch of my tree thinking John DAVEY a free settler from Devon was born in Cullompton, Devon. I even visited there when on an overseas holiday. Took photos, shared them at family reunions, only to find that I couldn’t prove that was actually my John DAVEY once I had looked at census documents now online. I have the possibilities now down to 7 persons from the 50 I had to start with.

Another of my ancestors Martha VICO (VIRCOE) nee HEARN I had as coming from Shebbear, Devon. But now I have found her marriage records in London showing she was born in Edgeware, London. Again this information had been shared with others at reunions.

I have a database with nearly 10,000 people on it all related to me somehow, but this is only on my home computer, not online at all. So there is less chance of any errors I have made being passed on ad infinitum to everyone in the world.

As part of Thomas MacEntee’s Genealogy Do Over, I have decided to start a new database concentrating on only direct lines with spouse and siblings included. Also any information added will have to have at least 2 different sources.

Readers: Please leave a comment about my post or something beginning with L that relates to your family history or your research.

letter L

19 thoughts on “Letter L challenge

  1. Locations.. Finding your Ancestors and then spending time, looking for and checking out the locations where they lived. By doing this you often find more links to their family.

  2. L is for Letters…I’ve been reading family letters ,valuable information hides within. One letter copied in 1892 tells the story of my great grandmother’s great grandmother’s life in British India in the 1830’s. Another is from a mother to her son advising him not to marry the young widows of the British Indian Army Chaps in the 1850’s. Luckily he took her advice and waited until 1865 to marry a British General’s daughter in Canton China…my great grandmother. Today we use emails to keep in touch, will there be a record for our ancestors to read in 100 years time? I’ve written letters all my life, but sadly my daughters and granddaughters don’t write any

    • Quote:”I wrote a letter, quite a chore,
      but I knew that it was waited for;
      and what I took an hour to do,
      would pleasure give the whole day through.” Anon

      There was nothing more exciting about living on isolated outback stations than the arrival of the Mail Man. It didn’t matter if he came by plane, or 4Wd or truck. My Aunt lived as a light house keeper and her mail came by barge. A letter from Home/parents. A parcel of clothes or new curtains and although they weren’t as enthusiastic- a distance Ed parcel for the kids.
      If you were lucky the Mailman would bring a fresh loaf of bread and share a cuppa. Sheer delight.

      • Hi Sue, I was listening to the ABC a while ago and they were talking about a letter found in an attic in Scotland . It seems that a young bank teller from Scotland was working in Glenrowan the day Ned Kelly was shot. He described for his Grandfather the scene. Ned shot, his sister Kate cradling his head and crying. The letter was found when they were cleaning out the house. Wouldn’t it be fun to find something like that.

  3. I could not agree more. When I hear someone say oh my cousin etc has done our family tree, I really wonder have they really put those long years into the life long learning And research of their ancestors?

  4. L is for the love of discovering where we came from, how alike or different we are to our ancestors. L is for the legacy we will leave behind us with the results of our labour of love. Looking through lengthy sources, leaving out information that we think is irrelevant only to find it useful down the track in helping to break down walls. Liberal views of our ancestors, loneliness experienced when travelling to unknown destinations, leaving behind family and possibly facing lengthy sentences as a convict.

  5. L : Life , Love , Longing , Lifestyle , Language and Loss

    the Life and Lives of those who have gone before us.
    The Love they shared – we still share
    The longing for home, family, country or homeland, lifestyle, language and culture – the Welsh call this Hiraeth..

  6. L is for loving finding out about the stories of my ancestors.
    L is for long lost family, some of whom are now surfacing.

    • ‘Lineage’ was the first word that popped into my mind and then found someone with an interest in common as well as a name. Looking forward to learning more as we travel this journey together.

  7. I enjoy your posts Sue, in particular this week about your Love of Learning. You can’t beat it. Something new every day.

    My first L words have already been cited. However, as I have ‘borrowed’ convicts for the Convict Ancestor course there is another one. Lady Juliana, a second fleet vessel which brought 255 female convicts to Port Jackson in 1790.

  8. Less can be more sometimes…….Ten thousand rellies……I dare say we all have that many scattered around the globe only we do not have them listed on our trees…….Listing the actual birthplace of some of them can be quite daunting….I have one who on three separate pieces of official documentation has her listed as being born in three different places in the UK…First one being the 1861 UK census ….The other two when she was an adult and living in Australia…….I have Learned to live with that.

    Cheers.

  9. L – The Love of Locating, and Learning about the Lives of our ancestors and often people so much closer too.

  10. Looking for something in drawer thirteen, found a nephews family history extract. There found heaps of gems. Their family came from Ayrshire now (Strathclyde), writer describes issues across many UK areas that lead to immigration- poverty, potato famine in Ireland. Poverty, life in tents, hunger.etc. As immigrants, blacksmith farriers by trade they followed the rail lines for Work. Excellent decriptions of railway worker conditions on the way to Location Barcaldine. Whilst not on my direct family line it was very interesting and triggered many memories and still more Questions!

  11. How many ‘do-overs’ have I done! But so satisfying (not quite ‘Luscious’ unless trying to do a challenge)

    BUT I have made myself a rule with Scottish records – always note the given names of the whole family – a nuisance when they have been prolific, but invaluable for the Scottish system of naming -that seems to be adhered to at least in the Lowlands where my mob come from.

    Thank you for being a ‘Moderator’ – look forward to hearing from you.

  12. Learning through making mistakes. I have made the mistake of putting some of research online. I see you have said you keep some of your research offline – which program would you recommend?
    Thanks
    Bronwyn

    • Hi Bronwyn,
      I have about 8000 names on my database using the program The Master Genealogist but it is no longer being updated and I know I have some errors on it and not everything is sourced. So as part of the Thomas MacEntee do over, I have bought the program Legacy Family Tree deluxe version and will eventually be installing that on my computer. I will only be adding data when I have proof and have verified facts with at least two different documents.

      There are many other programs you can use and if you go to my page called Sources Used, hover over it and you will see Family History sources that I gathered from when I did the course with Dianne back in 2014. Partway down those links are some to programs to check out.

  13. LOCKWOOD

    My Great Great Great Aunt, Mary Culley married George Lockwood in Adelaide in 1856 and went on to produce many more Lockwoods! In fact Mary and George had 18 children, with only three of them (to my knowledge) passing away in infancy.

  14. L is for Learning. I just love the Learning journey that FH has taken me on. I would never have thought I couple of years ago that at the age of 60 I would become a Uni student. An online student, but student all the same. Aren’t we fortunate to be given the gift of Learning

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