Finding my ancestors
Watch this postI am interested in this subject - is anyone else?
Log in to comment
You need to be logged in to interact with Silversurfers. Please use the button below if you already have an account.
LoginNot a member?
You need to be a member to interact with Silversurfers. Joining is free and simple to do. Click the button below to join today!
JoinCommunity Terms & Conditions
Content standards
These content standards apply to any and all material which you contribute to our site (contributions), and to any interactive services associated with it.
You must comply with the spirit of the following standards as well as the letter. The standards apply to each part of any contribution as well as to its whole.
Contributions must:
be accurate (where they state facts); be genuinely held (where they state opinions); and comply with applicable law in the UK and in any country from which they are posted.
Contributions must not:
contain any material which is defamatory of any person; or contain any material which is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory; or promote sexually explicit material; or promote violence; promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age; or infringe any copyright, database right or trade mark of any other person; or be likely to deceive any person; or be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence; or promote any illegal activity; or be threatening, abuse or invade another’s privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety; or be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person; or be used to impersonate any person, or to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person; or give the impression that they emanate from us, if this is not the case; or advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.
Nurturing a safe environment
Our Silversurfers community is designed to foster friendships, based on trust, honesty, integrity and loyalty and is underpinned by these values.
We don't tolerate swearing, and reserve the right to remove any posts which we feel may offend others... let's keep it friendly!
For the last few years I have been putting together my autobiography, as I know very little about my grand-parents, I am writing about my life and everything that I have managed to find out about my ancestors, trust me this is fun and I hope it will prove beneficial to my future descendants.
For now I am having a break, but doubt my break will last long.
I am very interested in searching for family, I was adopted when I was very young, I was about a year old.
One day I decided to take up the challenge to find my birth mother and father, I got in touch with an adoption agency, who were very helpful and found my adoption papers, so I new who my mother and father were.
from there I traced my mother, and her family who lived in Australia, but the sad thing is my birth mother had passed away, but the nice thing is that I made contact with my half siblings, and made a trip to Australia.
My father was an American soldier who was over her preparing for D Day, he was a paratrooper of the famous easy company Band of Brothers, you may have seen the series on television a few years ago, my father was killed in Holland in 1944, but I have made contact with his family.
I was interviewed on Radio Oxford about my adventure.
but I would like to say searching can be rather expensive.
Thank you and good luck if you wish to try.
That was 30years ago and I am still doing it, must be the longest homework on record but I love it.
They may well be sensitive subjects, especially if close kin are still surviving.
Down the years more generations are going to create their own locked cupboards.
A closed history can be picked open, but sensitivity is a must.
I have researched the men who are on the village war memorial. The men who died in WW1 were fairly easy to find because of the 1911 census but the men of WW2 were more difficult.
It is a fascinating hobby and I can "lose" many hours in a day when I log on and find something of interest.
I've been racking my brains trying to think how you can burst through the brick-wall which you have hit; I'm sure that you will have jumped through every hoop possible to try and trace your paternal grandparents and other relatives and it will be exceptionally difficult if there's no mention of the family in the 1911 census. It makes it even more amazing that the brothers found each other after they had enlisted and so cruel that at such a young age they had been separated. There's no wonder that your Dad didn't want to talk about his childhood. I shall keep my "thinking cap" on and if I have any possibly useful ideas I will pass them on.
Start with your own family and progress from there.
My family on both sides have been researched. Interesting it is too for the families researched. There is nearly always something more to add so who knows what else I may hear.