Reflections on researching our family history
"..my day is done..I am like a boat hauled up on a beach...listening to the dance music of the evening tide..."
To have made this genealogical journey through our history without having learnt something about ourselves (failures, successes or achievements) and our respective families seems unthinkable.
Our research started as a result of my wife realizing how little she knew about her mother's side of her family.
The first thing that strikes both of us now is how little both of us really knew about our parents / grandparents / great grandparents.
As young children our lives seemed endless. As we grew older we never really bothered to find out about our families - we were just to busy living our own lives and it never occurred to either of us to stop and ask questions. Perhaps that's how it's meant to be, but we feel that we both missed out on something that would have been very valuable to us in our later years. Particularly so in the case of the author's sister, Trudie.
Also, we now realize and are more aware of how the actions (or inaction as the case may be) of our ancestors have shaped our lives and more than likely had a strong influence on our beliefs, attitudes and the way we live our lives today. Furthermore, in some circumstances, external events which were beyond the control of our ancestors changed not only their lives but influenced the outcome of the lives of their descendants many years afterwards.
As parents and grandparents we now realize how much we have influenced our children and can also influence future generations of our family - being or becoming a parent (or a grandparent for that matter) brings huge responsibilities. WE must ask ourselves what legacy are we leaving behind for future generations.
We've discovered in our research, one branch of a family is usually better known than the other or easier to trace / document. In my wife's family, the "Caisley" name emerges as the more predominant name. In the author's case, its the "Uncles" and to some extent the "Mayne Knotts" emerge more strongly - or at least they appear so.
However, the further into the research we went we found or discovered facts relating to other ancestors or the less well known ancestral names which revealed a lot more interesting information than at first thought.
Our research started as a result of my wife realizing how little she knew about her mother's side of her family.
The first thing that strikes both of us now is how little both of us really knew about our parents / grandparents / great grandparents.
As young children our lives seemed endless. As we grew older we never really bothered to find out about our families - we were just to busy living our own lives and it never occurred to either of us to stop and ask questions. Perhaps that's how it's meant to be, but we feel that we both missed out on something that would have been very valuable to us in our later years. Particularly so in the case of the author's sister, Trudie.
Also, we now realize and are more aware of how the actions (or inaction as the case may be) of our ancestors have shaped our lives and more than likely had a strong influence on our beliefs, attitudes and the way we live our lives today. Furthermore, in some circumstances, external events which were beyond the control of our ancestors changed not only their lives but influenced the outcome of the lives of their descendants many years afterwards.
As parents and grandparents we now realize how much we have influenced our children and can also influence future generations of our family - being or becoming a parent (or a grandparent for that matter) brings huge responsibilities. WE must ask ourselves what legacy are we leaving behind for future generations.
We've discovered in our research, one branch of a family is usually better known than the other or easier to trace / document. In my wife's family, the "Caisley" name emerges as the more predominant name. In the author's case, its the "Uncles" and to some extent the "Mayne Knotts" emerge more strongly - or at least they appear so.
However, the further into the research we went we found or discovered facts relating to other ancestors or the less well known ancestral names which revealed a lot more interesting information than at first thought.
Please note that this site is still under construction. Data will change and pages will be added / deleted as work progresses. Please check back at frequent intervals to see progress and any updates. Last review 12/7/19