Having renewed my interest, I started up my research again and found that many, many more records were available online than had been the case when I started all those years ago.  I very quickly managed to fill out the family tree and found lots of new branches that I hadn’t known about previously.  It was all so interesting

I wanted to re-visit Kintyre to look at graves of my ancestors and to visit the places where they lived and worked.  We managed to pick the most glorious of weekends to visit.  The weather was absolutely perfect and we made our base Tarbert, where one of my ancestors and his family lived and worked.  He apparently had a grocer’s shop in Tarbert, but unfortunately we were unable to pinpoint the exact position of it.  We did, however, get to see his gravestone.

We drove a few miles south of Tarbert to the beautiful little hamlet called Whitehouse, Kintyre.  It was here that my ancestor was born and where her sibling, the grocer above, is buried.  The little cemetery was so peaceful and it was just lovely to be there to pay our respects.  It is nice to think that ancestors of mine lived and worked in such a beautiful part of the country.

I always feel that the west coast of Scotland draws me to it – it just feels right to be there, and the Kintyre peninsula is, in my opinion, one of the nicest places on earth.  I feel proud that my ancestors came from such a wonderful part of the world.

It is incredible how quickly the family tree grows when you research in a horizontal fashion, ie the brothers and sisters and their families.  It makes it all so interesting and diverse.

To be continued ……….

Having gathered the basic information I constructed my family tree.  It gave me a sense of belonging when I saw all of the people on the tree who were related to me in one way or another.  This is a great family and I have so many memories and stories both recent and very old that would add interest to the bare facts I had collected.

The next thing I did was to visit the cemetery.  I wanted to see the gravestones of my ancestors – both to pay my respects and to find out even more information.  The staff at the Crematorium office were most helpful and directed me to the relevant graves.  We cleaned the stones as much as we could and took photographs.  Visiting the area, towns and villages where my ancestors lived was most interesting and enlightening.

It doesn’t take long before you feel as though you know the people as individuals.  I started to imagine what a certain person would be like and how they may have lived their lives.  There was a fair amount of sadness relating to their lives as times were hard in those days.  However, these things all brought the individuals closer to me in some sense.

Before long I was contacted by other family members who were also very interested both in my research and finding out more about our common family.  Not only does genealogy let you find out about your ancestors, it also brings you into contact with relatives you may otherwise not be in contact with.

Work and family commitments meant that I didn’t have the same time as before to spend on my research, and so the amount of work I did lessened over the years.  I did organise a Grott Family Reunion in 2001 which was a resounding success.  It was all such fun, both the organising and taking part, although very hard work.  Relatives came from various parts of the world to be there, some of whom I had not met before.

After the family reunion I increased my working hours to full time.  Although my interest in genealogy remained, I now had no time to devote to it, and so it went on to the back burner for a number of years.

To be continued ……..

My interest in Family History has been well and truly re-ignited!  Perhaps I should give you a little bit of history first.

I started doing family history research in about 1984, having had a life-long interest in all things to do with family history and enjoying  stories related by my Gran and Dad .  I liked nothing better than going into the cupboard in my Gran’s living room and taking out the photo box to look through.  The box itself was a treasure – to me as a little girl it was very big and heavy.  It was made of very old and beautiful wood.   The photos were fascinating and I would ask questions about them.

I started by drawing up a simple family tree.  I knew a little information, for example, my grandparents names, but not their dates of birth, marriage or death.  Unfortunately by the time I decided to take genealogy up as a hobby, both my Dad and Gran had passed away.   My Aunt – my Dad’s sister, was very helpful and provided very useful information including names and dates of birth for cousins of her generation.  However, it was clear that I would have to pay a visit to Edinburgh, where the official records were kept.

My first visit to New Register House in Edinburgh was so exciting.  The building itself is simply amazing, with the records being kept on the upper floors of the circular building.  Seeing my ancestors actual signatures on birth, marriage and death certificates was very exciting!

Having gathered quite a bit of information I constructed my family tree.  The records were invaluable in helping me further my research.

To be continued ………

Hi everyone.  I’m very new to this blogging business, so please bear with me.  I have a life-long interest in family history/genealogy and greatly enjoy doing the research and finding out about my ancestors.  I hope you enjoy reading my blogs and that you will post comments.

Have a great day.

Doreen