1.
Introduction
My
interest in researching family history started in about 1976. I can’t remember
what sparked it, but I began collecting information from my mother, and making
crude family trees to help the process. I was then able to tap the
memories of my Aunt, and in the next ten
years collected information from family sources and
from the books in the County Library in Oxford. The family tree was then rather
lopsided towards my maternal side, mainly the MacLeods, Farringtons and
Brackens. I had scanty information about my paternal (Duncan) side. In 1998 I
started semi-retirement that allowed me to take up the research again.
2.
Sources
a.
Family
I’m
fortunate to have had so much help from members of my family. They now regard
me as a sort of family ‘historian’, and have generously given me letters, and
other materials. Most notable is the 'Ingram archive', without which I would have much less information about
the DUNCAN side of my tree. This material was kept by my sister and her husband
during their extended travels. When I eventually looked through this archive in
early 2000, it was like a gold mine - there were letters and photographs, and
the memoirs of my great-great-grandfather David DINWIDDIE, with valuable clues about
DUNCANS and DINWIDDIES, and
introducing me to PRITCHARDS, MACKENZIES, and
DE LA HOYDES. Other valuable family sources were the FARRINGTON
MS (a detailed family tree), given to me by my Uncle, and correspondence of my Aunt about the HIRST and NUSSEY
families.
I much regret that missed
forever the chance to talk about family history with my grandparents, and
great-aunts. While they were alive I had very little interest in the topic, and
by the time I had it was too late.
(Anecdotal information from family
members can be very useful, but it can also be inaccurate).
b.
Libraries and specialised genealogical sources
In
the late 1970s I joined the Society of Genealogists (SoG) and the Irish
Genealogical Society. I also visited regularly the County Library and the
Bodleian Library in Oxford, the India Office records (then held by the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office) and the Public Records
Office. I had to give up my membership of the societies in 1988-98, but re-joined the
SoG in 2001. I now have reader cards for the libraries, including the
British Library, which now holds the Oriental and India Office Collections (OIOC),
and the Public Records Office at Kew. While in the United States I visit the
Family History Center of the Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Saints
(LDS), the Mormon Church, at New Oxford, near Gettysburg.
c.
The Internet
The
Internet is now a major source of genealogy information. The LDS’s
International Genealogy Index has given me several valuable clues. A non-profit
organisation known as Rootsweb, has ‘lists’ of members with common research
interests. Although I have participated for short periods in several of these
lists, the most valuable to me has been the India list. It has about 600-700
members, some of whom are real experts in their fields, and freely offer advice.
I can't praise Rootsweb highly enough - they have also generously hosted this
website. I
put an early version of the family tree into an Internet site, which has brought
contacts with several distant cousins. I plan to put a more detailed version
onto ‘The Net’ in 2002, but will ensure that living persons are excluded.
3.
Strategy
Until
recently my strategy was to collect as much information as I could about
all branches of my family. I use a computer program to organise the ‘tree’and
produce GEDCOM files, the ‘industry standard’ for exchanging information,
and for creating 'trees' on the Internet.
From 2000 I’ve tried to pay more attention to detail about ancestors, as distinct from
‘collaterals’, i.e. uncles and aunts and cousins. I'm now collecting
copies of records of births/baptisms, marriages, and deaths/burials (known is
the 'trade' as BMDs), for ancestors, working my way back (or up!). The volume of
paper is already large. If one adds parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents,
one has 35 documents; another generation back adds 40 documents - and so on.
Notwithstanding
my strategy of concentrating on ancestors, I can’t resist a juicy source of
additional numbers. There are now (May 2002) about 6,000 people in the
tree, and several thousand more are in the MacLeod genealogies, and their
associated Clans the MacDonalds, MacLeans and MacKenzies.
I’ve paid other people to research on only two
occasions, one a very fruitful contact in Jersey, the other fruitless
research in Ireland. Together they costs less than £20, and I have no plans to spend more.
The costs of copies of certificates from
the General Records Office (UK BMDs from 1835) and photocopying can add up, but
the greatest potential expense is travel, e.g. to India!