When I first began researching my family tree I relied on all sorts of documents in order to piece together a picture of who my ancestors were and what their lives had been like. Birth, marriage, census, occupation, criminal, death and many other records can be accessed relatively easily online, and as such it didn't take too long to start piecing together a factual picture of my ancestors. I've found street addresses, descriptions of people at work, passenger records from business trips to Australia and various other documents, but after a while it dawned on me that records can only take me so far in building a real picture of what my ancestors' lives were like. The census records can't tell me much if anything about the ambiguities of family relationships or the complex emotions that lie behind common events such as births, marriages and deaths. If you happen to come from a family lacking lots of inherited family stories it can be difficult to break beyond the reams of factual information gathered through online research. I've recently discovered just how useful it can be to look to the present rather than the past in order to really gain an understanding of the things my family had to go through in the past.
Certain features on Ancestry.co.uk, the genealogy platform I use for my research, provide opportunities for connecting with people researching the same family members as you. Quite often when linking documents to certain ancestors I'll notice a small green leaf appear, 'hinting' at either a potentially matching historical document or a matching member tree. Such member matches can indicate shared relatives and therefore distant (or not so distant) long lost living relatives who might have personal information about your ancestors that can't be found in documents. I've been lucky enough to trace living relatives as far flung as Canada due to the emigration of my first cousin three times removed during the 1920s. Although I haven't heard back from anyone (yet!) it's exciting to think that I might one day be able to piece together further information as to why my cousin emigrated and what happened to him upon his arrival.
Closer to home, I've recently connected with relatives living in Walsall, all due to my correction of a transcription error. I noticed that the surname 'Titford' had been transcribed incorrectly as 'Tedford' on one document and set about correcting it in the hope that anyone else researching would have an easier time locating this particular ancestor in the future. A distant relative noticed the correction, clicked on my user name and found my contact details listed in my profile. She was then able to send me a tweet and a facebook message and I have since been told many family stories I was previously unaware of. It doesn't matter that we've never met; having the same ancestors is enough to bind us together as family in the present, and it's wonderful to discover what we have in common and to share information, even if most of mine is document based. I've been lucky enough to see a photograph of my great great grandmother Haidee, who I had desperately wanted to see, and I've been promised plenty more photos to come of various family members including my great grandmother Phyllis. I've also found out lots of information about Haidee's life and death, as well as hearing some lovely stories about Phyllis. I feel as if I can finally 'get to know' them and build a real sense of what their lives were like.
Of course, going beyond documents and records means uncovering sad, as well as happy, memories and events. I'm now aware of the black sheep of the family who apparently caused much suffering before supposedly emigrating to Australia, as well as rumours regarding the family's fall from financial prosperity during the 1920s, possibly leading to my great great grandmother's early death at the age of fifty-one in 1929. There are also sad stories concerning my great grandmother and the heartbreak she suffered due to abandonment by my great grandfather, leading to a mental breakdown and subsequent admission to a mental hospital. It's extremely sad to hear such stories, but it feels important to piece together each ancestor as an individual, remembering who they were rather than refusing to get to know them due to painful discoveries and upsetting stories. Family tree research is about so much more than facts and figures gleaned from documents and records, and connecting with long lost living relatives is helping me develop a much more personal picture of who my ancestors were and therefore of how my family has come to be where it is today.