Getting Started - A Typical Example

Written by admin

November 11th, 2008

Below is an example of the information collection process. Say you know the names of your maternal and paternal grandparents. Mary and John Cheese were your mother’s parents and Elizabeth and Charles Albert Crackers were your father’s parents. Your mother has told you that her mother’s maiden name was Mary Leicester and Mary’s parent’s names were Susan and Edward. Your father can’t remember anything about his family but you go to see his sister Anne who gives you some very useful information. I have put this into a checklist style so you can see it as it would have been collected. This checklist and others will be available in a further section.

Interview with: Anne Crackers		Date: 5^th October 2008		Time: 2:00 pm
Relationship: Father’s sister		Personal Details: born 10^th August 1933 (Bendigo, Victoria), never married

Information Person 1:
Name: George Cedric Crackers		Relationship: Great grandfather
Date of Birth: 5^th July 1881		Place of Birth: Bendigo, Victoria
Occupation: Baker & Confectioner		Where Lived: Bendigo, Victoria
Spouse: Anne Victoria Louise Spiele		Date of Marriage: 10^th December 1906
Place of Marriage: Rutherglen, Victoria (at the bride’s home)
Children:
Name	Date of Birth:		Place of Birth:
George William	26/01/1908		Rutherglen, Victoria
Charles Albert (grandfather)	2/05/1910		Bendigo, Victoria
James Arthur	15/10/1913		Bendigo, Victoria
Elizabeth Anne	15/10/1913		Bendigo, Victoria
Martha Charlotte	20/08/1920		Wangaratta, Victoria
Photos: Wedding photo George & Anne Crackers, - 10 people in photo, inscribed on back left to right back row – Mr Oscar Spiele, Mrs Sophie Spiele, Grandpa Spiele, Grandma Crackers, Mr & Mrs Cedric Crackers; front row left to right Robert Crackers, bridegroom, bride, Emily Spiele Portrait photo of George Crackers (1900), Portrait photo of Elizabeth Crackers (George’s sister) (1902)
Certificates Marriage certificate – George & Anne Crackers – shows George’s parents Cedric Robert & Mary Anne Crackers (nee Kelly) and Anne’s parents Oscar and Sophie Spiele (nee Schroedinger) Death certificate – Cedric Robert Crackers – shows Cedric’s parents Robert James Crackers & Martha Mary Parkinson of Haworth Yorkshire, Cedric was born in 1838, he married Mary Anne Kelly in Bendigo in 1874, they had 3 children – Robert, George and Mary Jane
Stories & Anecdotal Information: Anne is related to the famous Spiele wine making family from Rutherglen Cedric came to Australia from Yorkshire in 1854 to look for gold, he came from a large and very poor family, he was a very successful and prudent gold miner and when the gold began to give out he had enough money to set his two sons up in business – Robert as a haberdasher and George as a baker. Cedric retired as a gentleman farmer raising sheep and goats. There were several family tragedies – James Arthur died as a baby and Martha Charlotte drowned in the Murray River when she was 10. George never married; Elizabeth married a grocer named Wilkinson but did not keep in touch with the family.

With just one visit to one relative, a few certificates and with the information you had already you have been able to go back 5 generations to your great, great, great grandparents. There are also lots of leads to follow up and investigate. I will use this example and others to show you how this is done in further sections. Now what to do with this information? The next step is drawing your first family tree.

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