A Fresh Start

Week 1 #52ancestors52weeks

Is it a fresh start or a new years resolution? We all know that resolutions made for the new year are rarely successful, so we will call this a fresh start. After a stellar year in 2018 completing 52 ancestors in 52 weeks 2019 was somewhat less.

2019 started as a year of writing, but this soon petered out around the month of March. The focus for 2019 shifted to doing research and following the family lines rather than writing about the ancestors that have been discovered.

I was fortunate to spend the month of August in London during 2019 where I had the opportunity to visit a number of archives. As always we search for that elusive records to help us to confirm exactly which LAWRENCE or NOSWORTHY line that person belonged to or why some-one spent time in the Poor House. Did i find the records I was hopping to? Not really, but i was able to confirm some information and check parish records for Cambridgeshire that are not available on-line except as transcription. As always walking in the footsteps of our ancestors was inspiring, especially visits to churches that are still remaining.

Using the 52 ancestors in 52 weeks writing prompts to document the research undertaken will be a fresh start. The topics that come to mind when looking at the prompts include: The long line of the COOPER family who lived around Castle Camps and Helions Bumpstead prior to migrating to Australia in the 1850’s. The BELL family and their link to water as sailors in the merchant navy and how my travel has led me in the footsteps of my ancestors from Clerkenwell, to Devon, Kent and Norfolk. The fifty two ancestors in fifty two weeks may also provide others with a fresh start to documenting their family history.

So 2020 will be a fresh start for writing more about the family history and documenting some of those interesting things that we find that are not incorporated into the family tree programs.

Happy writing.