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Welcome to MyFamilyHistoryStory.com
My name is dillybert and this is my family history website. First and foremost, this site is about people, rather than just about names, dates, and family trees. I will one day get around to placing the "names and dates" stuff from my family history research on the site so that you can see how everyone interlinks, but the first job is to get the site running, and place some thoughts and stories about my family and their lives on the web.
I believe everyone's family is full of interesting people with lives full of rich and amazing detail. What stories they could tell us! When I think of anyone I know now or the things I've seen and experienced but haven't told anyone let alone written down, it is absurd to think of people just in terms of a name and some dates. Why such a focus in family history? Anyway, I want to try to present the information I find in a way that brings the dry facts to life and enables us to think about these names and dates as people with lives, choices, homes and families. I hope I get some way to doing that.
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For example, this is Sarah. She was not rich, famous, and didn't live a
hugely long time ago, but she had an amazing life. She was born in 1864
in Bradford into a large a mining family. She died in 1942, also in
Bradford. In the intervening years, she had an illegitimate child at
17, she married at 21, then ran away (we think) leaving a husband
pretending to be a widower, she went to America (probably), and she
might even have married again or had further children. She was back in
England by 1923 when she married again and was later widowed. Her
lifestyle was supposedly quite shocking to her family. It might still
be today!
My mum remembered her being really old when she was a little girl but
if you ask a 7 year old what was important to know about a person - the
salient facts I have are that she liked cats and had a whizzy fold-down
bed that was really cool!
Now I've been researching my family history for a few
years, Sarah is one of my more recent ancestors but in fact, there are
big gaps when I loose her for decades. She started my interest in
family history, and I come back to her mysterious life from time to
time. I'm finding more about her very gradually, and piecing together
the family stories. All these sources and stories combine to put a real
person behind that old photograph. I just want to dive into the picture and talk to her...
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I do hope you enjoy some of the photos and articles on the site. Please feel free to leave a comment.
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