I knew enough of what my Grandmother went through, not from her, she never spoke of it So I'm afraid of what I'll learn. I get emotional watching factual programmes of the past as I know my relatives were a part of it. Even people I don't know will have the same outcome on me. Life was bloomin' hard for most back then
No problem - I still watch those programmes 'cos I don't want to be ignorant - just hard at times isn't it
This is not like watching a documentary about lifestyle back in those days, @Patsy Faye . All it does is works its way back through your ancestry, for as far as you want to go back. It just gives you names and birthdates, and also you can see who else (in your family tree) is researching the same family lines. I have found living relatives that I had no idea even existed, and went from feeling like I had no living relatives besides my three kids, to learning that I have 2-3rd cousins (or something akin to that) that I never would have known about otherwise. I have no idea what kind of a life any of these ancestral people lived, beyond what we have learned about the history of the times, but it is still interesting to be able to trace it back. Most of the relatives that I have found seem to come from a relative back in the 1700’s who was a captain in the Revolutionary War, and I had no idea at all that I had relatives that were here and involved in that time of history. My daughter, Robin, has been communicating with relatives from her father’s side, who live on the East Coast, and they sent her pictures (from an old photo album) of her grandmother and granddad that we had no idea even existed. This picture was of her grandfather and his parents when he was a little boy, in the early 1920’s .
Yes, when I first thought about doing the research I had the same thoughts as you describe above There is a programme over here about people doing this, I haven't watched it 'cos its celebs but - I have read reviews on their experience and they learn all sorts of things and I thought 'well how come ?' Reading what 'you' describe, I guess they must do more delving, maybe through old newspapers etc ...
Here is one ancestry thread, @Faye Fox ; but I think if you do a search here, we have at least one more. Plus, read my thread about my grandmother’s “mystery document”. You will enjoy that, and the translation (from @Thomas Stearn ) really explained what the unknown document was actually about. http://www.seniorsonly.club/threads/the-mysterious-german-document.11264/#post-316068