Greatrix-Thacker Family Tree Website |
||||
|
|
|
|
|
Blog ( or
‘The waffles of life’ )
08.10.21 Not A Great Time
Recently, it’s been a tough time. My dad passed away in August and I just haven’t
got stuck into the tree the way I used to for a while, but I’m back on it now
and working hard.
Then the software I use to create the site, and indeed use as a digital
scrapbook when researching ceased to work when my webspace was renewed (may be
coincidence but something wasn’t right). The site is so huge it just ceased to
cope with the volume of pages and insisted it wanted to update the whole site
each time, then crashed when it tried. I trawled through to find replacement
software but none suited my needs so I have gone back to basics and am using MS
Word, and to be honest, its working out quite well! Because of the way the previous software
worked this means re-creating/ formatting each page on the site again (around
3000) . Working full time too, it’s a monstrous challenge so I have decided to
continue the research alongside formatting each page as I go along. The links
will still work to the old pages so there may be variation in the design of pages
you view until I’ve updating each one. Everything should still be functional
although a couple of the main menu links might not work as I’ve scrapped them!
Your patience is appreciated.
04.01.20 Bizarre
Co-incidences!
When I met my husband for the first time in
Rugeley, we were unaware of the strange twists and turned that had entwined our
two family’s years before. We were complete strangers then yet fell almost
instantly in love and have been happily together for almost 25 years now!
Learning his mom was born in Norton Canes and born and bred there myself I
expected that the families may have crossed paths from time to time but was
very surprised to discover that we shared the same 4th great grandparents on
his paternal side and on my maternal side! My maternal 2nd great grandparents,
the Scotts, were also next-door neighbours to the Taylors! Today I also learned
that Gaz's 2nd Great Uncle, Charles Taylor, married Florence Sanders, daughter of
Mary Jevons, who was my 3rd Great Aunt!
12.10.19
I have had a great time over the last couple of
days exploring Isaiah Whitehouse, Gaz's 2nd Great Grandfather. Isaiah
fascinated me when I found him as he comes from a family of travellers and
there was a lot of mysteries surrounding him to be solved!
Piece by piece we have put together an outline of
his life and whilst some mysteries remain, we now have a good profile of his life!
I have found that with each person I've researched, as you discover more about
them you develop a bond with them and see the person behind the name. Always
thinking I didn't really have a large family I've realised that it was actually
a huge family and its somewhat comforting to know that! It has also become a
way of personally honouring a person’s life and ensuring the memory of them is
preserved for generations to come.
October 2019
I have decided to add a blog to the site as there
are so many comments, I want to make about the research into the tree but have
nowhere to put them! It’s been a real learning curve, and this is how I started...
For many years we have wanted to start researching
our family trees but each time we started we either got distracted by life, had
little time, or did not have enough information or resources to really get a
good base started.
Earlier this year (2019) I decided I was going to
join ancestry.com and try again. This time we approached it differently,
gathering small amounts of information and slowly going through the process of
verifying and endorsing it.
One of the biggest problems I found on the site
was that a lot of people weren't verifying people that were suggested as
relations on there and it was easy to be misled if you used their information.
I now only look at other peoples trees when I'm
at a dead end and don't add directly from them but view the relatives they
suggest as options instead, to be verified or eliminated.
I also learned that it’s better not to add anyone
than to take a chance on someone being correct! I was convinced we had the
correct Mabel Barlow, Gaz's Great Grandmother, and followed her line back two
or three more generations only to discover a few months later there was another
match for Mabel and this turned out to be correct! I had to rewind back to base
and start her line again from scratch, but it was an valuable lesson learned!
I also found it was difficult to flick between
relatives etc on the site so printed off everything I already had (lots of
folders) but due to the volume of information that too became difficult. I
tried databasing the tree in access but abandoned that as I could not really
share the information with anyone easily without training them to use access!
There were also complex relationships and some gaps which caused problems.
Having done web design previously I decided to put the tree online. Not having
software anymore, I started to do the site in word which wasn't ideal as
anyone who has done a website will tell you. Word has a mind of its own and is
really not designed for website construction. It was slow and tedious to say
the least.
I then looked at opensource software and found openElement. Having previously used Macromedia Dreamweaver
it wasn't long before I got to grips with it and for the past couple of months,
I have been putting the basic structure together and adding in all the
pages for relatives and their corresponding links.
Over the last week, now all the links and pages
are in place I have gone back to the research and am adding content for
individual people. The bonus is, where multiple people are on one census I can
cut and paste the censuses into the relevant peoples pages so when I come to
analyse their specific page a lot of the information that I already have will
be there for them ready to build on! It also helps when you find new
information which can be easily added into the relative pages!
As well as ancestry the internet has been a
wonderful source for discovery as well as many hours spent around local cemeteries
reading each gravestone and photographing those of possible significance. I
intend to add all these photographs to the findagrave
site which may help other people.