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I have been researching my own family tree since the 1980’s. I have successfully traced my family back fourteen generations to William Alway who wrote his Will dated 1563. I am also currently researching a total descent chart of my family – in other words I am looking at the maternal as well as the paternal lines. This means that, each generation I go back doubles the number of people to find and increases the number of surnames I am researching. My husband Dave is also researching his family tree mainly a one name study of the surname Flello.
During my searches I have made full use of all the facilities now at at Gloucestershire Archives. When I first started way back in the mid-eighties there were no computerised records and certainly no Internet. I was a regular at “The Gloucestershire Collection” at Gloucester Library where I spent hours looking through the census records on microfilm from 1841 to 1881. The IGI, electoral rolls and local newspaper records were also invaluable. At that time The Record Office in Gloucester housed a good many books on local and family history plus parish registers, Wills, school records, and amongst other items a variety of paper indexes compiled over the years etc. Births , marriages and deaths indexes were not available then – it meant either a trip to Worcester Record Office or to one of the Latter Day Saints research rooms where we could search through the indexes on microfiche. All these records are now held at Gloucestershire Archives.
Nowadays there is a wealth of information available online and it is possible to find a great deal about your family history in the comfort of your own home – lets face it, that’s how you found this website. You may find your own family tree. A word of caution however – it is important that any pieces of information found online should, whenever possible, be backed up by obtaining hard copies from the source or looking it up yourself in the relevant local archives. I have made it a rule when researching my family tree, to try and find at least two separate pieces of information for each person on my tree. It is not always possible I know, especially as you go back further in time but, I believe it is so important. It is very easy to make an error and go off on the wrong track especially if your surname is not unusual. My own family name Alway is an uncommon one but I also have some very common names in my extended family; Hill, Gardner, Gardiner, Carter and even Jones so I try to take care.
This is a young website and I will be adding further information. Please come back soon and have another look.
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