Branching out

Many people have said over the years, “I am not interested in aunts/uncles, just my direct line.” I do not understand this, as there are many stories attached to people to whom our direct ancestors would be connected, therefore helping to make their story as well. 

I had a good tree related to a branch of my grandfather’s family. In recent years, through DNA, I found out who my great great great grandfather was. Interestingly, I was then sent a photo of my great-great-grandmother and found she and her half-brother were the image of each other, just to cement the theory. 

However, what came about was the mention of one of those families whose name sounded very familiar. On checking, I found he had married a cousin on my grandmother’s side of the family. Bringing the two lines together. 

My maternal grandmother had some interesting stories that did not make sense, but after finding a photograph of a man unrelated and looking to see why he seemed to be prominent in a few records with my family, it all tied in with her story and resolved the mystery. Her version was not so accurate, but as she was very young at the time, I could see where her story got its roots. 

Now, even today, I am finding that there was a family who seemed to be good friends, and their family married into our family on more than one occasion, making this family very close to ours. This has happened a number of times, including my first cousin, who married the stepdaughter of a distant cousin, and one of Mum’s cousins, who married into that family as well. 

Mum’s cousin married the daughter of a captain involved in bringing Batman to Victoria, and then I found one in Dad’s line that is also connected to this story. 

Of course, genealogy and Family History are two different things. Genealogy is the direct ancestors, and family history is the story relating to your genealogy. Branching out from those direct ancestors will give you many stories. 

If you have completed a DNA test, you will need to branch out. You will be surprised at how much information, photos, memorabilia, etc., you have that you have been searching for. We also need to remember those who did not have descendants; often, their story is important as well. 

I have found distant families who have family bibles, these had dates, etc, as well as proving my research was correct after many years of searching! There was also talk of a gold watch given to my 3x great-grandfather. This had to be purchased at auction by his daughter. I found one of her descendants who had this pocket watch but had no idea of the story behind it. I had newspaper cuttings telling the story.