Getting back into it!

I don't think I've done any really family history research since last year. It's been on my mind a lot, but many things have kept me away from research. Things like:

• The birth of my son!
• The stupid illness (ME)
• Having my wife and son at home for the first 12 months
• Getting ready to move house
• Moving house!
• Other interests, such as photography (which has taken up a lot of my free time)

However, my son has started nursery and my wife has gone back to work. We finally moved home  11 days ago and things in general are starting to settle down.

I have so much scanning to do, it's unbelievable. This is because I found a big collection of photographs and newspaper clippings at my mum's house, which I've had for about a year now and not even looked at since I first found it. Also, my father-in-law gave my wife a suitcase full of photographs and various records. So, I think the scanning will be a big priority - and the cropping that comes after it.

I was lucky that someone in my extended family has access to the 1939 register. But unlucky that I only had 2 grandparents that lived in England and only 1 was on the register! I need to add the information to my family tree as it provides data not just on my grandmother, but some of her siblings, her father, and his second wife.

So, I have 2 main tasks. I know what I need to do. Now all I need is the motivation to do it!

My Genealogy Progress Report - April 2015

Time seems to be speeding along at the moment. My baby is due in the next couple of weeks and we've been putting the finishing touches to his nursery and sorting some other areas of the house.

We've both also been getting on with our family trees. My wife has been loaned lots of items from her mum, which I've been scanning and organising record sheets for and I've been continuing my quest to delve deeper into the Havenith side of the family.

Around 5-6 years ago I was given a few sheets of paper that showed the Havenith side of the family going back into Belgium to around 1610 from a distant relative via my Opa. While some of the records I've found don't exactly match the details I was given, it's close enough to give me some confidence that I'm heading in the right direction.

Looking at records for Belgium, which also consists of German records due to the administration at the time of my ancestors lives, has been an interesting challenge. I enlisted the help of a genealogy group on Facebook, who I'll write about in a future post, and they've been very helpful. I'm starting to get to grips with FamilySearch better and have started to learn the arch.be website when looking for records. While this can be a slow process, it's wonderful to finally see the names you're looking for appear on a BMD record - something that makes the hours spent worthwhile.

As our first anniversary is coming up, we decided to follow tradition and get each other paper gifts. We both chose records of our ancestors! I'm really hoping that these records help us develop a stronger feeling of connectedness to each other and with our ancestors.

I'm looking forward to writing more about my journey into the past and starting to feel much more confident about the whole process.

When our baby is born there may well be a gap in posting, but I'll be back to posting as soon as possible.

We're having a boy!

We recently had the 20 week scan and discovered that we're expecting a boy. Of course, we'd be happy either way, but it is quite nice to be able to say 'he' rather than finding ways to avoid saying 'it'.

It was wondrous to watch the screen as the sonographer talked us around meeple's body. Taking measurements for some of the bones and organs. And then hearing each time that everything was fine.

It wasn't until we got home and I started reading the report that I realised that one of the measurements is the EFW, or Estimated Fetal Weight. So at the moment they estimate that meeple is 309 g, which is about 10.9 oz for the imperialists among us.

I mentioned on my nature blog that it will be exciting to see what our little lad will be interested in and what phases he goes through as he grows up. I'm very much into plants and the natural world and hope that he'll put up with his dad going on about how to identify plants and understand how they work. But equally, I hope that he'll put up with me mentioning the family tree and telling him things about our family that have interested me over the years.

I've started a writing project for meeple. It begins with a little bit about how me and Lucy met and an abridged history of our relationship (abridged because I've written about it in Family Tree Maker). But the real story begins with the pregnancy where I add some flesh to the dates I've been recording throughout the pregnancy.

I'm not sure where I'll stop, but perhaps it'll continue through the first few years of his life.

I scanned all the images the sonographer gave us and emailed them to family. I also called my Opa and Oma over in the Netherlands, who were very happy to hear that the baby is healthy. My Opa in particular was very happy to have a new boy in the family. It breaks the trend of girls, as we've had 6 in a row. I think he'll also be quietly happy that the Havenith family name will carry on.

Anyway, that's enough from me. Here's the latest photo our son:

Dreaming of my father

It's always sad when a family member dies, but we're lucky to have memories of them, either our own memories or memories that others have passed on to us.

My dad died over 12 years ago now. We had a difficult relationship and went in and out of each other's lives. As a child I was quite angry at the choices he made and how they impacted us as a family. But over the years I've come to accept, as every child eventually does, that our parents aren't perfect. Now, I only have love for him and I'm thankful for the memories I have of him.

Hello and Welcome

Hello and welcome to my little blog!

I first started compiling my family tree in 2010 by asking my Dutch grandparents about their parents, and so on. Then I took a break for a few years due to work and then illness.

I started again around the beginning of the year and have been learning a lot about sources and developing my ideas about how I want to present the information and store it within my family tree application.

I’ve decided to start a blog as a way of sharing what I’m learning about compiling a family tree, and more importantly, things I learn about my ancestors, their occupations, and the places they lived.
As I’m now expecting my own child, I’m hoping that this blog will serve in the long term about my journey back into the past, while looking after the future.

The 12 week scan!
We affectionately call our baby ‘Meeple’ after our love of boardgames.

I’ll be writing about my ancestors, but also about resources such as books and websites that I find useful along the way.

At the moment, my family seems to have roots in England, the Netherlands, and Belgium. So, information I post will be relevant to others trying to find their ancestors in these countries – and if anyone has any great advice, please let me know in the comments!