Genealogy Chat

Do you think it's popularity is waning and we've gone through the peak years?

I would not think so particularly as the number of television programs being sponsored by genealogy sites seem to be increasing. Obviously the intention of the sponsors is to increase interest and attract new members to their particular site.

NO WAY I MEET MORE AND MORE
WHO WANT TO KNOW
WHIO AM I FROM

No :)
x x

I don't think so!

:-)

This site isn't what it used to be...........maybe that's what prompted the query?

So many former GR members now populate an alternative site, and this one suffers as a result

I don't think it is waning, but it is not neccessarily a pastime that young people are greatly interested in.

I agree with Slartibartfast, it is getting more and more expensive though, and as things get released there is additional costs. I also have found that an awful lot of people who for some reason or another have access to a cemetery listing, want you to give them money for them to tell you anything.

I think a lot of people want a quick fix and are willing to pay any amount for a ready made job, however inaccurate.
I certainly never expected to still be at it years later, but find it a totally engrossing pastime..
Yes I agree this site has really gone down hill and shows no sign of improvement. There are lots of issues that have never been properly addressed on the tree and search side .
You can sense the utter frustration of people who think it should be much easier to do their own research, only to fall foul of the records search, or some part not working properly.

Well,
Our son says," boring, boring boring" but retained enough of the family history to buy me a bottle of a single malt from the nearest distillery to our 'heritage place' when he was in the UK. I have also found a 2nd cousin once removed, about the same age as our son, who is very interested.
I think that our son may be older than the whisky when he shows an interest.
One day I would like to show his daughters the large gravestone of their GG Grandparents which is very near to where they now live.
I think that interest grows as we age.

Preserve what we can.

B

Many of the youngsters out there who currently think family history is boring will one day mature, perhaps have a family of their own and suddenly start to wonder about their origins, when that happens they will find a huge number of online records and the interest in genealogy will surge again, these things come in waves perhaps.

No...

It has become a highly competitive industry and there would not be so many sites, information is a profitable enterprise to be in..

Persie ...

I don't think it's waning at all. I think it's an extremely popular hobby.
Look at the amount of Fam History magazines around, and the ads from 'experts' in the back paages of them. A few years ago there weren't half as many.
Also, there's a huge choice of websites and search sites now, as well as TV programmes. Not forgetting all the Family History fairs around the country too.

I agree, the younger generation, in general, has little interest, but that will probably change as they get older, or until they need to know of a particular ancestor...
One of my nephews wasn't interested in it until he started doing WW1 in school 2 years ago, when he asked me about an ancestor. I directed him (again) to my Tribal Pages website, where it's all laid out, and he was fascinated to find he has not one but 4 ancestors who were in WW1, and discovered not only their names and dates, but their photos, medals, maps and all.

This year, a distant young cousin in Canada is now doing WW1 at school, and no longer finds family history boring boring boring, but one part of it has suddenly become extremely interesting!!!

I think the problem is that after about 5 years most of us will probably exhausted our searches for family members going back to say our great grandparents etc. and then we are often left with those elusive folk who just seem to want to remain hidden.

I have got quite a way back - mid 1700's with several branches of my tree, but to be honest it is not how far back I can go which is my reason for this, I want to just ensure that those in my tree are recorded correctly.

When you think of how much we all find within the first few years we are not leaving much for our family members to look for in the future. And I do believe that in about 10 years the 'hobby' will wane somewhat for new people.

And a said before this is not a cheap hobby.

I just wish some more descendants from g/g/aunts & uncles would start looking into their genealogy so I can find out what happened to these people.

There is

http://www.certificate-exchange.co.uk/

I have been researching for about 30 years now. Scottish research is now cheaper than it was when I started. Thirty years ago it cost me £5 return to New Register House and about £17 entry fee. Porters took you to see and make notes from the original entries and on a good day you perhaps saw 9 entries. Now I use my buspass to travel free and pay £15 for a days search and can printout / make notes from about 30 entries.

It's not just about getting certificates. Again in Scotland access to the National Archives with a free reader's ticket lets you look at divorce and criminal records and so much more. My G. Grandfather was "mugged" in 1891 and for a small fee I was able to get copies of the court papers from NAS. Our main library (the Mitchell) in Glasgow offers free acces to Poor Relief Records (very useful for Irish ancestors), census records and much more not only for Glasgow but all of Scotland.

For me it is about building a social history of my family and finding out how they lived not just a list of names.

I do admit it is more difficult with my English relatives and more costly but when my English Grand nephew was born his Mum was interested to know that I had done some research on her English father to pass onto her son.

There is also:

http://www.bmdshare.com/index.php

Also when you look at FreeBMD if there is a yellow envelope next to the name that means that someone has added a postem which is usually some added information from that certificate.

I always add a postem to any certificates that I purchase. Giving some added details

IE Birth DOB & maiden name of mother (if prior to being recorded 1911/12)
Marriage: DOM & on both entries list name of spouse & fathers names
Death: DOD and name of informant.

If this save even one person money or helps in anyway I am more than happy.

some great posts.....I certainly haven't lost interest, I just wondered whether people petered out after the flurry of the initial finds.

I think some of the more interesting records are coming online now :)

I do find this site quieter than it was when I started but that may be owing to more competition now?

I think the interest is still there and growing but there are a number of factors that may be causing a slow down

Competitors offer an alternative to GR
Cash is short for lots of people and even a small sub to a site is beyond the budget
GR have hacked so many people off with the shocking site performance

I’m finding this site a tad boring (Nothing to do with the members, they’re great) as you don’t get anywhere near the number of posts. It’s possible that this is down to any or all of the above but I do think the site performance, the lack of customer care and the charges that GR make, are enormously instrumental to this site going down the pan

It’s very sad really

I also find this site much quieter than it used to be, but far more polite. At one time I dared not put up a request in case I got my head bitten off......But thankfully those times are past.
Genealogy is not really for the young, they are living in the present, with very few exceptions, and if the exception turns up in your family grab him or her and press all your information on them it is what we bought all our certificates for.