When I first registered my One Place Study of Graveney and Goodnestone in North Kent, I thought I might find the odd ancestor or two to add to the family tree, but I never anticipated quite how that would happen.
I had been giving talks on various aspects of Graveney history for a few years, mostly online because of Covid, but last year I was able to return to face to face. My most recent talk, on Graveney School, was followed up by a two day oral history workshop. I was very fortunate to have local supporters who help to publicise the events locally, but I didn’t anticipate who would see this. Two cousins, who I hadn’t seen for over 50 years, attended the talk and came back for the oral history sessions. Not only did they identify people in some of my mystery photographs, but they also provided full details of their own lines, with pictures, places and stories. An added bonus was that they had kept my uncle’s flying jacket that I loved when I lived with him as a small child, 60 years ago.
But, best of all, we are now in regular touch and working together to piece together some of the missing parts of our tree and put names to a few remaining photos.
Wendy Tait Mayfield
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1 Comment
Glenys SYKES
How very pleasing for you! Like you, I did not expect to add many people to my family tree (already containing forty years of research!) when I started my One Place Study about three small hamlets where I knew that two of my ancestors had lived. The hamlets had disappeared in the mid-1900s, subsumed into the local quarry. I have learned so much in the course of my study and am working on family studies of the core families who were living there during all the censuses from 1841 – 1891 as I had transcribed those censuses into a database and could compare families. Having now done several families I have found that there is a connection in some degree to every single family I have looked at – I have added a large number of distant relatives, sometimes very distant. But it has taught me a lot about the society they lived in and how they interacted through the decades. No close new cousins, sadly but hundreds of distant ones. My OPS is the most enjoyable project I have ever done!