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Did you have ancestors that emigrated?
If you have visited this site before, you will have seen messages from people, who are interested in tracing their ancestry and getting in touch with others, to whom they are related or who remember facts about their family background.
While I was putting together the page, on the ‘Our Locality’ menu called ‘Trace Your Ancestry’ I was tempted to enter my own family name in the searches on some of the sites, just out of pure curiosity. I found it fascinating to learn how many are recorded as emigrating to the US or the Commonwealth countries and to be able to see common family first names, over the generations, see ages and relationships, etc.
It led me to a great admiration for the courage and adventurousness and a great sadness at the desperation which must have caused so many young and not so young people to give up their old lives and countries, travel those terrible long and hazardous sea journeys and start anew, in a brand new country. How did the people already living in those countries view the new arrivals? This is not a plea for those that we view as illegal immigrants into this country, at the present time. Just a general awe at the human spirit that urges us to do such things.
Many of you will probably know someone today, often a young farmer and his family, who is leaving this country for a better life in another. In the years to come, their grandchildren and successive generations will be interested to know of their roots here. Even if you have no burning desire to look up your background, I hope you might be tempted to just have a look at some of the sites on the ‘Trace your Ancestry’ page. If it’s cold and dark outside and all repeats on TV (when isn’t it?) spend a few minutes to let your imagination roam into the past. It’s quite fun!
If you do not live here, you may just, by accident, have noticed your surname cropping up a few times, either in the local histories or in the place names around here. You may now be living in a part of the world, far remote from the green pastures and high tors of the Beacon Villages area, and might find it exciting to be able to trace your roots back to here. If so, we want to make it easy for you to simply e-mail us, with a short notice to put up on our pages, to enable you to get in touch with others who might share your interests or family name.
At present, with few enquiries, we are able to expand into much detail, if required. As time goes by, it may be necessary to be more brief or to do away with the (to some, annoying) flashing signs. This is a first step which will be developed and changed to suit your needs. There are a few useful sites listed, for those wishing to make a first step. No doubt those of you with experience can e-mail us with further recommendations. We will gladly post these, if you do. See ‘Trace Your Ancestry’.
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