My mother and grandmother always talked with great affection about deceased family members and my mother started her research when I was young. She joined various family history societies (e.g. Hampshire, Cornwall) and wrote numerous letters asking for information. I still have some of the copies and replies.
She also visited the Record Office in Exeter and also the Family Search Centre there. She had found some of the family on censuses. When she visited us she would go into London to visit the record offices and my elder daughter (then only about 11) and I started to accompany her. We became hooked and I started recording the family tree on my computer, using PAF (Personal Ancestral File). My mum gave me all the information she had and I started adding to it as censuses were released online. I remember trawling through microfiche with her trying to find errant family members before censuses were available online.
My mother died in 2004 and she would be amazed what I have discovered since. Her work was thorough and mainly accurate and she would be thrilled that we have now traced many lines back to the introduction of parish registers. My continuing research is in many ways a tribute and connection to her
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