#52 Ancestors - Looking Ahead

​The very last #52 Ancestors and the theme this week is Looking Forward.  It has been a fun year, writing this weekly blog has been a lesson in itself, the themes have helped although I substituted a couple, like Yearbooks, I had nothing to write on that subject.  On the whole though, I have enjoyed writing them and I hope you have enjoyed reading them.
 
I discovered a few things about my family history along the way, like the connection with Jersey and the Huguenots which is ongoing research and in fact I gained a lot of research to be done along the way.  I also confirmed the fact that I have been favouring my local research above that of my more distant ancestors, which meant one side of the family was researched more than the other, the Baldwins.  Looking forward I will be spending more time during 2023 researching the Baldwins and the families that married into them.  I also like to look more at the Baldwins in Canada and having recently done a DNA with Ancestry it may be that I can connect with some Baldwins descended from that family.

2022 has been an interesting year for my genealogy, not only was forced to spend time on each week and to be quite systematic about the research I carried out I met a new relative, Dad’s cousin which just goes to show that the unexpected can happen to anyone, even the seasoned genealogist who thinks they have made all the discoveries they can.  Also taking a more indepth look at the lives and the residences of some the ancestors I thought I had fully researched has been interesting, I have made discoveries about places local to me and the lives my ancestors lived there.  
 
Using newspaper reports has been enlightening and I will definitely continue that, I advise anyone and everyone to get a subscription to either the British National Newspaper website or Findmypast and start looking for your relatives in the papers.  It is amazing what you can find.  The trial of the young servant of John Catt and Hannah Oliver brought some interesting information to light, the first clues to the relationship of the two of them, through the evidence brought by Hannah’s daughter.  #52 Ancestors - Wrong side of the Law - Sussex Genealogist

Image of Daily Mirror photo of a fire David Smith attended

​Back in April I wrote about the MAF survey I had for Rushford Farm, Three Cups near Heathfield, Document - MAF WW2 survey - Sussex Genealogist which forced me to actually get the document out of the folder and give it more than a cursory glance.  I studied it and thought about the implications of the information on the document.  This is good training we should use for reading all documents even census returns.  How many of us go back and find an interesting tit bit we have overlooked on first viewing?  The grandchild who was not with their parents or servant who is a cousin and links another side of the family. 
 
I have really enjoyed looking at ancestors in a new light, studying one aspect of them in order to write on a theme and putting the information I have found on them together to write a little of their life story. 
 
If you are interested in giving it a go yourself, visit Amy Johnson Crow’s website, 52 ancestors and sign up.  52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks | Amy Johnson Crow  I have signed up for another year but I am not sure how far I will get, I have other irons in the fire!  But I have enjoyed the experience so I will carry on as long as I can and I hope you will continue to read and enjoy my research blogs.

Image of a laptop, ready to start researching