With a long-time interest in history, genealogy was always something I was aware of as a separate aspect of that interest which I thought I may want to pursue at some time. Getting my grandfather’s WW1 medals and wanting to gain more background information was a bit of a catalyst in relation to that interest but I did not immediately act on it. It was not until I eventually retired and wanted a longer-term project to which I could devote some of my extra free time that I seriously considered working on my family history research. Once I started, however, I constantly wondered why I had not started many years before. Probably like a lot of genealogists, especially late starters, I rued the missed opportunities to have asked the older generations themselves the pertinent questions.
It became apparent early on that, for me, it would not be enough to simply document the bare-bones story of dates of births, marriages, and deaths. I would need to attempt to place those basic events in a wider background if I were going to do the best job I could. What was the place like where they lived and those events took place; what historical events could have impacted their lives; what social, political, or technological changes were affecting people’s lives; what did they do for a living and what were their working lives like? I may not yet have provided sufficient answer to these questions but family history research is a constant process of discovery. Research continues and expanded or new resources become available which allows gaps in the story to be filled; this, in turn, leads to more questions to be answered.
Contrary to what some may believe the work of family history research still cannot all be done sitting at a computer. Much information can only be accessed at archives on microfiche and microfilm or as original documents. Indeed, one of the great pleasures of the research process is handling original records which no-one else may have looked at for many years. Visits to relevant places is also something which is always worthwhile; walking the streets your ancestors walked; seeing buildings they would have known; visiting the church where they were baptised, married, or buried.
The pages on this site will aim to tell the family story in both broad strokes and more specific detail. There will be the many agricultural labourers; the numerous railway workers based in Crewe; those employed in heavy industry and manufacturing. Military service in both war and peace, from the Napoleonic wars to the current era will feature. A steeplechase jockey based in France will appear. There will be a criminal case and the bravery of a railway worker rescuing a passenger from an approaching train. All of these go to make up a family history over the years.
Dorman & Wakeley Family History 