I was thinking this morning about Thomas KINGHORN from Carlisle and the fact that I don’t have easy access to the records that I would normally find on my doorstep. It was then that I realised just how lucky I have been with my research.
I haven’t actually counted them up but I would think that at least three quarters of my 3x great grandparents (that I have identified), were born in Sussex. This obviously makes my research a lot easier, and makes me think that researching further afield is something extraordinary.
But of course it is not, it is probably what most genealogists are doing all the time, working online, using Family History Libraries and such like. For me these are a novelty, but I would guess for most people reading this it is nothing out of the ordinary.
So I thank my ancestors for staying in Sussex and making my research that much easier, and those ancestors that didn’t come from Sussex, well I thank them for making my research a bit more of a challenge and pushing me to think more and work harder!
Aaah yes – getting completely stuck on a line because the relevant parish registers haven’t been filmed by anyone, or transcribed by anyone, or available anywhere in any form other than in person at the record office in question. Oooh, and waiting weeks, nay months, for films to arrive at the local FHC (just had one arrive in April that I ordered in August last year). Extraordinarily grateful that so much is accessible from a distance, of course, but a day of the sights and smells of an actual record office with the actual original records would be divine!