I have been off sick with a bad back and I am not used to sitting down and doing nothing. I looked at all of the familiar websites but quickly got bored. I remembered that I had a family tree book and thought that I would update it. This lead on to thinking about family tree websites. I had a look at a few but as money is tight at the moment, I could not afford to pay the subscriptions to access most of the information that I needed. I did get the free limited access to one site and found out some basic information but that quickly ran out.

I then had another look for a site that was truly free and found Family tree circles. It was a website that appeared to offer assistance for no cost. The idea is great, one person researching their family tree and allowing access to other interlinking families and even better, people with an interest in general offering their time and energy to help others to find out information. I am beginning to fill in the spaces in my tree.

I have lots of gaps in my knowledge in my tree as my natural father died when I was only 18 months old. I was adopted by a wonderful man who married my mom but unfortunately he has since died also. My mother has not been very forthcoming about her childhood so family details are sketchy and has recently had a series of strokes which mean that I am unlikely to be able to use her as a source of information. I have found out that I have half brothers & sisters whom I have not met and that she was married before she met my father. Unfortunately my maternal grandparents (whom I never met) have passed away so I cannot ask them for family history.

As you can see, my family history is a bit like swiss cheese, full of holes! So as you can see I have my work cut out.