My Developing Interest in Family History

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My own interest in family history seems to stem from an inherited gene from my father, Thomas Nelson Lindsay Millar, who for many years of my younger life, prodigiously kept scattered notes of near and distant family relatives and many --- many copies of pedigree charts, manually kept and drawn and revised as new and changed information came to light. Of course, when my father died and I inherited his notes, there was no easy way to chart which piece of information was the more up-to-date and what was more tragic --- there were not very many source attributions to the information on the papers! So, I was --- and still am, faced with determining which piece of the Millar jigsaw is the most up-to-date (and hopefully more accurate) and with the problem of finding sources for the information. However, without the patient and dedicated work done by my father, especially as I have left the emerald isle since 1969, I would not have the framework to even start this family research in Ireland, whilst based and living in England.

I have over the past 20 years or so developed my own growing interest in family history, which has accelerated since the mid 1990's to become my principal pastime and interest. Much of this time has been put into following through on Janet's ancestral lines in Wiltshire and Wales --- which are easier to do than my own Irish research whilst living in England. Additionally, I have been engaged in developing, leading and teaching a weekly genealogy class for beginners which covers - Research sources for England & Wales; Documentation Standards; Sources & Notes in Family History; the use of Personal Ancestral File software for recording family history; and the use (and misuse) of genealogy web sites.

This experience has led me to offer my services as a professional researcher in family history and has led to a number of interesting assignments from clients in Australia, Canada, USA and England.

The single most important theme to my family history work over the most recent years has been the importance of recording souce information.

Source citations and copies of the actual source documentation now form a major part of my family history and the scanned images of each source are avaiable here and are cross referenced to the data as it appears in the various pedigree and descendancy reports.

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Church Influence

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My mother and father, myself and my family are all members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, often referred to as LDS (Latter-Day Saints) or sometimes with prejudicial overtones as the Mormons. My parents joined the church in Belfast in 1956 and Janet joined the church in 1971 in Canada.

Those involved in family history research will be aware of the influential and leading role the Church has in matters of family history - the largest family history web site, the largest family history library, over 3,000 branch libraries around the world etc. This interest by the Church is prompted by our belief that all people - every person that has ever lived on earth - will have the opportunity to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ; and having received it, if accepted, will require baptism. This ordinance of baptism for those that have died is carried out, by proxy by the current members of the Church and are only performed in special and sacred temples built for this purpose --- and whilst we do not know if each and every individual so baptised has chosen to accept the gospel, the act of baptism is nevertheless completed by us in the hope that they will accept it - a gift from us to them.

There are many unfounded rumours circulating about this practice mainly to the point that we are frogmarching all our ancestors into the Church and that's how the Church counts its membership.

From an insider's perspective none of that is true - the act of proxy baptism is a gift from us to our ancestors and we do not know if the gift is accepted; we hope it is; and be assured, the membership count of the members of the Church only includes those that are living and breathing - although you can never be sure as one surveys the congregation during some Sunday sermons!

Church members are instructed that they should only concern themselves with their own ancestry and additionally, should not pass the name of anyone for proxy baptism born in the last 95 years without first obtaining the permission of their closest living relative.

Obviously, my church membership has provided a significant impetus to my interest in family history - but this has only matured by my own developed interest in the particular techniques of research, documentation and recording, which, strange to say, is not universal amongst members of the Church! Indeed, anyone who regularly uses any of the family history libraries operated by the Church will know that the majority of users of such facilities are not members of the Church.

Two particular scripture that never fail to inspire me in this work are taken from 1 Peter 4:6 --

"For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit."

And from John 5:25 --

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live."

Further information about the church can be obtained on-line at: LDS Information Web Sites

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Password for Photo Album

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The photographs available here are for the use of family members only and entry to the web pages for the photographs requires a password. This is a measure to provide privacy and minimise any misuse that could occur with these pictures.

The password can be obtained by emailing me.

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MILLAR Line

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Although this is my "home" ancestral line, almost all the work to date is the result of my father's endeavours. Currently goes back to around 1830 with William Millar, my GG Grandfather. Many of the dates associated with his descendants are as noted by my father with no sourcing explanations - despite this, I am inclined to accept these dates until proven to the contrary because I know how careful my father was in collecting such dates.

Because it is personally difficult for me to do research in Ireland as I live in England and because the records beyond the mid 1800's in Ireland are patchy if any at all for non land owning families I am concentrating on:

1. Verifying wherever possible names, dates and places left to me by my father.
2. Expanding the details of the descendants of William Millar (my great great Grandfather) to the present generation.

The 1901 and 1911 census has yet to be explored for families of these times (there are no census records prior to these).

The same objectives apply to the other main end-of-line families that have married into the Millar line, namely:

By the mid 1800's almost all the members of these families seem to be in the Belfast area with no particular clues as to where they have been originally located.

In order to make progress on the MILLAR line I will need some active help in Ireland - any volunteers?

I can offer a ready-made data base in Personal Ancestral File (PAF) format or in Gedcom format for any of the ancestral lines that may be of interest to my various "cousins".

There are many details missing of the current generation of descendants - I would be most grateful for updates on children, places and dates for these missing generations.

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BOYD Line

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Same origin and problems associate with this line as with the Millar line. On the direct Boyd line, goes back to my GGG Grandfather, James Boyd (c.1790) from the Ballymena area of County Antrim.

The same objectives apply of:

1. Verifying wherever possible names, dates and places left to me by my father.

2. Expanding the details of the descendants of James Boyd to the present generation.

The 1901 and 1911 census has yet to be explored for families of these times (there are no census records prior to these).

The collateral married-in lines that need the same objectives are:

Prior to my grandfather, Stewart Martin Boyd, moving to Belfast around 1918, all these families seem to centred around Ballymena in county Antrim - which may give rise for some entries in some land registries in that area.

In order to make progress on the BOYD line I will need some active help in Ireland - any volunteers?

I can offer a ready-made data base in Personal Ancestral File (PAF) format or in Gedcom format for any of the ancestral lines that may be of interest to my various "cousins".

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Living Individuals

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As far as possible the information on living individuals is restricted to names only; no locations or date information is provided on the web site for living individuals.

The presence of death or burial information is the main trigger for knowing who is dead and who is living; in the absence of such information, death is assumed 95 years after the birth or christening. If you find I have made any mistakes in assuming death after 95 years please let me know by sending me an email of the correct details.

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WILLIAMS - STRANGE Line

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Janet's father was Harold Jack Williams (always known as "Jack") - however, Jack's birth certificate showed no registered father and had his "Given" names recorded as "Harold Jack Williams"; he was known throughout his life by the surname of "Williams" - as was his sister Kathleen whose birth certificate similarly showed no father, but given names of Kathleen Williams. Jack's mother was Christina Elizabeth Strange. Therefore, at the moment, because of the lack of information on Jack's father (presumably named Williams) we have only been able to progress the maternal "Strange" Line.

The involved Strange family seem to have spent the past 200 or so years around the parish of Lydiard Tregoze on the outskirts of Swindon in Wiltshire - in the registration district of Cricklade.

Recent information from a collateral relative on this line - Paul Gray, has enabled us to add an extra generation back to Janet's 4^th Great Grandfather - John Strange - from Wooton Bassett, born around 1765 and married in Lydiard Tregoze to Sarah Compton in 1789.

Our main objective in the immediate future (certainly through 2004 into 2005) is to concentrate on expanding details of the descendants of John Strange and progress further into the other collateral married-in lines of Janet's:

Immediate plans are to fill out he family tree branches from John Strange (c. 1765) down.

Also, it has been our intention for some time to investigate the Bastardy court orders following Jack's birth to see if it is possible to trace his father down that avenue - his mother was rumoured to collect money (maintenance?) regularly from the Post Office.

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HUGHES Line

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This represents Janet's maternal line and although the most recent generation of the Hughes family (Janet's mother and siblings) come from the Rhonda in Glamorganshire - this was due to the movements of population due to the mining industry in that area. Janet's maternal grandparents - David Hughes originates from Cardiganshire and the parents of Elizabeth Evans - Janet's great grandparents originate from Montgomeryshire.

Janet's mother, Doris, was the second from youngest of 15 children and having celebrated her 90^th birthday in July 2004 is the only surviving member of that family. There are almost no documented details of the other 14 siblings and to document details of those siblings and their descendants is one of our immediate principal objectives.

Other objectives are to expand the research of the Hughes line - currently back to Janet's GG Grandfather Richard Hughes (c. 1790) and the other collateral married-in lines:

Anticipated difficulties in going back much further in Welsh research is the Welsh patronymic system of surnames that was prevalent in many areas until the early 19^th/late 18^th century - whereby, the children took as their surname, the given name of their father. This has already become evident in the family of Jacob Simon (noted above), where his children took the surname of Jacob (later - Jacobs).

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