Family Tree
Introduction
Having thought for many years about researching my family tree, I finally took the plunge a few months ago and in that time have made what I would term very reasonable progress. I have been helped not least by the wonders of the web and in particular the Ancestry website, but also by my family, in particular both my grandmothers, who at 95 are thankfully still with us - memories intact. There are also a good deal of family photographs available - a mountain of them still yet to be gone through - which help paint pictures of those one knows only by a name - a thread if you like, but it's through talking with my grandmothers that the past comes truly alive, in the revelation of tiny, almost 'insignificant' details which collapse into a second, the years and decades of almost a century of time.
Parts of the family have as one expects been easier to trace than others and there have been more than a couple of wrong turns (with more to come I'm sure), but that is all part of what makes it worthwhile. (Indeed, one of the things which has struck me through my research is how unlikely it is that we're born at all and how much we depend for our existence, not just on our direct descendents, but all those they encountered in the course of their lives - but that subject is for another time). These wrong turns I will document in a separate section.
My paternal grandmother's line in South Wales has been difficult in places to uncover, but nonetheless particularly rewarding; a planned trip to the place where she was born and raised next month should hopefully clarify a few things. Most importantly, it will put her childhood on the map - my map so to speak, for knowing a place only by a name, is just like knowing the name of an ancestor and nothing else besides. Being there makes all the difference. Her husband's side of the family, my grandfather from whom I get my surname, all hail from Oxford, and although that hasn't made things any easier, it has in terms of placing them in their environment, one which I of course share - at least in part.
There have also been a few surprises (with more - like mistakes - to come); the male line on my mother's side, which we always supposed hailed from deepest Reading turn out to have originated (at least in the sense of 'at the beginning of the nineteenth century') in Oxford. This line of Master Tailors - the Stevens' - had a very good line in names, Jabez being a particular favourite. In fact, the wonderful names given the sheer number of children I have found, has been of particular interest in my search.
I will arrange this section of my website according to the four family names of my grandparents, those being my surname, Hedges; my mother's maiden name, Stevens; my paternal Grandmother's name, Jones; and my maternal grandmother's name, Sarjeant. More names will no doubt yield through my research and these I will include in the relevant sections above. Along with these new names I will write about any relevant places and specific people within those sections, although they may also come to be placed in the Places and People parts of my website.