Martin knows I've got the Family History bug as well because we've been discussing sources in Shropshire.
We did in fact both attend Shropshire Archives in Shrewsbury one Saturday and sat a few metres from each other. We didn't actually meet because we didn't even know how the other looked, let alone that we were going to be there on that day.
I've only actively been researching for 12 months since last February. What surprised me is that I managed to duplicate almost 10 years of part-time research by my mum in 3 days. By the end of 7 days, I had the names of all my ancestors back to my great-grandparents. What helps is that a lot of the necessary indexes are available online, some on subscription sites, some on free sites. I've spent the time since then confirming each person and trying to find out something of who they were and where they lived.
For example, one ancestor was the gamekeeper for Lady Aberconway at the turn of the 20th century.
Another spent some of his childhood in a workhouse and got sent over to Canada in the early 1900's.
Another was a stonemason in who helped make the Boer War Memorial in Haverfordwest.
Another got shot in the neck in WW1, got invalided home, married his nurse and ended up building rail tracks for military duty.
Another was killed in an industrial accident at a phosphorus works in Oldbury.
The point is that tracing your family tree isn't just getting a list of names, it truly is discovering where you come from. I've found that I have English, Welsh, Scots and Irish ancestry. I am truly, by every definition, British.
