We've a TV show here in the UK called Who Do You Think You Are? which started airing in 2004. The concept of the show is celebrities trace back their ancestry through chosen paths with the assistance of professional genealogists. I don't recall when I first started watching, but it has become a bit of an addiction.
Following the death of my dad in 2006, I decided to start tracing my own as I really didn't know too much. We're an interesting family in terms of relationships so I'd ever really known my grandad, but as with many left it far too late to ask any questions.
When my dad passed, lots of old documents and photographs came into my possession and so the journey began. For every photo came lots of questions!
Watching Who Do You Think You Are? bought its advantages as I had an awareness of how to go about certain tasks. For example I was able to obtain my grandad's military records from the second world war (both on my mum and dad's side). I had an idea where my paternal grandad was posted (Sicily and North Africa), but like many of his generation he never really spoke about his experiences.
There has been one mystery that I've been investigating on and off for around 10 years and I finally managed to solve it a few weekends ago. Below is a photo of my great aunt, grandad and great grandmother stood outside a shop. I've cropped the top of the photo for privacy, but the shop sign was the initials and surname of my great grandad. This was confusing as all the documentation I had referred to him being an engineer (machinist). My guess is the photo was taken around 1930.
Initially I couldn't find any reference as to the location so didn't know whether it was a family shop, or whether they'd found it out and about and just had a photo taken. After doing my best Miss Marple I started to think it was a family shop. Thanks to modern technology I took a high resolution scan and was able to identify the location of the dance. "What dance?" I hear you cry! Well this one, the Select Dance at Cobb's Hall.
Cobb's Hall is a location in West London near to where they lived. Also, I noted Distillers Athletic F.C. - from what I can see "The Distillers" was a pub in the same location.
With that in mind I turned my attention back to historical records using the Ancestry website. I drew a blank looking through census records as once again in 1911 the 1939 Register (after this photo was taken), my great grandfather's occupation is around engineering. However, extending my searches to the Post Office Directories (I guess similar to the Yellow Pages", in 1934 I found his full name printed, with an address and the address is a grocers. The location of the grocers was at the end of the road they lived on as far as I can see.
Thanks to Google Maps I've been able to have a search of the area using street view and can see it's still a shop (pet products now). That business has been going since the early mid 1960's and my great grandad died in 1961. It would be interesting to know if the current owners (I'm assuming they're second or third generation now), took the property from my great grandad.
I've many other things to investigate. With help from a genealogist I have details on my paternal side heading into the 1700's (5th Great Grandfather). That line includes my 2nd Great Grandfather who was a Horse Guard (Household Cavalry).