Now that's what I'm talking about!

This will be my first entry to exemplify what I hope to be the majority of my posts.

A few weeks ago my mother-in-law asked me to do some work on her family history because her computer was temporarily on the blink.  Well it had been such a long time since I did any research on my hubby's line so I wasn't sure where I was going to find any new names for mum.  I opened up my husband's family history folder and was presented with a large pile of miscellaneous papers and certificates - which I can't blame on my hubby - they were definitely left there by me.  So after sorting through these I found quite a lot of information on the Hele family, my husband's maternal grandmother's line.  I jumped onto familysearch.org and realised that mum hadn't done much on this family so here was my chance to have some names ready for her in the short amount of time I had.

After updating the information that was already there for Robert Hele and his wife Maryanne Cook I was able to add another two generations for the Hele line complete with mother's maiden names and children.  Two whole new families!  I was desirous to have the same success for the Cook line.  All I had to go on was Robert and Maryanne's marriage certificate which said that Maryanne's father was Albert cook and that at the time of the marriage, 1880, he was deceased!  Oh well it was better than nothing. 

After a further sorting of papers I found an 1881 British census record for Mary A Hele which I remember finding years ago (2005 in actual fact).  I must have done a search for Robert and Maryanne hoping to find them together on their first census as a married couple.  I do remember finding this record and the reason I printed it out was because even though Mary A Hele was listed as being married she was living with a couple named Charles and Fanny Rich.  I thought it was a bit strange that she wasn't recorded with her husband but when I looked at her marriage certificate again I realised that the witnesses to the marriage were none other than Charles and Fanny Rich!  Now that was all I needed to know that I had found the right Mary Hele, and that is where I left it in 2005. 

Can you believe the other night I finally read the census record thoroughly enough to realise that Mary was listed as a daughter to Charles and Fanny!  I had finally found her mother!  I subsequently jumped onto Free BMDs online and found a marriage for Charles Rich and Fanny Cook in 1876.  Then I realised that I should be able to find the marriage between Mary's biological parents.  I entered the information but had no luck.  I tried some different spellings and name combinations.  I widened my search for the whole of England.  Then finally I searched back to the 1850s and found Albert Cook married to Fanny Hurse in the correct place!!  I was so excited to have Mary's parents and to be able to connect them together after so many years of research. 

When those search results come up on the screen and you know that you've found the right name there is just such a wonderful feeling of success and fulfilment.  I literally raised my arms in the air and said "YES!".  Nights like these are what keeps me coming back to family history research time and time again.  And as I write about it now it all sounds so easy but I think the hardest thing is putting in the time.  I probably could have sorted this out years ago but even though I didn't, I believe now was the right time for me to have this awesome experience to inspire me to keep going.