I've lost it....

It happens to us all. ():-)

Have a wander round a local graveyard and see if any of the names on the gravestones "grabs" you.... so to speak. ;) Then have a little rummage to see what you can find out about them.

By focussing your mind on someone or something that is not connected to you might spark the interest. Also, taking a wander will give you fresh air and exercise. ;)
 
@Sis - we all go through this at some time:(. Have a break from your own family research for a while, keep your 'hand' in by helping others when you can (and you always do:)), then something will trip the interest again when you least expect it.
As Genie says, do some other hobby that you have abandoned, to fill the time.
BUT don't stop popping in to be with us all{-(^^)-}
 
15 years ago I won first prize for my hand appliqued and hand quilted quilt. I worked on it day and night for months on end. Ever since then I have lost all interest in anything quilted. I got my first prize. I had done it. And so with my own family research. Gone as far as I need and not interested in going further. Got my prize again. I had done it. But love helping out here. It’s enough for me now. Life changes. New interests pop up and I have moved on with those.
Edited to add that some life changing experiences also had a say in it. A lovely change in scenery, different friendships, joining an art group and now going to join Inner Wheel. Life’s good.
 
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I don't do much of my own family research these days, but I love doing other people's :reading: I think we can get fed up with looking for the same old names, that's why other people's families hold a fascination - different names and places and always the chance of finding something really interesting. I've just finished doing some delving into my neighbour's Dad's family and found some really interesting people - and her Dad knew nothing of any of them, which made it really worthwhile :)

I do cross stitch and have just started knitting again, and I love gardening but that is somewhat weather dependent :rolleyes:

Don't worry Sis, as long as you stick with us, you'll never be bored :D
 
Echo all the above, I have had a break for a couple of years from my research, circumstances have played a large part but aiming to get the juices flowing over the winter. You will be the same again at some point but in the meantime please keep popping in and keeping an eye on us all - we could go even further off-piste without a responsible adult around:D
 
As everyone else has said, we all go through it. I was a bit jaded trying to go back and back, so I decided to go to my version of the 80/20 rule, the one that goes that when you look at the overall time taken for any particular job, you get 80% of the work done in 20% of the time. So I go back to a little explored area and get some satisfaction in conning myself into believing that I'm well on the way to getting 80% done.
I've started looking at my aunts' and uncles, families and have made good progress. When it looks too difficult, I might try my great aunts' and uncles' families.
' course it presupposes you haven't as slap happy as me.
 
Ah, I feel very jaded at the moment. I've had my tree sitting open on my database for ages and I don't feel I can be bothered... I should send for certificates etc but, pfff. We're in lockdown again too, so can't travel to find much of the information I need to progress - and at the same time I've had one or two breakthroughs in research recently that this time last year would have had me turning cartwheels of joy, but there's no buzz from attaining them at the moment. Eeee... I think we're all a bit jaded, if the truth be known.

I have been watching some really good history programmes on tv though lately (who knew that the rivalry between the cities of Liverpool and Manchester came not from football but the cotton industry?) I've also been entrusted with doing some research for an older cousin who wants to lay a few ghosts to rest and I've taken on some research for another gentleman - I'm starting to feel a little of the thrill of the chase there, getting familiar with the characters in the plot.

It will come back, @Sis. Just need to draw up some comfy chairs and have @Philippa bring us some virtual cake. I'm sure she's listening somewhere. I miss the cake.
 
BH is so right- I know I feep a bit tired and mildly stressed by life in general at the moment. I'd like to give up watching the news but I don't dare miss it- and that really doesn't help.

But I do have one tip for something that helps me get back on the research when I'm a bit disenchanted. I jot down a few random names with dates & places- always those I haven't looked at for ages and thought were sorted-and you'd be amazed what crops up on Google.
It sometimes brings back that old black magic!
 
I think we all get like you I know I have times when I seem to look without seeing hence I started a friends tree then all my childrens spouses for the grandchildren of course! went back to mine got stuck and realised that I had lots of info but spread allover so am now trying to sort it all into something others can understand in between I browse here try to help although by time I find things someone else has first but I love the banter here so dont stop popping in we would miss you sis
 
I think that it depends on why you find the hobby interesting. A lot of genealogists simply want to amass a huge list of names - I call that name spotting; others love it for the fascination of tracking down an ancestor - the old Sherlock Holmes bit and also the understanding of the life and times our ancestors lived in. Certainly in the 19th century it is possible to find very specific and fascinating information about ancestors and relatives from historic newspapers but it's much harder to do so further back.

So the further you get back the less relevant those ancestors are because so often little can be found out about them other than their baptisms, marriages and deaths. If, like mine they are pretty much all ag. labs, there is not much more to learn if you have at least tried to understand the lifestyle of such people.

In my paternal line I hit a brick wall around 15 years ago and while there is circumstantial evidence that might enable me to hurdle it, that is never going to be proof of the correct ancestor. So after all those years of trying I reached the point of saying " So what! If you never get past it, does it really matter, because all you'll find is yet another family of ag. labs. and they will probably be another brick wall".

I know that this is a bit defeatist but I think that I've given it a fair slice of my life. I still log in here most nights and also to two other forums in the hope that something will catch my eye. But like Sis I've sort of put my expectations and therefore my enthusiasm on hold.

It does revive my interest if I get to help a friend but I've even exhausted those opportunities for the time being. Never mind, I've always got the vacuum to keep me company.
 
Ditto all of the above.-mostly. I have the added interest of DNA matches now to fuel my interest, particularly those who have some added on early grrrrrt G'parents without any sources or sources which don't feel toasty warm.
More than that tho' I keep finding family with many children I have yet to marry off or otherwise 'settle'.
There seems to be more available records around now & marriages etc not found before can now be seen. Often with a name variation safely in 1939, when I had begun to suspect o'seas wanderings.

This madness is my only sanity these days with small ventures into the garden now that milder weather has arrived.

I think of you @Sis everytime I trip over another Goodwin, this one in Australia. I had this lass entered as child of a 1st cousin - x 1 rem'd. having found her in electoral rolls.
It seems she was actually the wife of cousin's son & later two dtrs are named. Sad when the 80 or 100 yr rule prevents learning more.

Now I must wait to see if I receive a reply from the person whose tree pointed out this fact.

Meantime I may - or not- trim my tree of all of the extranious people I had entered in the hope of finding more connections than the one who married into my families.

One day those borders will open again Sis & perhaps given more room to move about you can find more interest in the mundane. Chin up. ;)
 
Must admit I'm wearying a bit although not going to stop, I might start updating and adding new found stuff to BK so that everything is in order for those that follow.

I am going to have another shot at my Theobald line but first I'm going to have a crack at my wife's Essex Turner family, I have a feeling that if I get hers back a family or two they might link up with my turners. I've got to know one way or the other.
 
Thanks very much everyone for taking the time to give me tips. Whatever happens I will always pay visits here.():-)

Knitting isn't my forte, I once knitted a jumper for hubby and the body of it came past his backside, the sleeves covered his hands and the fold back collar came above his ears.:rolleyes::D

I may look in to a sub for newspapers. If @AnnB could tell me which is the best site. Just maybe I can find some ancestors in them. See you've all sparked my interest again, how long it will last remains to be seen.:D
 
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