Family Tree

Introduction

I started tracing my family tree many years ago – I was still living at home when I made the first one but it was a half hearted attempt. In about 1996/7 I picked it up again and sent out family questionnaires to all my known living relatives at the time – little did I know that what started out as a simple family tree would turn into a complete family history?

Nearly all my relatives returned their questionnaires and I was able to make individual index cards containing details about each person (you can't imagine the amount I have now!). All this information was put into the family tree and I soon realised that I had much more than just names and dates, I had little stories emerging – the start of the family history.

The first people to contribute to the family history were my Grandma and Grandad, Margaret Agnes Marsden and Henry Aloysius Hall. It was at this time that I realised that we had a more complicated and larger family than I had ever realised. Things were coming together so I started on the Marsden family tree first, Grandma told me lots of names and dates and little stories and put me in touch with other relatives who could help me out – just as it was coming together Grandma died, I never got the chance to sit down with her to find out more about her life.

I changed paths and started writing about the Hall's and it never really stopped, I kept finding out more and more and the tree got bigger and bigger.

Uncle Frank was the next one to help me with the family tree and he was the first to give a bigger account of what he had done in his life – and what a life he must have had, as far as I know he never spoke about it, he kept it all to himself until I came along and asked questions so he started giving little snippets to me in letters in 1998.

The family tree got put away again while I was at college and wasn't brought back out again really until Uncle Frank died in 2005. I got all my paperwork back out and put it into some order and took it with me when I went to Uncle Frank's funeral where I learned even more about the Hall's. I sat with Uncle Leo for some time discussing the family tree finding out who was who, who married whom and who was still alive! Then in the summer of 2006 Uncle Michael asked me if I had seen what Uncle Leo had written – I hadn't.

I completely forgot to ask mum about the package Uncle Leo had sent out until my dad brought it round for me……..wow…..I was able to fill in so many dates, and guess what, yet, more people were added to the tree? There was still some guess work on how everyone fit into the family but as time went by I made more sense of it.

In late 2006 I sent some more questionnaires out with a copy of the family history I had so far in the hope that more blanks would be filled. Although I got feedback and more information from Uncle Leo nothing else materialised until Christmas. What a Christmas present I got – a family tree package for my Laptop giving me access to online census forms, birth death and marriage indexes and millions of other family trees. I have been searching ever since and I have unearthed a whole host of information which has really got me hooked.

Researching on the internet showed that I had gone off on many tangents and I needed to concentrate on one part of the family at a time, I chose the Hall's as I had more information about them and realised that I had to be strict with myself and just follow the actual bloodline so that's what I did, anyone with an ounce of Hall blood in them is included, those that do not have been left out. (But i do have all the information about the Gee family that I will add at a later date out of a matter of interest.)

I hope you find this family history interesting reading, I have really enjoyed doing it and will continue in my research. If anyone in the family has any information that they think would be interesting please let me know. Stories to add would be fantastic – especially from the younger end of the tree, if we can get the history up-to-date with facts and stories it would help a great deal. If any of this information is wrong can you please let me know correct version of events, dates and names. I never realised how much time this would take up but I really enjoy doing it – which is a good thing as I still have many lines to research and that includes the O'Toole's!!!!!!!!

Karen Rose

 

Written by Karen Rose (nee O'Toole), daughter of Joseph O'Toole and Margaret Mary Hall.

Many thanks to all my relatives who have helped me to compile this family history, special thanks to Uncle Leo who has saved me the job of going to the cemetery to track down family members and let me use some of his material.

 

Draught Editions: 1988, 1998, 2005, 2006

First Edition of Family History 2007

This Edition 2008