What a lovely topic!
I started in 1989. My father had very little knowledge of his family. His parents separated before 1921 and he only saw his father occasionally. He had older siblings who married or left home when he was a child. I used to ask him about his father but it was obvious he didn't know much more than that he was a cooper (barrel maker) and was an alcoholic who lived at Carrington House. Sounds very posh, but it was a charity for homeless men in south London. My father, and other family members believed he was Irish.
He also said we had relatives in Canada but could not remember the surname.
By the late 80s my aunts and uncles were beginning to pass away so I began research. In the old fashioned way!
Visiting St Catherine's House and ordering certificates, visiting Chancery Lane and local libraries to consult censuses and parish records. Nothing was available online. I viewed sheets on microfiche and film readers.?
I quickly learned that my grandfather was not Irish but was born in Greenwich in 1868 to George Doughty born 1829 in London.
In 1993 I started a family history society.
In 1996 my father passed aged 88.
I have been researching ever since but it was only a few years ago that I discovered my Canadian Tomlin and Abel relations.
I run seven Facebook family history groups, have been an expert advisor to Who Do You Think You Are, co-operated on research as the guest of a professor at Oxford University and have written articles and a book.?
DNA I? am not so hot on, though, although I now know I have 0% Irish DNA on my father's side ?
?
?
Ken Doughty