F is for Fecund Forebears
My tree has many branches because large numbers of offspring appear to have been the norm among the mining, fishing and farming families of North-East England and Scotland. Three of my grandparents are from large families. Grandmother Ellenor Turner was the seventh child of ten. Grandmother Margaret Jane Henderson was the third child of seven. Grandfather George Crackett was the eighth child of ten. (Shown in the banner of my blog).
Taking it back one generation further the big families include: Cracket 8, Parkinson 5, Carr 5, Henderson 7, Thornton 11. Similar trends can be seen in the earlier generations too with most of the couples having somewhere between 5 and 10 children.
F is for findmypast
F is also for findmypast which is one of the resources I find most useful for my genealogy research. I find their transcriptions among the most reliable, although Cracket has on occasion been twisted to Crackel. So far I have just used the UK site, but expect I am soon going to have to take a look at both Ireland and Australia. I have not managed to figure out yet whether having a subscription for one country gives any discount opportunities for the other countries.
If you would like to know more about this alphabet challenge take a look at Family History through the Alphabet.
Digging up the ancients 
Fecund forefathers–What a wonderful alliterative phrase. Like you, many of my ancestors were part of large families.
Must have been some strong women back in those days to cope with bearing and raising so many without mod cons.
I have one family with 15 children! Mum was 46 when she had the 15th child who didn’t survive. I also like Findmypast and subscribe to both the UK and Aussie versions. I asked the question about multiple subscription discounts but was told that at present you need to subscribe to each individually but they are looking at a consolidated subscription in the future.
15 is pretty amazing. Did she manage to raise all of the first 14 to adulthood? Thanks for the info about fmp multiple subscriptions. I took a quick look at the Aussie site yesterday. Was a bit surprised to see it is not the same format as the UK one.
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Fecund – wow, I hadn’t even heard of that word, but it so applicable to so many families. One of my hubby’s reli’s had 15 kids from the first marriage, then another 12 or so from the second marriage, so definately a ‘Fecund’ Forebear. Thank you for a wonderful post.
I considered saying fertile instead, but then decided it might generate more interest with an unusual word. How many of your 15 made it through to adulthood? One of my big families is the group in the banner of my blog. Parents and 10 fully grown offspring all gathered for a pic.
I too loved your use of the word “fecund” Lynda … few of them in my family tree and my hubby’s. His GGrandfather had 16 with 2 wives. I too have a subscription with Findmypast and some time ago made the suggestion that they increase the fee slightly and make all countries accessable like Ancestry. No way I can take out extra subs for Ireland, Oz, Canada and USA!!! … Another enjoyable post, thanks 🙂
Hope that findmypast take your advice and offer a slightly increased subscription for worldwide access 🙂
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