morpeth

A dying hobby for children for a variety of reasons, and how modern stamps are made compounds the issue, The usual trajectory is a man in his 30s, settled down discovers a childhood stamp album and becomes interested again and has more resources to buy better stamps. Usually more serious collectors are from Germany, France, Britain and USA.

In the 1990s I was visiting Paris often for work, collectors would give me French stamps on consignment, to take to Paris to sell for them- my share paid for my persona; expense during trips as I always added a few days each trip for personal time. In those days one needed to know French to get by.

So now children play their video games or get addicted to social media- and men even in their 30s are still being children playing video games. Stamp collectors, philatelists some, are generally nice people and knowledgeable about geography and history.I remember at one stamp show wife of collector said "stamp collectors the best husbands, instead of chasing skirts they chase pieces of paper."

Gordon Barlow

Morpeth. I hope you're a bit more mature than I am... I still - I can't help myself! - still, tear the stamp off an envelope before tossing away the envelope. Not many stamped envelopes come in the mail these days, of course, but it's an ingrained habit that I can't cancel. The stamps go into a drawer, and the drawer gets emptied into a box when it's full. When I die, my son will chuck them all out. I know that, but I can't help myself!

morpeth

The current adhesive stamps used are more challenging to remove from paper, and countries decades ago accelerate the number of stamps made- reducing the value of modern stamps. But even accumulation of stamps can have some remaining value as 'kiloware'.

Stamps on passports by the way from yesteryear often can have more value,.

If you ever stop by the library, look up a Scots or Gibbons stamp catalogue to glance through- Scots purports to list most stamps ever made and current values- and you will find descriptions of countries or political jurisdictions no one has ever heard of.

Gordon Barlow

Child safety, back in the day... The rules were a bit less strict then than they are today. In 1975/6, after a near-accident in Malaga, Linda and I and our four-month-old baby pulled up for the winter to recover our equilibrium in a gentle tourist-town.**** Most nights we ate at cheap restaurants, and left the baby in his carry-cot in our Kombi parked outside in the street. We closed all the doors, of course, and I nipped out every twenty minutes to check on him.

It never crossed our mind to doubt the standard of our care. At worst, he was whimpering half-awake when I went out, and was easily comforted back to sleep. Even at eight months he wasn't able to climb out and wander down the street - and who would ever steal a sleeping child? Pffft! Looking back, though, I'm not quite as certain as I was then. What do you reckon?

**** Fuengirola. Well, it was gentle back then. Not so much now, perhaps.

Gordon Barlow

I used to pore over Gibbons for hours at a time when I was a boy. My wife "got into" stamp-collecting here in Cayman, and bequeathed all her Cayman stamps to a local friend and the rest of her stamps to a friend in Australia. When she died, I told both beneficiaries about the bequests - and neither of them wanted hers! They flat refused to accept them. So I have them, by default. My son's girlfriend is my online sales-lady and has promised to look for buyers, but stamp-collecting is not nearly as common as it once was, and I'm stuck with the damn things until she finds a buyer! They're in their albums on shelves in closets until that happens. Sigh...

morpeth

Stamps can be sold on e-bay, via auction on ebay or , or if particular value to dealers or auction houses, in USA market there uses the Scott catalogue pricing not Gibbbons. If you are in area that has stamp shows, less and less sadly, most dealers exhibing can tell you at a glance what a collection might be worth.

CAYMAN ISLANDS LOT OF 7 STAMPS G089 Free Shipping | eBay
CAYMAN ISLANDS, MINT AND SOME USED COLLECTION 1953-80 ON 18 PAGES OF LEAVES | eBay
Nice Collection Cayman Islands Stamp 8 Pages around 1978 - 1982 Used | eBay

Stamp prices generally determined by :

Age of Stamp
Quality
Used or Unused
Current Demand
Rarity

However usually for someone who is not a collector usually best best for collection is to get appraised or send to auction house and they will gibe an idea of value. Otherwise very time consuming trying to sell individual stamps.

You can look up in catalogue or even ebay USA or UK and get a rough idea. Anything before 1952 as rule of thumb will be worth more, before 1920 more but problems with fakes for more expensive stamps.

Gordon Barlow

Thank you very much for taking the trouble to send me the links and advice. I may well use them some time. Not many of the stamps are Cayman ones, by the way, although Linda was a regular buyer of First Day Covers here. She left a dozen albums, including two of mine from childhood days, plus a few thousand loose stamps behind cellophane. My daughter-in-law-to-be is good at working E-Bay, so I'll be relying on her to unload them all.

(If the wretched beneficiaries had done their duty and accepted the bequests, I wouldn't be in this predicament!)

Gordon Barlow

I did the same thing, spending a lot of time and energy digging up ancestors and (when practical) distant cousins. The computer program I used was Family Tree Maker - not very sophisticated, but good enough. Regrettably, my only child (a son) isn't even slightly interested in the subject. and nor are my brothers or my grandchildren. I am resigned to the fact that all my papers will end up in rubbish bins. Sigh...

morpeth

Looking back on the ancestry of my grand parents found I could trace ancestry directly on one to 9th century, one to 12th century, one to 17th century, the other to 19th century.My stating point was MyHeritage,com, and the less expensive Find My Past useful for Brits.I sent in the DNA kit , no big surprises, and it shows matches , usually 4th and sometimes 3rd cousins.

Gordon Barlow

That's fascinating! Your 9th-Century ancestors were nobility, presumably. Who were they and how did you track them down? I have some books on my shelves that were commissioned by a distant cousin a century or so ago that claim to trace a lineage back to a Norman ancestor who came across with William, but there are suspicious gaps, and I've kept their information in a notional "Maybe" file. He (the cousin) couldn't find evidence to satisfy the keeper of crests or whatever he's called (!) back before the mid-16th Century. Some of his cousins adopted the crest anyway!

And your man from the 12th Century - he would have been gentry, at least, I expect. How did you track him down? I found the 17th Century not all that difficult, and the 19th was easy enough with a bit of effort. I usually stopped when I got a line back to its home village. Most times it was very difficult to find the ancestral village of a town dweller. Some of my wife's people lived in London in the early 1800s, and for the life of me I couldn't track them back to where they'd come from. The name was Ladson. You'd think there would be Ladsons around and about, but none that matched! Stillard was another. Drove me crazy!

I've given it away now - too old - but I really am interested in your successful searches, and I'd be glad to hear about them..

morpeth

Try MyHeritage.com, easy to use to research and organize information.A)1 grandparent couldn’t get past first census in Scotland in 1840, but easy enough via MyHeritage.con, Findmypast. And ordering a few birth certificates. Haven’t checked Parish or Court Records, maybe someday.

B)1 grandparent same source, but found a village genealogical society as well. Had to cross check carefully as many people using Myheritage do not pay attention to detail and just take information from other family trees without out considering detail such as Dates of birth and earth as many names are repeated in families. Eventually traced back original ancestor to 12thh century, minor nobility- yet by 19th century some birth certificates showed illiteracy. Shows how family fortunes went up and down. Also for small villages the relationships- in that village found out perhaps 30% of inhabitants there today I am distantly related to- 4th5th or 6th cousins. Myheritage.com is easy to use. The DNA test helpful, as it shows degree of matches to others.

C)1 grandparent through direct ancestors 37 generations grandparents to 8th century, Charlemagne , Kings of France, King of Italy and Dukes in France and Italy. One escaped turmoil to UK in 15th century. Easy to cross check using Wikipedia/historical sources. What I haven’t checked is whether (B) and (C) related. One indirect ancestor married King Alfred.

D) 1 still researching one as due to name change, unclear whether I can track back to 16th century or 18th. Descendants of (B) and (D) can trace to Australia. America, South Africa, Rhodesia.I trace 1st,2nd and 3rd cousins in each country.(though all have let Rhodesia, and those in South Africa have or planning to)

It is interesting trying to tie in family stories to what the documents show, where accurate and where not.

Gordon Barlow

My English grandfather was a snob, who claimed descent from John of Gaunt, and flourished an impressive printed pedigree to prove it. As a professional auditor, I of course felt obliged to check the line of descent - just in case, you know. And just as well I did.

A parish register in Cheshire did indeed record the baptism of an ancestor in the 1700s. There at the bottom of the page was the name I was looking for, with her parents' names. But...! The names were in an entirely different ink and handwriting from all the nearby entries! Sigh... Fake news. So I'm not the 34rd cousin of King Charles after all. Sheesh!

morpeth

My first 'real job' was as a management trainee in Finance, and of the training was doing auditing for 6 months, good training for all my subsequent career.

Yes 'fake news' common in genealogical research- people often do not pay attention to details, or have confirmation bias trying to seek illustrious ancestors.

I had one ancestor branch who were Huguenots - story was they escaped France, went to America in 17th century, and intermarried consistently with other French Huguenots into the19th century still speaking French at home. However upon research found out the person who went to America aboard a Dutch ship settled in New Holland, and for next 200 years married those of Dutch origin, spoke dutch at home. Then I found a reference that implies the fellow may have come from England, and descended from the Norman conquerors, thus not Huguenot at all. However another branch were Huguenots and did go to South Africa, inter-married with other distant ancestors from Northumberland.(All descendants in South Africa have left or trying to, and from Rhodesia have left under difficult circumstances).

On MyHeritage.com and Ancestry, even worse there was a Count of same name who emigrated to America 150 years later died childless- but many on those sites claiming descent from him, presumable to have a 'noble' ancestor.

btar

That rings a bell. My wife is in the same position where none of our children seem to be interested. At some point, when she is older, she plans to publish her records on one of the genealogical sites. She has also turned the records into "stories" which we share with our brothers and sisters who also have children but no reaction so they can't be interested either. Yet.
I wonder what AI will make of all this?

Gordon Barlow

Good for her. If the stories are true, of course! Sometimes they're not, no matter who they originate with. A cousin of mine - an honest researcher - passed on a story that our Irish ancestor had emigrated to Australia with his family while "on the run" for killing a British policeman. I pointed out that nobody in that situation would be dumb enough to go to a convict colony swarming with British policemen and soldiers! In fact there were three John Hickeys on that boat, at least two of them convicts, and it was common enough for Irish families to tag along, with the intention of staying there. My man's family settled up in Queensland, and one of the daughters - "Eleanor" - married a free immigrant who made a small fortune as a builder in the nearby town. In 1981 I went on a pilgrimage to the village in Ireland and looked up her baptism in the parish register. I had always thought Eleanor was a pretty posh name for the daughter of an Irish dirt-farmer, and it didn't surprise me to find her as "Ellen" in the records. In Australia she became Eleanor, and was married in that name.

As for AI helping or hindering, btar, I can't really see a role for it at all. Can you? Maybe it could judge among possibilities, at a pinch.