Digging up the dead & annoying the living

"You must spend a lot of your time walking around old graveyards..."

..asked a slightly bemused relative. "Not as much as I would like to..." I replied, confirming for once and for all to everyone assembled that I had finally gone off my head. I had caught the normally fatal bug of 'Doing the family tree'.
Actually nowadays I am more likely to be in front of a computer screen somewhere. Indeed there have been so many changes over the last thirty years since I first started, that it is difficult to remember what it was actually like in those pre-computer days; when censuses were microfilms without an index, record offices were crusty dingy places staffed by crusty dingy archivists (sorry that is a bit unfair, they were - and still mostly are - some of the most helpful people on the good Earth), and one developed strong arm muscles through the continual heaving of the metal-clad BMD indexes around at St. Catherine's House in The Strand. Although strangely I still prefer the atmosphere of a good archive and the feel of old paper that our ancestors once wrote on centuries ago, the arrival of the Internet has made life so much more convenient for genealogists. This has made the interest in everyone's ancestors much more accessible and thus more popular, which is a good thing for all of us. Thank heavens for technology I say, you won't find me pining much for the good old days.
So what started you off into this fascinating little hobby? With myself it was part of a family tree scribbled out on a piece of paper that was alleged to be my branch of the family (it wasn't of course, but you had already guessed that). One thing led to another and nearly 30 years later I am eternally grateful to the cousin who first gave me that scrap of paper.
I am also thankful of the enduring friendships that I have made through this crazy game, and am still astounded at the help freely given by strangers at their own cost, who often have little direct interest in the subject being researched themselves. A few years ago I began to wonder what to do with the results of all my efforts. At that time the most that could be done was to privately publish a book. Apart from the expense, my feelings at the time were that in all probability it never get read by anybody who would actually benefit by it. Then through the good offices of distant cousin Bernie, we put a lot of information on the Internet using the address www.reffell.info and a new era was opened up. What you are now looking at is the second version of the Reffell Family History website, which launched onto the Internet on 28 May 2006. There is more information about this site on the website history page. The response to the website has exceeded my wildest expectations - thank you all very much. If the web server statistics are to be believed, it means that more people access the website in a week than would probably look at any published book in its entire lifetime. It was also very pleasing to have the website independently recognised by the award from the Heritage Awards for Genealogical Websites.
The other great advantage of being on the Internet is that any new fact, photograph or other amendment can be made literally within seconds. However, I do strongly advise everyone to be skeptical about what you see on any Internet site (including this one) as it is so easy to see the same myths and errors being proliferated again and again. The information on this website conforms to a sensible set of policies which includes not listing the details of any living person without their express consent. I personally vouch for any information on this website to be as accurate as possible (except where stated otherwise), but hey, we are all human.
I have often been asked why I don't start a 'One Name Study' (ONS) for the Reffell surname. Although in effect I do carry out many of the tasks that are required for a ONS, such as collecting all instances of the name found, the simple answer is that I would find it too limiting and restrictive. My interest is in the complete extended family, regardless of which actual surname is involved. This is why I have called this little website 'The Reffell Family History'. All relations and friends are welcome here!
Finally, this is a message to the sad few who think it is fun to send ridiculous 'spam' emails to the website. To those I say: please look around the website carefully and you will find that it is a genealogical website; hello, it traces family trees. I think that I would have found out by now if a relative has recently died and left me $30m in an Ivory Coast bank account that only I can claim, simply by sending my bank details to someone that I have never heard of, who is using an anonymous Hotmail account. Yeah, right.
Well that it is it for now, I hope you enjoy looking around the Reffell Family History website, but you must excuse me now for I feel the need to go and have a walk around an old graveyard...

Good researching - John