My research parameters

Family trees can get out of control! If you follow every branch and twig it is an endless quest. Each person has potentially 67,108,862* parents/grandparents/etc for just 25 generations (about 625 years) and that is before you start adding aunts, uncles, cousins, additional spouses, etc. [Fortunately, many people have married their cousin however distant and that reduces this number considerably!]

I follow these basic parameters in my research:

• The starting point is my mother and father. The first goal is to establish their pedigrees (their ancestors) and their descendants.
• I am then interested in the siblings (aunts and uncles of varying degrees) at each generational level.
• This flows through to the siblings' descendants if they are part of the main pedigree. I am primarily interested in any descendants of John Royes (c1745-c1780?) and James Roy (bef 1830-?).
• Where information is available on the web I prefer to provide links to those web sites rather than replicate the information on my own.
• I follow the pedigrees/ancestors of my children's and my own spouses.
• I follow certain historical links - eg, early Hougham researcher Marion Hurley Pratt, the relationships between the Dukes of Normandy and English royalty, family migrations to Australia and New Zealand...
• I include our connection to Hougham researcher (and my 13th cousin!) Robin Young, since we owe much of the Royes-Hougham pedigree to his work and it is helpful to see where he fits in.
• I am happy to put information on line for branches I am not directly interested in but where a relative is prepared to maintain the data and keep me informed. Eg, Weatherburns, Crossleys, Hogans.
• I am interested in, but do not actively pursue, the presence of the Royes and Roy names in Australia.