Hi everyone!
It's time to get to know one of our wonderful WikiTreers. This week's member is Christine Frost.
Christine became a Wiki Genealogist over 10 years ago, in August 2014. She currently volunteers in the Auschwitz 2025 Project.
When did you get interested in family history?
I became interested in family stories when I was a child, listening to my own extended family; especially my Dad’s sisters, sharing their childhood memories from the first two decades of the 20th century. Stories of my Gt. Grandma especially intrigued me. She died of TB having given birth to 7 children of whom my Grandma was the eldest. Her husband married again and had 7 more children; then he emigrated to Australia with his second wife and some of the children from both families. I wanted to know all their names but the aunts who had kept in touch in the early years couldn’t be sure. I was 13 when I started to draw out my first tree of these families on the back of a photograph packet, there were many gaps, but it set me going.
My maternal Grandma lived with us for the last 5 years of her life and shared stories of her mother’s family in Devon and annual trips to visit them from Hereford and later from Norfolk.
I started researching seriously in 1969 when I was 19 and living in London near Somerset House.
What are some of your interests outside of genealogy?
I am interested in research and history in general and follow the National Archives Website at Kew, London, also the amazing virtual reconstruction of the public Record Office of Ireland at the Four Courts in Dublin, which was destroyed in 1922.
I used to sing a lot in choirs and I enjoy listening to music, especially Mozart and the Baroque composers.
I also read a lot and do biographical research on the lives of the Carmelite Saints to write courses and articles. Some of them end up on WikiTree too.
What is your genealogical research focus?
I started off with my own family. Most of my family are English or with English roots, so the English Project was where I started. Going back some were French Huguenots who fled the persecutions, setting up as weavers in the east end of London; some of that line stayed in the same area for generations, I lived there myself in the 1970s. Several of them are part of the Huguenot Project.
Are you interested in certain surnames or locations?
I am interested in the Stepney area of London, especially the Hall family. This family often used family names as second given names and some of these had been passed down for several generations. I was interested to discover the ancestors who originally had these names, I found Rickards and Church but I am still looking for Clinton.
The Hills family ended up in London and Essex, but earlier records show them on the Norfolk Cambridgeshire border, and in Mildenhall, Suffolk.
I am also interested in the Cockram and Catford families of Devon bordering Somerset as these are the earliest records I have been able to trace with certainty. I have traced my direct line of Catfords back to 1593 and Cockrams back to 1582, this was not too difficult because most of them were farmers who moved very little and the parish records are generally well kept in that area.
Do you have a favourite ancestor?
I share a birthday with my Gt. Grandma Eliza Hall. I found her BMD records in the 1970s, so when two of her Australian granddaughters contacted me I was able to give them a lot of info about her. They in turn helped me to complete the branch of the family that set me going on family research nearly 30 years previously.
How long have you been on WikiTree?
I joined WikiTree in 2014. I came across it by chance when I was looking at various family tree sites on the internet. I was searching for a free site which did not limit the number of profiles I could add, and where my work would be accessible to others. I liked the idea of a collaborative tree, which was new to me then.
What do you spend the most time doing on WikiTree?
That has changed over the years; to begin with it was all my own family and ancestors. When I had found those I was particularly interested in I started doing the Bio Builders challenge to give me a focus on which profiles to work on.
I did some work on the profiles of sisters buried in the two small cemeteries in the Carmelite monasteries where I lived most recently and that brought me into Irish research. This is ongoing.
Which projects are you most involved in?
At present I am most involved in the Auschwitz 2025 Project. I originally joined the Holocaust Project because of my interest in Edith Stein and her family and also because going further back I have a Jewish ancestral line, recorded at the Bevis Marks Synagogue in London. At present I am working through the book ‘Edith Stein and her companions on the Way to Auschwitz’ and adding profiles for them all. They are all Catholic Jews who were arrested in the Netherlands and killed in retaliation, following a Pastoral letter of the Catholic Bishops’ objecting to the Nazi’s treatment of the Jews. There are 83 of them in the book, though some profiles are very sparse due to little information, others are detailed with photos of the people. I still have about ten to add from the book, but there are about 30 more not listed.
How can others help that project?
It is just a case of adding everyone who was sent to Auschwitz, whether they died there or were sent on to other camps. There are a number of sites that give the names and details. The project page gives good guidance on these. There are even well known people out there who have not been added. I added Esther (Etty) Hillesum and her family and Edith Eger and her family, both have written well known books, so I was surprised they were not already there.
What inspires you to contribute so much of yourself to WikiTree's mission? Do you consider your work here to be part of your legacy?
Yes, very much so, one of the reasons I joined WikiTree was so that my research would be there for future generations. Before the internet I spent hours going through the large tomes at various record offices. I did not want all those hours of work to be lost. I also want to help preserve the records of the lives of both famous and unknown people.
What is your favorite feature or function on WikiTree?
I find the RootsSearch very helpful. When I have exhausted all the usual places I search it gives me new ideas, but I have to admit I don’t explore the features much, I mostly concentrate on getting my findings up on the tree.
Do you have a story about how you were helped through the work of others on WikiTree?
Pawel in Poland found my research on the Stein family and was able to use some of it as he was researching the Jewish community in Wielowieś for an article he was writing about the Jews who were born there, he in turn helped me in my search to find the three wives and 23 children of Edith Stein’s paternal Grandfather. I had found some records but can’t read Polish and he kindly translated them for me, and sent me many others.
As I mentioned, I have done studies on several of the Carmelite Saints and I put up some of their profiles. I have not as yet added profiles for the Compiegne Martyrs but hope to add them soon. However, I created a profile for a sister in their community who was not martyred but she became their historian. She was also the illegitimate daughter of Louis Francis Bourbon, Prince of Conti so I was able to connect her to his profile. Every book and article about her both in French and English said that her mother hastily married Pierre Martin Philippe.
Thanks to a descendent of her uncle who found her profile I was able to correct this information. He told me that she married Pierre Martin Philippe at Notre Dame de Pontoise in 1756. When she was 17 and Pierre was 24 and I was able to verify this from the French Municipal Archives. I find it very rewarding to be able to present newly discovered original records.
Do you have any tips for someone who wants to get more involved in our community?
Look at the list of projects or at ‘What’s happening around WikiTree’ on G2G and see what attracts you, give it a try even if you are not sure; you are not committed to it and can pull out if it isn’t what you expected. I once joined the Canada Project briefly because I had two half Grand uncles who were home children sent to Canada and I wanted to research them. I found the experience helpful, but I did not stay in the project because I knew it was unlikely that I would be working on it again.
What could we do to inspire more people to participate in our mission?
Genealogy conferences like RootsTech are good places to reach people. We could also send speakers to family history society meetings. They are often looking for speakers, but I think personal introductions are probably more effective than anything.
