Meet our Members: Day Garwood

Question

Hi everyone!

It's time to get to know another one of our wonderful WikiTreers. This week's member is Day Garwood. 

Day became a Wiki Genealogist in March 2021. He is active in many of our projects but currently focuses much of his time as a Voyage Guide for our Profile Improvement Project.

When and how did you get interested in genealogy?

My family is big and somewhat disparate. Trying to work out who was who is like trying to build a jigsaw puzzle. In 2001 that process began and turned into my earliest "family database" - a disorganised mishmash of notes in a document that would grow for another 20 years.

Later on, possibly about 2003, it sank in that my parents had parents. In that case they had parents too, and that got me interested in the historical aspect. Just how far could I trace my family back?

But the real work began in 2008 when I left college and asked my grandma what she knew of her family. Turns out one of her brothers had gone quite far back, so I hired professionals to separate the fact from the myth (turns out the fact was much more bizarre). The more I learned, the more interested I became, until I learned how to do it myself, and I've been doing it ever since.

What are some of your interests outside of genealogy?

I produce my own albums, present a radio show, and am also interested in change ringing and software design and development.

What is your genealogical research focus?

Since I believe I've got as far back as I can on most of my ancestors for the time being, I just go where the mood takes me. A certain surname or even my one name studies. Recently I have started working on people involved with my secondary school (both staff and students) from its founding in 1866 up to now. I also did some genealogy for friends and others. Sometimes a name will pop into my head and I will start doing their family tree.

Are you interested in certain surnames or locations?

Top five surnames: Garwood, Disney, Blunderfield, Hellyer, Pendleton.

Places: New College Worcester (school).

Do you have a favorite ancestor?

Robert Garwood,1890-1949. My Great-Great-Grandfather was born in a very unfortunate situation, his father abandoned the family, mother ended up in an asylum. Her children got scattered. Robert was adopted by distant cousins on his mother's side and was moved to hull before the age of 11. Despite this he did relatively well for himself and his wife and children.

Do you have a favorite genealogical discovery?

Finding out what became of Edward Garwood (1860-1943), Robert's father, who on the surface seemed to have disappeared. When his son Robert married in 1915 he said his father was deceased. He certainly disappears from the records for 21 years between 1890 and 1911. Then he appears but with certain details changed. Because of the 1915 lead I discounted a 1943 death for years, but I finally got the certificate which convinced me that it was my ancestor.

Do you have a brick wall breakthrough story?

Thanks to a couple of other WikiTree members I got hold of a will for John Garwood (1700-1742) naming his mother and brother. Hopefully from that I can get a possible baptism at some point.

(interview continues in comments)

Comments

What is your toughest brick wall currently?

The toughest at the moment are:

A. Those without fathers. I'd love to know how, if at all possible, to track the father of an out-of-wedlock birth. There seems to be a lot of those in my family.

B. Those ones not covered by England and Wales civil registration. I have two in Ireland (Archibald Black, c.1818-1875, and George Warren, 1822-1873), and a Scottish family, the Honmans, linked with the Vairys on my dad's side.

How long have you been on WikiTree?

I joined WikiTree in 2021. I believe I was extending my messy notes with another branch I found with a very unusual surname: Money. I found a large Money family on WikiTree. I love genealogy and I love helping others with their genealogy and so I signed up. Ever since, I have seen WikiTree as my genealogical home.

What do you spend the most time doing on WikiTree?

Again, I just do whatever takes my fancy. One day I might be adding profiles, another I'm improving existing profiles in my watchlist, the next I might be on G2G. And of course I'm involved in projects as well.

Which projects are you most involved in?

I am involved in several projects, but my main focus at the moment is as a voyage guide on the Profile Improvement Project.

How can others help the Profile Improvement Project?

We should all be striving for great profiles, but being a PIP member shows commitment to that goal as we guide you through the process. Profile improvement can be anything, from building a biography from scratch, possibly researching missing family links and so on, to simply fixing formatting errors or typos, to cleaning up merges or gedcom imports.

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?

I love genealogy, and I love helping people. I consider myself part of a community. We all have a common passion, we're all at different experience levels, if mistakes are found we can collaborate to fix them. Being blind means I rely on transcriptions, that has inevitably led to quite a few mistakes, some of which have either been fixed or pointed out to me. I never really considered it as a legacy before. If it does become a legacy, it will be everyone's.

What is your favorite feature or function on WikiTree?

The CC7 system. That's one thing I've been working on a lot recently is increasing my CC7. Not only is it fun, but it allows me to easily work out how I'm connected to different people.

What feature or function would you most like to see added or improved?

There are certain accessibility improvements I would like to see. Some of the main problems so far are:

A. Certain texts not showing up as links (for instance the new "problems and questions" area), but that can otherwise be interacted with.

B. Popup windows give no accessibility feedback to screen readers - for instance, clicking the "send private message" link opens a form on the same page, but the fact that there is an overlay isn't sent to screen readers to be announced.

C. The pull down menus aren't accessible. While it's true that there are projects and freespace pages to help with this, this could put off new VI users as they wouldn't be aware of those projects on just skimming through the main pages.

The one addition I would like is to have audio clips as well as photos. Again, this allows inclusion for everybody, as those with sight can look at a photo, while those without could potentially listen to an audio clip. It also allows us to use other media as sources (for instance, some stories I was told come from recorded telephone conversations).

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Do you have a story about how someone was helped through your participation on WikiTree?

A member thought we may have been cousins due to my work on the Simpsons. We both had two people with the same name, born at about the same time, with the two fathers having the same name and born about the same time. Naturally a merge was put forward and the conversations started there. I managed to find and confirm that our families were different and ordered her some documentation to prove it. Seems it was a mystery she had been trying to solve for years.

Do you have a story about how you were helped through the work of others on WikiTree?

As mentioned above, while working through the Orphan Trail on the England project, my guide spoke to another project member who was able to get me a will I'd been after for ages.

Do you have any tips for someone who wants to get more involved in our community?

Don't be shy. Join as many projects as you feel able to. Take part in the challenges. Have a chat on G2G. It is the most homely community I have seen on the net to date.

Answer 1

Hello Day,

Thank you for a great interview and for sharing more about yourself.  Your genealogy and WikiTree story is very interesting.  And though I already know you a bit, it's very nice to learn more about you.

Answer 2

Day,

I've looked at your profile and it is very remarkable. I'm working on finding brick walls myself (fathers, for example) which is a challenge.

My vision has improved with progressive lenses/eye training but I struggle a tad due to a visual processing disorder. I would love audio clips as well! You gave great suggestions on how to make WikiTree accessible to all.

Thanks to Eowyn for this amazing interview!

Answer 3

I am so glad I got to "meet" Day! I love your committment to the Profile Improvement Project 

Answer 4

Hi Day,

That's two things we have in common. Congrats on making wikitreer of the week.

Answer 5

Hats off to you my friend. Your effort and insight, and your ability to adapt and overcome, should be an inspiration for us all. Your comment on (in) experience and (in) ability, leading to "fixable mistakes", should be highlighted somewhere in the Intro to Wiki Tree.  Your approach to the Big Picture is what community is all about.