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Family History Research - Getting Sidetracked

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  • Family History Research - Getting Sidetracked

    I have been searching the Cityark Medway parish records for my shipwright ancestors living in Chatham.


    On going through the burials at St. Mary the Virgin (Chatham)I noticed a number of soldiers deaths in the early 1760's and as my knowledge of history is not too good I went on to the BBC Timeline to find any hostilities around that date (the start of seven year war with France was in 1756) I then checked the records again and found burials for named, and mostly un-named, soldiers of the Black Musketeers, Kings Royal Musketeers, Cornish Militia, Dors. Militia (Dorsetshire?), Scotch Fusileers (as shown) to name a few.

    As I worked forward I came across another batch of soldiers' burials - this time it was the Peninsular War and among English, Scottish, Irish casualties there were also Hanovarian soldiers, Russian Soldiers etc.

    I later noticed that a Mr. and Mrs. Salisbury buried four of their children - the first child was buried on the 20th of the month and child No.4 was buried on the 28th of the month. To bury four of your children in just over a week seems unbearable. Although I searched I was unable to find any outbreaks of cholera, smallpox etc. around the dates of the burials.

    I only started my family tree three years ago and I have researched back from both my parents to the 17th Century collecting certificates and copies of parish records along the way (not all records, I must admit, as funds are limited), but I have also learned about ag. labourers, shipwrights, farmers, countrydwellers moving to London for work, others emigrating to Canada, the U.S.A. and Australia.

    To be honest I have learned more by doing family history than I ever learned at school, both from my own research and the help given on this, and other, sites. I don't think I will ever be as knowledgeable as some of the members here, but I am getting better!

    Jean

  • #2
    Jean

    I get sidetracked all the time from First and Second W War/Boer War/Crimea/English Civil War/village history as my ancestors were around small villages in Northants and then start to wonder which side they were on in the Civil War and what were the other villagers doing while the battle of Naseby was being fought? Were my Ag labs part of the Swing Rioters, I know one was transported for poaching in the 1820's, was he a Swing Rioter? What made one of them leave the reasonable security of his Northants hamlet to die a pauper's death in the middle of London? I have many shoemakers most died young. My Irish side has many rebels so I am now caught up with Irish history and my Scottish side has a few interesting and famous characters so I am now into Russian history as well as finding out that one of them was shipwrecked and lost his life off the Australian coast. I could go on but the wealth of history at each of our fingertips can be overwhelming when we really start to delve beneath the tree. As you so rightly say we learn so much about history as we enjoy our favourite hobby. I was interested in History at school but since doing Family History I have been able to personalise practically every era. though have not yet been able to personalise back to Elizabethan times but since I have just taken one side back to mid 1500's that may be about to change, more learning and so little time left to do it all!!

    Janet

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    • #3
      Certainly I have found all sorts of interesting day-to-day insights during the course of my research. It all brings the topic alive, I feel...
      Attestation documents - and the dreadful telegram
      Diary entries about travel times, church service variations, children being vaccinated...
      A newspaper web page describing Detroit in the times my Errant Grandfather was there.

      Christine
      Researching: BENNETT (Leics/Birmingham-ish) - incl. Leonard BENNETT in Detroit & Florida ; WARR/WOR, STRATFORD & GARDNER/GARNAR (Oxon); CHRISTMAS, RUSSELL, PAFOOT/PAFFORD (Hants); BIGWOOD, HAYLER/HAILOR (Sussex); LANCASTER (Beds, Berks, Wilts) - plus - COCKS (Spitalfields, Liverpool, Plymouth); RUSE/ROWSE, TREMEER, WADLIN(G)/WADLETON (Devonport, E Cornwall); GOULD (S Devon); CHAPMAN, HALL/HOLE, HORN (N Devon); BARRON, SCANTLEBURY (Mevagissey)...

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      • #4
        Janet's comment about "so little time to do it" rang a bell. My cousin - another intrepid researcher - prays that she will last long enough to have a good look at the 1911 Census!

        Jean

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        • #5
          I've even done a family tree for a family that have no blood connection to me at all, its just that various members of it have married various non-direct line relatives in my tree. I feel just as sad when I discover baby deaths with them as I do with my own lot.

          Recently going through baptisms at the LMA, I found two girls who had been abandoned, one in a lodging house in Milton Street, so she was named Rose Milton. The other unfortunate was called Mary Roads because she was found in the City Road - approximate age 3 weeks.
          ~ with love from Little Nell~
          Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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