Is there an easier way???

[Kathlyn Maudesley]

I am sure many of you have had similar problems with researching a "common" name, but when you come across as many as 1,200 in the right place at the right time, it`s headache time.

I have over the time I have been researching, bought some 15 certs that turned out to not be mine...painful to the pocket and very frustrating. When you are researching so very far from your ancestors birth/living place, a trip to the RO is out of the question.

Are there any tips/suggestions of how to swim in this sea of treacle????

Kathlyn

[kylejustin]

i try finding absolutley everything i know about a person before i order certs. it helps with getting the 'right' one.

i have a william smith im trying to find. but i cant find a marriage, so there are 12 possible births just for preston alone.

[Uncle John]

Sometimes you get lucky with censuses. I have had one or two where a grandchild or cousin, or brother-in-law or widowed mother-in-law is with a family. And sometimes a chunk of the family is living next door.

[Kathlyn Maudesley]

The problem is.......right place, right age.....wrong cert.

With my paternal line, granddad was very economical with the truth.....It was not until I started researching that I discovered, after 2 years of fruitless searching, that we should not be Maudesley`s but Roberts. So you can see I was going down a totally blind alley.

Granddad ran away from home about 1889 because he did not get on with his stepfather. He walked from Liverpool to Glasgow and joined the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. His step father discovered where he was and had him released from the regiment as he was underage. Granddad was hauled home.

On his second attempt at running away, he joined a boat in the Liverpool docks heading for a two year trip to Australia.....he had his head screwed on this time as he signed on using his mothers maiden name, Maudesley.

I can just see the old so and so sitting on a cloud, black leading brush in one hand, his block of baccy and penknife in the other, laughing his head off at all my frustration.

Finding him and his change of name has only made my journey harder....Roberts, there are 1,000s of them.


Kathlyn

[Kathlyn Maudesley]

Uncle John,

What has not helped my quest is.....I have been unable to find any census info prior to 1881 for the Roberts family.....The Maudesley`s...no problem, although it was spelt Mawdsley then.

Kathlyn

[Little Nell]

I can only sympathise. I've gone down a few blind alleys with my Gray family and there are some things I don't think I will ever find out.

Husband's gt gt grandfather appears from nowhere in 1848 to marry as Dennis McCarthy. By 1871 he is James Carter. I cannot find that he was born anywhere and his father being Callaghan McCarthy on the marriage cert makes me think he came from somewhere in Ireland, tho James/Dennis says on every census born Holborn.

[kylejustin]

do you have the real family name? do you have the great grandparents marriage? do you have names to post? maybe we can help?

[Kathlyn Maudesley]

Hello Kyle,

The "real" family name is Roberts and the only evidence I have is the marriage cert of John Roberts and Mary Mawdsley in 1868 in Liverpool. He was of "full age" and Mary was a "minor" On this document John`s occupation is "carter", and his father is a Robert Roberts, "mariner".

I have not been able to find the family on the 1871 census when they would have had one child, a daughter, Mary Ellen born about 1869.

John Roberts is not with the family in the 1881 census and Mary is recorded as "Labourers wife", so I am assuming John is away working!!!

I know nothing of John. On the marriage cert of his daughter Mary Ellen, who married in 1892, she gives her fathers occupation as "joiner"

From this point, ie. 1881 census, I have had no problem. John died in 1884, and I "think" I have this cert. but as he was killed at work the cert was issued by the coroner and there is no family/address info.

I am unable to get any further back.

I have a lot of info/certs for the Mary Mawdsley side of the family.

Any pointers as to where to go would be very much appreciated.

kathlyn

[Vicky the Viking]

John died in 1884, and I "think" I have this cert. but as he was killed at work the cert was issued by the coroner and there is no family/address info.

does the death cert say there was an inquest (i would have thought so, being an "industrial accident"

I would think there should be a newspaper report of it. (If this is Liverpool) I'd email the library there & ask what they would charge to look up the local papers within a week or two of the date on the death cert.

There is a web site somewhere that has digitised some 19th century newspapers - though off the top of my head I can't remember whether Liverpool was covered. Can SKS on here remember the web addy for it? I've got so many bookmarked I'm having trouble finding it :o

[Kathlyn Maudesley]

Hello Vicky,

Yes there was an inquest and the death cert says....

Concusion of brain from accidental fall from roof . Died same day in the Liverpool Royal Infermary. Certificate received from Clarke Aspinall, Coroner for Liverpool, Inquest held 12th February 1884.

I did contact the Liverpool Library and they found the report in 3 newspapers. Unfortunately, they only reported what the death cert said, there was no home address/wife named.

Kathlyn

[Lovettpod]

http://www.old-liverpool.co.uk/links.html

this link should send you to the site I think Vicky is on about - also a few other Liverpool sites.

[Vicky the Viking]

http://www.old-liverpool.co.uk/links.html

this link should send you to the site I think Vicky is on about - also a few other Liverpool sites.

no, thats not the one I was thinking of, I think it was the Gale free trial thingy that has now expired.

There may be something of use in that liverpool site, though its very patchy & I've not found anything for my family (who were Irish Catholics, but that's another story)

[Lovettpod]

Oh yes of course you are right Vicky :o - the Liverpool Journal / Mercury was on the Gale site. Mine are Irish Catholics via Liverpool too - needles in haystacks :(:D