Following up distant rellies can be very useful!

[Kate P]

Just a little post really. Was trying to follow through all the main descendants of the first noted individuals of various names in my tree, so chasing up the children and grandchildren of the brothers and sisters of my direct ancestors etc. I found one unmarried female child of a first noted direct pair (does that make sense?) living with an aunt. Now up until this point I hadn't been able to get to the parents of said first pair, and so having another potential sibling name to follow was a boon. I did eventually manage put all the bits together and was able to find the parents of the female of the pair, and so extend my tree by another generation. It also provided some corroborating evidence for what had until then seemed like a very odd geographical leap.

So tedious it may be, 'name collecting' it might be, but useful? Oh yes! Any other similar tales or breakthroughs out there?

Kate x

[Sherbertrose]

I Have George Burton born 1786 Tickhill Doncaster. He married twice. Firstly to Hannah Wilson 26 Nov 1812. Secondly, to Mary Ann Jackson c1824. - I have never found the marriage but I know she was the mother of his children as I have the birth certificate of their youngest daughter. I have tried to find both a marriage for Mary Ann and a possible baptism and despite trying numerous ways have never been successful. The fact that Mary gave her place of birth as Doncaster was of little use. I had never bothered to investigate Hannah Wilson as she was not a direct ancestor but as I had nothing much to do on one particular afternoon curiosity go the better of me. Mary's parents were Benjamin Wilson and Ann Boulton. They had 6 Children. Mary's sister Hannah married John Jackson and they had a daughter Mary Ann Jackson. So I think that George's second wife was the niece of his first Wife!! They were not blood relatives so could marry ( or maybe that's why they didn't). However, in researching Hannah Wilson I was able to go back a couple of generations on Mary's Jackson's line.

Sandra

[Christine in Herts]

I can't find which it was now, but I know that I was playing in one of the earlyish censuses, and looked for siblings of OH's direct line. On census night, they were staying with Grandma, whose name I hadn't had until then!

Certainly it was a sibling's middle name that helped me set up a theory about my own ancestry. Following up on the hypothesis, I ended up finding some family Wills online, and they absolutely vindicated my idea, allowing me at least two generations further back. The Wills named names and specified relationships, so I could be certain beyond all reasonable doubt.

It's useful to know who the siblings etc are, even if you don't shell out on certificates. They can help choose between two similar records.

I wouldn't necessarily publish all the sidelines, though. Having said that, if I were to do so, it might pick up on a link with someone who has info which I have not yet found.

Christine

[Kate P]

Many an odd-at-first-sight middle name had helped me find a grandparent or a maiden name too. And I second the suggestion about looking at wills and probate. You may remember my recent post about getting a will from Lichfield Records Office? Well it's arrived and I'm slowly (oh so slowly!) transcribing the early 1800's writing, and my what a little goldmine!

[Jill on the A272]

If I had ignored my 3x great grandfather's siblings I wouldn't have been able to take my research further back. His sister was visiting an unmarried aunt in 1851 which was the breakthrough I needed to find their mother's maiden name and the parish she came from, and then I was able to find some will for the generations before.

I've also found two families who knew each other over 3 generations, they keep popping up in each others homes on census night and often had their babies christened together.

[Lincslass]

I looked at the naturalisation papers for Ggrandfather's brother and it gave me details of where they came from and who their parents were. I'm now looking for any living descendants of him. At the WDYTYA show last weekend 2 different experts told me to look laterally in the tree.

[Olde Crone Holden]

By following my 2 x GGM's sister, I found that one of her sons had married late in life to a lady born in the USA.

I was surprised and pleased to discover she was his first cousin, which then led me backwards to my 2 x GGM's brothers and enabled me to pin down their parents and that took me back three more generations and explained where everyone had disappeared to!

OC

[kylejustin]

hmm, i traced the siblings of my direct line and found they had 'grandad' with them on the census, b.1760 on 1851. ive also traced the direct line and foiund widowed ancestors boarding or visiting their parents and children on census night. it works branching out, sometimes the only way to go backwards is using siblings.

[Uncle John]

I've also found teenage neices down as "servants" in uncles' households. It all helps to confirm you are on to the correct family, especially where a father has died and the mother has remarried.