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  • What next?

    I am really enjoying doing this family history research, but is it possible to find out more?

    Where would you start to actually turn this list of names and dates into 'real' people?

    Is it possible, or do you have to 'create' a person from knowledge of the time, location information, occupation details etc and just build a character from that?

    I have so many questions about them that I doubt will ever be answered, do others share the same frustrations?

    Many thanks

    Debs

  • #2
    Is it possible, or do you have to 'create' a person from knowledge of the time, location information, occupation details etc and just build a character from that?
    Many of us like to add 'Flesh to the bones' so to speak, there are numerous ways to do this, look at what jobs they did, look at where they lived, where they were Baptised/Married/Buried, we have our very own
    Places of Worship database, where members go and take photographs in their local area, we then place them in our database and members can copy the pictures for their own research..
    Last edited by Darksecretz; 10-03-12, 12:23.
    Julie
    They're coming to take me away haha hee hee..........

    .......I find dead people

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    • #3
      Google is your best friend!

      Google their names, their addresses, anything which may pull up some scap about them. Google books.

      Try the county records offices where they lived. look at newspapers, often the more local the better. look at town and village archives, local history centres and societies.

      OC

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      • #4
        The tree is the boring bit in any Family History. Bringing the characters to life is partly down to your own research and part luck.

        My own research on my Great Grandfather uncovered a story of an ag lab from a family of 10 from a small hamlet in Northants, working for the local landowner who joined the army in 1854 in time for the Crimea War and Indian Mutiny. He went to Ireland, married an Irish girl and eventually setttled down in London. He was down as a carpenter by trade as was his father before him, but all census have him in occupations from Ag Lab/Carpenter to Soldier/Night Watchman/Army Pensioner and Assistant Prison Warder at a prison in London. He had one brother who worked for the gentry nearby, already in the army, who was at the Battle of Inkerman and lost a leg, moved back to the village and had his family whilst my Great G father moved to City life.

        You can see that I already have a story to tell by including his village life as an ag lab, contrasting his later life with his brother's continuing village life, his army career and his marriage to an Irish girl which produced 10 children, most of whom led colourful lives. On the way you find photos, gravestones, Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates and visiting the place where he lived I have uncovered other facts about him. I also visited the Northants County Record Office to take the family further back in time by obtaining wills and other documents. I have enough information to write a 40 page project on this one person which I am now doing.

        Luck may also play a part when you find people which you are not sure about but may be confirmed by finding others researching the same family and that has happened to me as well. You have to do the boring bit first to uncover the characters and then the rest will just come, so good luck.

        Janet
        Last edited by Janet; 10-03-12, 12:36.

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        • #5
          Oh blimey!!
          Thats amazing.....I really am just at the very start of my journey aren't I? Lol!

          Thats pleased me

          Thank you

          Debs

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          • #6
            I would add school log books to the list. That's where I discovered gt-gt grandma Finch went to the headmaster to complain about the monitor frightening her children. The headmaster also recorded the dates when the eldest Finch boy (my gt-gdfather) left school and the precise date when his youngest brother was admitted at the age of five. There are various references to the boys being absent from school, to do casual field work for farmers, and also to help the family "to flit." There is also mention of an improvement in the reading ability of the former class dollard, with the consequence that "William Finch is now the most monotomous reader in the class."

            Another gold nugget was a visit to the local history room of a town library. There were some bound copies of old parish magazines. From these I discovered when some of my Claxton family had been confirmed, joined the Temperence League, and how much they had contributed to public subscriptions.
            There was a funeral report for one matriarch, which told that she had been the church cleaner for 30 years.

            Jay
            Janet in Yorkshire



            Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

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            • #7
              I too found old parish mags (in the local archives, I literally tripped over the box) which not only included baptisms, marriages and deaths, it also reported who won the gardening competitions etc - and a real gem which was several letters written in the 1850s by former members of the congregation who had gone to America, courtesy of the church, who had had a whip round to send 40 people to the USA.

              Boring old ag labs.......one of mine never died apparently and I idly googled his name, to discover he had been left a vast plantation in the Turks and Caicos Islands by the uncle he was named after. He went out there and had a whole new family to add to the one he left behind.

              There's all sorts out there just waiting to be found. The trick is finding it. An old chap in the Records Office said to me many years ago

              "Research is 10% luck and 90% look" and he was right.

              OC

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              • #8
                Wills, newspaper bits, guild records, school records - the problem is finding them all! Unfortunately, they don't reach out to you.

                I've connected with several cousins who have provided photos & details, too. Family Bible pages! I didn't have any, but I've now received copies or transcriptions from three different bibles. Fantastic

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                • #9
                  Debbs.....have you got a library card ? Get in touch with your local library & see if you can use your membership number to access nineteenth century newspapers online (you can also go into the library itself, of course). You can then search for your ancestors' names. I discovered that my ggg grandfather & his brother had robbed a man & left him for dead & the details of the trial, plus another article quoting his father as the owner of a house near a new building project, showed that my gggg grandfather must have accumulated a reasonable sum of money for an immigrant hawker. I've also managed to contact a descendant of the victim, who knew nothing about the incident, but is also researching her family history & so was equally fascinated.

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                  • #10
                    One of the Northamptonshire local newspapers is now online and when I idly went into the free part and keyed in names of both people and places of interest there was a massive amount of information just waiting for me to find time to get at it!! There is so much information out there.

                    The luck part for me came with ny Irish side. I had done a lot of suppositional work but could not prove it, being Ireland until an American family found my information on Rootsweb and on contacting me I found they had all the information to prove all my suppositional work! They had all the American side and I had all the Irish side and when put together it all made sense, the perfect jigsaw puzzle.

                    Marriage Licences, Gamekeepers and Bailiffs Documents, Bastardy Bonds back to 1600/1700's are certainly keeping me busy and Trade Directories have been a tremendous help in plotting those with trades.

                    Some records exist for some and some sadly have been destroyed but until you look you will never know. I have not yet found ordinary school records but found some records for one who went to an army school and that was an eye opener to see how many lashes he got for taking some jam tarts, fighting in the bedroom and "making water in the yard!"

                    Janet

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                    • #11
                      I agree about the newspapers. Some of the most interesting stuff is in them. And don't stop searching after the date of death.

                      My 3x gt grandparents died within a day of each other aged 92 and 87 in 1874. He left a will which gave me some more names and a general picture of their life. However a couple of months after their deaths there was a newspaper advert about an auction of their household effects. It listed what was being auctioned and again gave me a better idea of what their home was like. Since then I've visited the town where they lived to find the house.

                      The other thing is that more and more stuff is coming online all the time so every so often I do another search to see if anything new is out there
                      Jackie

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                      • #12
                        I agree you need to search everywhere you can, think laterally and ask as many questions as you can as you go along.

                        My best find so far is a letter written in 1727 by my 7 x great grandfather to the King from Newgate Prison complaining about conditions and asking for help to be released - all handwritten and in ancient French - many hours of transcribing and translating ahead!!

                        Wills are good too in setting the scene both for the sort of lives people lived judged by their possessions and what was considered valuable to bequeath to certain family members and of course who and what was left out!!

                        This hobby is a life's work LOL :D

                        Margaret

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                        • #13
                          You might like to have a look at the FTF magazine (link at the top right of the page), which contains articles by people from this site about their ancestors, and where they found the information.

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                          • #14
                            Oh yes, Wills are marvellous too. I paid £3.50 for one Will which named 35 relatives and their relationship to the deceased. As it was a very common surname I couldn't have found this information any other way.

                            I think that Wills are excellent value for money and can often tell you things you wouldn't have known - for example, why did the man leave the bulk of a very large estate to two people who appeared to have no relationship to him- answer - they were his illegitimate son and daughter. (Took some tracking but I did find the proof).

                            OC

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                            • #15
                              margeratmarch I am wetting myself with laughter here, at myself, as I though I could 'knock one together' in a few weeks whilst I was off work!!
                              LOL!!

                              Thankyou for the guidance and tips everyone, looks as though my poor Hubby is going to be bored for a few more..........years!! Lol!!


                              Debs

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                              • #16
                                Oh yes, the will! I've got my grandfather's original will ... but am afraid to reveal it lest currently contented family members get their feathers get all ruffled! Boy, they sure did things differently in the old days!

                                Debbss, you might want to stop now, before you really get hooked! As my husband said last week, when are you going to be done that thing???

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                                • #17
                                  Another thing I'd say is don't be afraid to contact people. I don't mean relatives you've discovered, but who aren't on a family history site....think you have to tread very carefully there. But for example, I managed to discover that my gggg grandfather's stepson had emigrated to Apalachicola in Florida, where he seems to have been responsible for supplying my gggg grandfather back in Nottingham with sponges (when my gggg grandfather died, he was described as a sponge dealer). I contacted the library in Apalachicola, thinking the worst they could do would be to give me a flea in my ear & they've put me in touch with people who have been terrific....photos of the house where he lived, the sponge house where he worked & his grave & tips for background reading.....plus an offer to show me around & help me with further research.
                                  Last edited by greyingrey; 10-03-12, 20:56.

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                                  • #18
                                    I'd also say google the people your family came into contact with. The chap who went to Apalachicola above was from a family of hawkers & blacksmiths etc & he left his wife behind when he went (oh, that's probably anti female....maybe she refused to go). She later remarried & I found out that the man she married hand -painted pottery, but he packed that in & they emigrated to Australia where he became quite a well-known artist & she was one of the first feminists & they had a very bohemian lifestyle. Which can only lead me to conclude that she either kept her real nature under wraps while she was involved with her first husband or the sparks flew....I wonder what he made of her ?

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                                    • #19
                                      hmm i find the wealthy ancestors are the ones who left more than the usual parish register entires- and sometimes they didn't bother with that!! most of my english rellies were miners or ag labs, not likely to leave much behind. one ancestor's burial stated he died when the mines collapsed. i have a baking turned farming dynasty from sussex who left frequent wills thank god, if they hadn't i would never been able to follow them around the villages in and around chichester!

                                      most of mine didn't leave wills though, too poor to. but the ones that did, what fantastical sums they threw around! the rich ones, were gentry, with distant aristocratic blood in the early 17th century. one branch were cheesemongers in nantwich, descended from a baron, who spread their wings and headed off to work in the east india company in sumatra. my ancestor followed her brother out, married the deputy governor of sumatra, and then complained when he dropped dead a year later without leaving an updated will!! the will was dated to the day she arrived in sumatra. her second husband ended up becoming governor, and their daughter married a doctor in 1797, himself the scion of a lincolnshire gentry family, who descended from the cecils, and other distinghuished families of the 16th century. there are even rumours of descent from the russell dukes of bedford, the lords clifford and petre, and the carew family. but these rumours are unsubstantiated haha.

                                      i love all my ancestry, and that's just the english side! i've got scots, irish, german and some french. fascinating stuff when you can find it!

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                                      • #20
                                        I have found wills from ag labs, shoemakers, carpenters and a manservant, most had little to leave though the manservant was fascinating leaving me with about 15 names, some of which are still not found and I was left wondering where he got his goods from. None of my wills were made by the landed gentry! In fact back to 1633 and have not yet found any wealthy ones! All the wills I have found are in the County Record Office though FMP has now alerted me to a few more but no details on line, I have to go to Northants CRO or pay someone to do the research. My most poignant will was a shoemaker leaving £33 to the workhouse master in 1911.

                                        Janet
                                        Last edited by Janet; 11-03-12, 11:10.

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