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Anybody get frustrated with research?

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  • Anybody get frustrated with research?

    Do any of you get frustated at paucity of records for a time period or a geographical area? Maybe they aren't online or haven't survived? Sounds like i'm trying to sell you something haha.

    i'm really frustrated with some direct lines, and lack of records for them. I have some trees where i have been able to build the tree with secondary records such as wills, wittnesses at weddings and burials or godparents on birth records (french side) but lack the required births, deaths and marriages to solidify it. Frustrating as you don't know what town or city to look in. And some cities' records have been lost during uprisings, civil wars and world wars.

  • #2
    I feel your pain but I turn to other areas and look at those instead or indulge my interest in local history.

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    • #3
      I thought I had it bad with my family mostly originating in Suffolk and Essex. Norfolk side is very good. However, my OH has Polish heritage and we did get films from Family Search but now as they are digitising them the films are now unavailable to view online at the family centres. They say it could be two years or more before they are completed.
      Kat

      My avatar is my mother 1921 - 2012

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      • #4
        I watch TV programmes and see peoples trees having various interesting stories, and realise that my tree would be the one that wouldn't even make the filming!

        I think a lot is down to the fact that my family were just really middling and as far as I can determine rarely made the newspapers. Essex does seem to have quite a few gaps with documents, but I cant decide if that is down to the fact that they wouldn't really be in any beyond the census. would love to see some school records.
        Carolyn
        Family Tree site

        Researching: Luggs, Freeman - Cornwall; Dayman, Hobbs, Heard - Devon; Wilson, Miles - Northants; Brett, Everett, Clark, Allum - Herts/Essex
        Also interested in Proctor, Woodruff

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        • #5
          Ooh yes indeedy but just have to put them on the back burner.

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          • #6
            Yes in a short word Kyle..

            I cannot seem to make ANY headway with my Irish grt grt grandmother. I know she was Irish and that is it! [and had fiery red hair to match her temper!]

            I can only find her in two census records in the UK 1871/1881 with two different husbands! I have done my DNA with the hope that I may well find some Irish clan but nothing yet!

            The other thing that bugs me are contacts when they say they will sort stuff out for you and then don't... grrr
            Julie
            They're coming to take me away haha hee hee..........

            .......I find dead people

            Comment


            • #7
              Have patience!! You just have to keep looking from time to time and do lots of blanket surname searches when a new database comes online. New stuff continues to become available on a regular basis. Over the last few years I've found lots of new "fall off the chair" snippets which have filled in many gaps and given me new leads. I've been doing my family tree seriously for over 30 years and I still get a buzz when I find a new reference. The further back you go, the more folks you accumulate and so there is always something new to discover - it may be from a contact, a new genealogy database, a newspaper, a local history source, or revisiting a site you've used before.
              I find some of the "new world" immigrants challenging, where sometimes there were very few people in a vast rural area and really there doesn't seem to have been any official record of the marriages, births, deaths, burials of individuals or other documentation to indicate relationships.

              Jay
              Janet in Yorkshire



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

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              • #8
                Originally posted by Darksecretz View Post
                Yes in a short word Kyle..

                I cannot seem to make ANY headway with my Irish grt grt grandmother. I know she was Irish and that is it! [and had fiery red hair to match her temper!]

                I can only find her in two census records in the UK 1871/1881 with two different husbands! I have done my DNA with the hope that I may well find some Irish clan but nothing yet!

                The other thing that bugs me are contacts when they say they will sort stuff out for you and then don't... grrr
                DS, those of us with Irish ancestry share your pain. Pretty sure my Irish ancestry came over in the 1840's - so pre Irish registration, and nothing definitive before 1861 census. As yet no English records for any marriages discovered, which would give names of fathers and possibly link some of them together.

                Jay
                Janet in Yorkshire



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

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Janet in Yorkshire View Post

                  DS, those of us with Irish ancestry share your pain. Pretty sure my Irish ancestry came over in the 1840's - so pre Irish registration, and nothing definitive before 1861 census. As yet no English records for any marriages discovered, which would give names of fathers and possibly link some of them together.

                  Jay
                  I'm also quite sure that they came over to escape the potato famine but I can find no trace, I do know she was Catholic she had her children bapt in Catholic churches around Nottinghamshire, giving false names for herself and her husband [who was not a Catholic] I think that she was doing that on the QT without her husbands permission!

                  I DO know though that Kensington was also known as Little Ireland due to the amount of Irish living there!

                  I have her three marriage certs in the UK and they don't help with her fathers name and occupation as on the second and third marriage she is consistent with her fathers name and occupation yet on the first it is a totally different name and occupation!.. she conveniently snuffs it just before the 1891 census and on the other two I have her on it quite helpfully says 'Ireland' as POB..
                  Last edited by Darksecretz; 15-05-20, 10:52. Reason: flipping auto correct again!!
                  Julie
                  They're coming to take me away haha hee hee..........

                  .......I find dead people

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Ireland, recorded as pob, was very common.The Irish immigrants were usually illiterate and also spoke with a strong Irish brogue. Enumerators would have had to best guess place names and probably had no knowledge of Irish counties anyway, let alone place names.I have one chap recorded with the forename Commons, but further research leads me to think that he was most likely named Thomas. He also was born "Ireland", making him a difficult chap to fathom out!

                    Jay
                    Janet in Yorkshire



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

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Ireland is very difficult. I was able to gain a foothold on one line when a great uncle's DC states his POB was Ballymoney (always research your side branches!).

                      I think it was Julie (maybe??) who first mentioned the US SS5 records - the application for a social security number. My g'grandfather, born 1863 (no Irish CivReg) had a SSN on his DC! and retrieving the record gave me the names of his parents and POB.

                      Otherwise, it's an uphill battle. I have genetic connections to Killymard, Donegal on my mother's side, records that indicate Donegal (no parish), but nothing more. Sigh.

                      Ireland is tough. So are common surnames, or villages where families persistently use the same set of first names.

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                      • #12
                        I have just had a lovely few days frantically adding people to a branch of my tree that came to a standstill in 2006! Lockdown produced a free list of museum resources and to my utter astonishment, there was a diary written by the brother of my 3 x ggm. He named all his children and told me they had emigrated - I suspected as much, but couldn't get a handle on them. The diary also gave me firm information on the family's origins, enabling me to take them back another four generations.

                        Never give up, never despair!

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Darksecretz View Post

                          I'm also quite sure that they came over to escape the potato famine but I can find no trace, I do know she was Catholic she had her children bapt in Catholic churches around Nottinghamshire, giving false names for herself and her husband [who was not a Catholic] I think that she was doing that on the QT without her husbands permission!

                          I DO know though that Kensington was also known as Little Ireland due to the amount of Irish living there!

                          I have her three marriage certs in the UK and they don't help with her fathers name and occupation as on the second and third marriage she is consistent with her fathers name and occupation yet on the first it is a totally different name and occupation!.. she conveniently snuffs it just before the 1891 census and on the other two I have her on it quite helpfully says 'Ireland' as POB..
                          Did she ever apply for parish relief? Poor law records usually will have recorded where in Ireland an applicant came from.

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by GallowayLass View Post

                            Did she ever apply for parish relief? Poor law records usually will have recorded where in Ireland an applicant came from.
                            Not that I'm aware of GL, she 'appears' in London/Kensington and marries a soldier, he gets pensioned out of the guards and comes home to Nottinghamshire to take up his occupation as a FWK, he then dies in 1872. She marries again and has more children but dies after falling down the stairs.
                            Julie
                            They're coming to take me away haha hee hee..........

                            .......I find dead people

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Olde Crone Holden View Post
                              I have just had a lovely few days frantically adding people to a branch of my tree that came to a standstill in 2006! Lockdown produced a free list of museum resources and to my utter astonishment, there was a diary written by the brother of my 3 x ggm. He named all his children and told me they had emigrated - I suspected as much, but couldn't get a handle on them. The diary also gave me firm information on the family's origins, enabling me to take them back another four generations.

                              Never give up, never despair!
                              that's fab OC!
                              Julie
                              They're coming to take me away haha hee hee..........

                              .......I find dead people

                              Comment


                              • #16
                                Well done OC - was that a "fall off the chair" moment for you?

                                Jay
                                Janet in Yorkshire



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

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                                • #17
                                  Great breakthrough OC.

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                                  • #18
                                    Yes, it was a gasp of astonishment moment! I still wasn't sure until the diary writer obliged me by mentioning his nephew by name, which clinched it for me and therefore "proved" the work I did in 2006. It also changed my perception of this branch, for some reason I had them as being dirt poor and a bit feral, lol. They were not, they were a well educated (self taught?) family, females included, most unusual for the late 1700s.

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                                    • #19
                                      That's brilliant OC. Like you say, never give up.

                                      I have broken down quite a few brick walls while in lockdown. Sometimes you just need extra time to put everything today for it to makes sense.
                                      Lin

                                      Searching Lowe, Everitt, Hurt and Dunns in Nottingham

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                                      • #20
                                        What a great find OC. One can only dream - or perhaps just spread that net wider. There must be so many documents hidden away just waiting to be found.
                                        Kat

                                        My avatar is my mother 1921 - 2012

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