What's your next move?

[cbcarolyn]

Maybe you a have brick wall or many brick walls that you want to crash.

I have to say I don't class myself as having any brickwalls as I have no plans to go back any further - clearly if I did I would get to one, I am pretty much back to mid to late 1700s - and I am happy with that, but what I would love to keep digging away at unearthing more records of the ancestors I have found.

I am sure there are more places that I should be looking, anyone got any gems to look at? I have BNA and ancestry subs, might even be something I am missing in there.

[Jill on the A272]

I don't do a lot with my own tree at the moment, over the winter I will be returning to will transcription for Sussex, I'm concentrating on the parishes of Lindfield and Fletching, working back in time and doing every will I can find on Familysearch. In the past it has paid dividends when I have found one of OH's people as a witness, an executor or a beneficiary.

[vera2013]

Still great grandma Mary Jane from Co Armagh. I think I'm edging closer but get impatient and leave it awhile.

Vera

[Darksecretz]

um, after breaking down one big wall and one little one I'm still ever hopeful that I'll get some more DNA matches on my maternal side. Ann Larkin is still being a pain... not making much in the way of headway with her I can tell you!

[cbcarolyn]

I don't do a lot with my own tree at the moment, over the winter I will be returning to will transcription for Sussex, I'm concentrating on the parishes of Lindfield and Fletching, working back in time and doing every will I can find on Familysearch. In the past it has paid dividends when I have found one of OH's people as a witness, an executor or a beneficiary.

The wills are certainly a great resource, must revisit to see if there are any more that I should be buying.

Still great grandma Mary Jane from Co Armagh. I think I'm edging closer but get impatient and leave it awhile.

Vera

I assume Irish records are trickier

um, after breaking down one big wall and one little one I'm still ever hopeful that I'll get some more DNA matches on my maternal side. Ann Larkin is still being a pain... not making much in the way of headway with her I can tell you!

Your Larkins are certainly tricky.

[PhotoFamily]

I'm still ever hopeful that I'll get some more DNA matches on my maternal side.

Christmas is coming, and there will be DNA kits under the tree!

[Darksecretz]

Christmas is coming, and there will be DNA kits under the tree!

Tbh I'm not so sure that there are many ancestors from my maternal line out there... I have so many that I have zero DNA matches with it is unreal.. yet my paternal side they are crawling out of the woodwork!

Though I suppose being optimistic is better than not..lol

[PhotoFamily]

The recent help that ftf members gave on my Mitchell line chiselled some of that wall (thank you!). Christmas preparations are upon us, so it may be a bit before looking around again.

[teasie]

I would love to keep digging away at unearthing more records of the ancestors I have found.

I am sure there are more places that I should be looking, anyone got any gems to look at? I have BNA and ancestry subs, might even be something I am missing in there.

It depends what part of the country you're interested in - my family moved to the North East from all over England, Scotland & Wales, so I've got resources bookmarked for pretty much everywhere.

I also invested in CDs from various Family History Societies for things like individual bastardy & poor law records held at the archives that you wouldn't find from a general catalogue search. Not many of them mentioned my family to be fair, but those that did were informative & good to have.

I also buy a lot of death certificates as I've found that these can open up new lines of enquiry. For example, a GG Uncle died aged 14 in 1897, and his death certificate revealed he died in the local asylum of chronic hydrocephalus - there was no hint of this on the single census he appeared on. From there I obtained his asylum records, which in turn confirmed who his biological father was (it was who I suspected, and not the man on his birth certificate).

Further back on the same line I also discovered that my 3xG Grandmother and her mother-in-law both died of Cholera within weeks of each other, just months after my 3xG Grandfather died of consumption. I then got hold of the public health report for where they were living, which gave a vivid description of the conditions; for example:

"A large number of the houses have cesspits without any outlets. In many cases the liquids have overflowed already, and even run into the houses"

"There are whole rows of houses without any privy at all; …. generally, they resort to the fields, or byways, or even the streets, and they are not particular to go far out of the way”

"There is at present no regulation whatsoever of existing slaughter houses [which] generally drain into the street their blood and filth”

For me, that kind of information just adds a whole new layer to understanding who my ancestors were, and what their lives were like.

I just love the BNA though, and its always worth re-checking as new titles are added - I've found some fantastic information on people long after I thought I knew all there was to know about them!

[cbcarolyn]

wow teasie interesting stuff. I have just ordered my Grandfathers will, as just realised he had more money than I thought, as Mum said they struggled. Only just put 2 and 2 together to realise he died the year she got married, somehow I was sure it was earlier, no idea why this had passed me by.

Prior to London Mums were Devon and Cornwall, Dads all over really (prior to London) Essex, Beds, Somerset, Northants, Herts. So my winter discovery will be to go back over Dads, although have quite a bit on a few of them, even put them on the website.

Like you say the newspapers are growing all the time, I feel I need an approach to remember to revisit. It would be great if BNA had the ability to search the ones added in say last 6 months, last 30 days is too short, can't do a monthly task.

[kylejustin]

Have recently been digging around in the parish registers of sedan in france. Have found some deaths looking in the "succession" (inheritance) index, but the actual death entries just happen to be in the gaps of the surviving parish registers.....have also found the parents of an ancestor who was a complete brick wall, so pretty fruitful so far.

i have a few brickwalls but some usually have a clue, and all require more online records. There is one french ancestor that left no clues at all. No birth, marriage found. None of the godparents on her kid's baptisms seem to be connected to her. No burial record. But did stumble on a reference for an after death inventory, in the monastery where her dau later died. Once again, surviving burial records are for a decade after she would have been buried in the monastery...

i haven't made any progress on my british side for quite a while, most of my ancestry is northern and tbh the north is poorly covered online. Even yorkshire seems fairly present but both sites have large gaps in online records for the areas for i need. Probably delve back in if durham or cumbria were added online.

[cbcarolyn]

Have recently been digging around in the parish registers of sedan in france. Have found some deaths looking in the "succession" (inheritance) index, but the actual death entries just happen to be in the gaps of the surviving parish registers.....have also found the parents of an ancestor who was a complete brick wall, so pretty fruitful so far.

i have a few brickwalls but some usually have a clue, and all require more online records. There is one french ancestor that left no clues at all. No birth, marriage found. None of the godparents on her kid's baptisms seem to be connected to her. No burial record. But did stumble on a reference for an after death inventory, in the monastery where her dau later died. Once again, surviving burial records are for a decade after she would have been buried in the monastery...

i haven't made any progress on my british side for quite a while, most of my ancestry is northern and tbh the north is poorly covered online. Even yorkshire seems fairly present but both sites have large gaps in online records for the areas for i need. Probably delve back in if durham or cumbria were added online.

I am surprised that by now more isn't on line, guess FMP have been investing heavily on 1921, and Ancestry seem slow to add UK records generally.

[Janet in Yorkshire]

Don't forget to do free blanket searches of significant surnames in the catalogues of record offices of interest. I came across some crackers in the East Yorkshire record office - aptly named the Treasure house! One will (deposited by a firm of solicitors) listed every beneficiary of a childless gentleman, so identifying relationships and tying up several loose ends. A couple of bastardly orders were useful, there were lists of gamekeepers and references to land leases and tenants. I didn't get to see the actual documents, but some of the descriptions of the various records contained a good amount of detail. I had similar successes whilst rummaging around in the catalogue for the Norfolk Record offices. Sometimes the local studies department of large libraries have detailed descriptions of items in their collections. It's usually info you won't get through any of the subscription sites and it's all FREE! I was able to access an image of great-uncle Bob in the catalogue for one of the Northumbrian collections. He started off as a hewer in the coalmines and worked his way up to become a deputy manager in a colliery. There was a short account of his career, a guestimation of how many miles he'd walked underground and a photo of him in his helmet, clutching his safely lamp, in one of the main passageways below ground. I often make these discoveries late at night, then I can't sleep because I am so excited by the treasure I've unearthed. I know, I'm a saddo

[GallowayLass]

I have received a reply from the researcher who came up as my 501st match at 260cM. She is a connection to the family of my previously “missing quarter” - by way of explanation, I now know the family name of my mother’s birthfather (something she never knew) and that he was one of two brothers. I had hoped for more clues from such a good new match but it turns out she is in a worse position than I was.
She was adopted. Her adopted parents who are now deceased never told her a thing apart from that her mother had lived in Scotland. She herself though was born in a Salvation Army Home in the Midlands. Unfortunately, the records for the decade she was born are missing. However she has been told that Salvation Army Heritage Centre holds a very basic list which shows the name of the mother, the home she was in and her passing out date.
Very little to go on but if we can identify the mother we can help her look for her own birth certificate. It may not help her much if it turns out that the DNA connection is through her birth father rather than her birth mother. My largest match in my new family is a 1C1R at 407cM and we have a common ancestor. As this lady has no tree except herself and her parents listed as unknown there is no common ancestor between us as yet but she shares 550cM with my 1C1R so her link there is even closer than mine.
My 1C1R is elderly and his account is managed by his daughter and we have become good friends. We are just sitting it out waiting for the lady to come back to us with some vital info and then hopefully we can work together to give her all the help she needs.

[Janet in Yorkshire]

I am surprised that by now more isn't on line, guess FMP have been investing heavily on 1921, and Ancestry seem slow to add UK records generally.

Northumberland and Durham records seem to be deposited in various locations, rather than in one central CRO. I think some of the smaller establishments want to retain complete ownership of the records in their care - if they're not on line, then it brings folks through the door and justifies the existence of the library/history centre. I'd love to be able to view some of the Northumberland RC church marriage registers as I can't believe that NONE of my Irish lot ever got married, unless they married a C of E partner or went to the registrar's office. Not even a civil registration for most of them. They had plenty of babies - the RC bp register is now online - and most of them had a RC burial, again well documented, but hardly any marriage registers released.

[GallowayLass]

Janet in Yorkshire
I have a marriage certificate that I want for a couple who married in a church in Gateshead but oddly the entry does not show up on the council’s online cert ordering database. I phoned them up to ask if I could order direct from them over the phone but kept being told that I should order online. I just could not get her to understand that I couldn’t order it online because it was not coming up in my search results. I didn’t get put through to the registstar’s office either so I could explain to them what the problem was and ask if they could add the missing entry to the database and I would quite happily wait a bit and try online ordering again. I was being stonewalled and was also told that no family history certificate applications were being accepted by the registrar’s office due to covid. I said I did not expect that they would as the same restictions were in place in many registration offices and all I wanted was the opportunity to ask them to look into getting a missing entry number uploaded so I could order online. Still a firm “no”. So then I tried asking her if she would contact them internally about the problem. Still no joy so I gave up.

[teasie]

i haven't made any progress on my british side for quite a while, most of my ancestry is northern and tbh the north is poorly covered online. Even yorkshire seems fairly present but both sites have large gaps in online records for the areas for i need. Probably delve back in if durham or cumbria were added online.

I'm very surprised you think this, as there are LOADS of Durham/Northumberland records available online, including a lot of free ones on Familysearch like Durham Marriage Bonds & Allegations, and Durham Diocese Bishop's Transcripts.

If you're looking for old Durham/Northumberland wills, have you tried here: http://familyrecords.dur.ac.uk/nei/d...rch.php#x34677

As a starting point for baptisms, marriages & burials, try the free index here: https://www.durhamrecordsonline.com

There are also a lot of Tithe Apportionment records free to view online here: https://reed.dur.ac.uk/xtf/view?docI...DDR-EA-TTH-1-t

As you can probably tell, I'm a Durham girl! Actually that's not quite true - I was born a mile or so across the border in North Yorkshire

[GallowayLass]

I'm very surprised you think this, as there are LOADS of Durham/Northumberland records available online, including a lot of free ones on Familysearch like Durham Marriage Bonds & Allegations, and Durham Diocese Bishop's Transcripts.

If you're looking for old Durham/Northumberland wills, have you tried here: http://familyrecords.dur.ac.uk/nei/d...rch.php#x34677

As a starting point for baptisms, marriages & burials, try the free index here: https://www.durhamrecordsonline.com

There are also a lot of Tithe Apportionment records free to view online here: https://reed.dur.ac.uk/xtf/view?docI...DDR-EA-TTH-1-t

As you can probably tell, I'm a Durham girl! Actually that's not quite true - I was born a mile or so across the border in North Yorkshire

Thomas Morris

Male

23

1852

Single

Joseph Morris

Male

Margaret Drake

Female

19

1856

Single

Patrick Drake

Male

1 Nov 1875

Gateshead, Durham, England, United Kingdom

St. Edmund's, Gateshead, Durham, England

This is the marriage I need an image for to prove or disprove that the groom is the son of my Joseph Morris (born Morrey). Hopefully Thomas's home address will match the last known census address in 1871 and his father's occupation will fit. Joseph is a bug bear of mine. He's one of two brother of my 2xGt Grandfather that I cannot kill off. The other, I know where he ought to be and who he married but there's too many possibles to speculatively purchase death certificates.
Joseph was born near Nantwich, Cheshire however he fetched up in Cromford, Derbyshire and in early March 1849 married a widow who had a daughter born 1846 the year before her father died. The next census (1851) Joseph and Mary are on the census with the daughter who now goes my the surname Morrey or Mury as it is spelled on the census. There is now a son Thomas who going by age on censuses was born 1849-1850 however there is no birth certificate for Thomas. No as Mary was widowed in 1847, it's perfectly possible that Thomas was born before Joseph and Mary married but he is not registered as any variant of Morrey nor either EATON (Mary's former married name) or BRITLAND (her maiden name).
Joseph and Mary must have parted company and Thomas went with Joseph which makes me certain he is the boy's father. In 1858 at Durham Register Office, Joseph married again to another widow Hannah Jordan also nee Jordan. Hannah had 7 surviving children. HOWEVER, Joseph married her using the surname MORRIS and declared himself a widower which was a lie as Mary remained alive till 8 October 1881 when she died in her daughter Hannah's home in Crich, Derbyshire. From 1861 census Thomas is also known as MORRIS.
Neither Joseph nor Hannah can be found after the 1881 census or anywhere thereafter although folks on here found a likely record of them travelling to USA where Thomas and Margaret are believed to gone after marriage. There's a massive thread on the doings of Joseph if you fancy a read Joseph MORREY or MORRIS where is he after 1881 census? - Family Tree Forum
I've checked again tonight on the Durham Council and the Gateshead Council online certificate ordering sites and the marriage of Thomas and Margaret is not on either of them so I still can't order the image locally which I'd rather do than get it one step removed from GRO.

[Darksecretz]

Janet in Yorkshire
I have a marriage certificate that I want for a couple who married in a church in Gateshead but oddly the entry does not show up on the council’s online cert ordering database. I phoned them up to ask if I could order direct from them over the phone but kept being told that I should order online. I just could not get her to understand that I couldn’t order it online because it was not coming up in my search results. I didn’t get put through to the registstar’s office either so I could explain to them what the problem was and ask if they could add the missing entry to the database and I would quite happily wait a bit and try online ordering again. I was being stonewalled and was also told that no family history certificate applications were being accepted by the registrar’s office due to covid. I said I did not expect that they would as the same restictions were in place in many registration offices and all I wanted was the opportunity to ask them to look into getting a missing entry number uploaded so I could order online. Still a firm “no”. So then I tried asking her if she would contact them internally about the problem. Still no joy so I gave up.

um order direct from the GRO? or is there a particular reason that you don't want to order from there?

[Barbara Dodds]

My current search is trying to prove a witness to a will was a relative. I've traced the witness back to having a father William who is never on a census with the family so I don't know date or place of birth. I have a suitable William in the testators tree but have never found a definite marriage for him or found him on a census

Some day I will prove they are one and the same I just don't know how yet!