Ancestry / family research

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chriswoody

Legendary Member
Location
Northern Germany
My mum had looked back through the family history on her side, a few skeletons and interesting tales. I had a look through out of curiosity and discovered a distant relative had married a man with the same surname as my best mate.

I spoke to him and sure enough his family tree confirms he had relatives living in the same area at that time. We can't pin it down exactly, but there's a good chance we're distantly related! What's more odd is that we grew up in different ends of the country and only met at uni in Cumbria.
 

postman

Squire
Location
,Leeds
Mrs Postman is doing both our trees.It is amazing what she has uncovered.My dad's dad was always called a bastard.It was actually worse.He was the result of a sister and brother having it away.Not once but twice.I know in the 1800 beds were shared but it must have been cold also.We have a Hero on the wife's side a 13 year old who tried to join up for WW1.
 

ACS

Legendary Member
Marriage in 1762 for me. 15 years of research, still have more questions than answers. All yeoman (tenant ) farmers or married into the local faming community. Changed after the WW1, the land owner, Vyner Estates, sold off most of the land consequently the family fragmented and drifted to different parts of the commonwealth.
 

summerdays

Cycling in the sun
Location
Bristol
I've been trying to find bits since I was in my early teens, and I still have that first tree that I wrote out (with mistakes). My earliest on the lines I'm interested in is born about 1775. Others I'm stuck on such as my great grandmother who I've failed to find either her marriage or birth (I think she was born a year or two before civil regs), but the marriage must be somewhere (found her first son's baptism and any illegitimate children are usually clearly marked in the register).

As for skeletons not really just mostly lowly farming folk.

I do have the some documents, and wish I had more photos etc. I love finding out small bits of information about them.
 

Rezillo

TwoSheds
Location
Suffolk
Relying on Ancestry to go back much beyond the mid to late 18th century is fraught with problems. There's just so much info that is sourced solely from "Ancestry Trees" but all that means is someone else has made the connection with no guarantee that they are right. Others then see the connection and copy it to their trees and so on until the link acquires a life of its own. The census returns from 1841 permit cross checking to help make sure links are right but before then, it is very easy to get it wrong, especially when villages often contained extended related families that had two or more couples with the same names.

My 3 x great grandfather's grave is three miles away from me in the village where he died; every other person researching him has him dying 200 miles away because that's the first record that comes up on searching for someone of his name and age. His mother's maiden name is incorrect on most Ancestry trees as well because they've chosen someone local with a similar forename and age without knowing that her maiden name is given in the original records in the record office.That is really the Ancestry problem because one error renders everything earlier for that line completely wrong.

I used to message people when it was obvious they had got things screwed up but gave up as there was just too much that was out. I did change my mind when I found one Canadian family had made a pilgrimage to East Anglia, with more family members to follow, to see one of their ancestor's home areas when in fact the person concerned grew up near Reading, where she married. This was down to two people with the same name, birth year and parents names, one in Essex and one in the Reading village. Fortunately, copies of the actual baptism register were online to show who was who. The father of that person was a documented survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade, so was much more interesting than my own ancestor!
 

classic33

Leg End Member
I've been trying to find bits since I was in my early teens, and I still have that first tree that I wrote out (with mistakes). My earliest on the lines I'm interested in is born about 1775. Others I'm stuck on such as my great grandmother who I've failed to find either her marriage or birth (I think she was born a year or two before civil regs), but the marriage must be somewhere (found her first son's baptism and any illegitimate children are usually clearly marked in the register).

As for skeletons not really just mostly lowly farming folk.

I do have the some documents, and wish I had more photos etc. I love finding out small bits of information about them.
Have you searched on death records?
 

summerdays

Cycling in the sun
Location
Bristol
Have you searched on death records?

I've managed to see the entry on PRONI and I've got a cutting from the newspaper of who attended her funeral. It's one of her son's that registered the death including her brother I knew of and a brother in law that I finally found his name. I know approx when she married from the 1911 census. But can't find anything on the marriage! I found out the fathers name from the sister's marriage.
 

Brains

Legendary Member
Location
Greenwich
A cousin looked in my Mothers side of the family, all from the lowlands of Scotland, mostly carriage makers back to the early 1700's. There is one link he has never been able to prove as too many people with the same name combinations, so never been able to go back before 1715

But it did show my great grandmother married her first cousin, so Miss Sang became Mrs Sang and also that on her fathers side other than being involved in the first Everest expedition (with Mallory in 1920's) that he may have been related to a "Dutch potter" who was around circa 1600 by the name of Sang. We believe the potter was in great demand as he knew how to make the new item of the era, Porcelain China which means his name may well have actually been Tsang and he was bought back by the Dutch East India Company.

For Christmas we got one of these DNA tests to see if we are in fact distantly Chinese, as some of the kids in the family look very Chinese as toddlers

Dad's side all originally came from Bolton. Engineers by trade, with jacquard looms and the like and from 1800 onwards with the new fangled steam engines.
 
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classic33

Leg End Member
I've managed to see the entry on PRONI and I've got a cutting from the newspaper of who attended her funeral. It's one of her son's that registered the death including her brother I knew of and a brother in law that I finally found his name. I know approx when she married from the 1911 census. But can't find anything on the marriage! I found out the fathers name from the sister's marriage.
Searched on her husbands' name
 
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