Genealogy Chat

hi i wonder if anyone has any advice i had a two weeks free trial period on ancestry to see how i would get on but not finding it easy whatever i have looked for i cant find and i have looked at pages and pages and given up inthe end is there an easier way or am i doing something wrong thanks for any help kerry suden

Hi Kerry, not sure how you have been working. My method was to work back from 1901 with any names and places I was sure of. Be prepared for discrepencies and mispelt names....eg Davies/Davis. As you go back you get to know who should be where, but again nothing is always as you expect...so keep an open mind. Good luck Xx

give us some clues as to what you have been looking for, then maybe someone can locate the people you are looking for, and give you some pointers so you can actually find them yourself

i didnt know anything much on my grandad i just put in his name roughly the year he was born the year he died and essex, and it come straight up and with that i have gone 3 generations back you just have to be patient and it will come together but the spelling is abit dodgy so you have to be prepared to look at ones that sound abit like it for instance laindon hills / longsdon hills etc good luck jess

It might be easier if you gave us the names/dates. We can try things and if we are successful, explain t o you how we got there. Jim

what i do is put all you know in search then on left hand side go to the nearest census to birth ie born 1863 go to 1871 click on that then scroll to bottem put in county born and parish ie London Hackney then click and ones born in that area will come up or put where you think they might be resident and click again. then if can't find anything go to 1881 and so on and hope fully you will find some thing or ask for extra pair of eyes on here and get help. Jeanette

Hi Jeanette, I have done the same thing with Ancestry and I've had no luck what so ever, think I might give up looking for the one particular link!

i use a 'less is more theory' often use only one or two criteria and my imagination

hi sorry everyone just thought i would have another go myself on ancestry but no late .jim what iam looking for is any information regarding my greatgrand father james parker who was born in 1836 in shoreditch with his parents and any siblings he might of had because i dont have any information on them thankyou fot your help jim and everyone else kerry suden

So is this him with family? View Record Alice Parker abt 1879 Shoreditch, Middlesex, England Daughter 35 Johns Ter, Shoreditch, London, England View Record Eliza Parker abt 1862 Shoreditch, Middlesex, England Daughter 35 Johns Ter, Shoreditch, London, England View Record Elizabeth Parker abt 1874 Shoreditch, Middlesex, England Daughter 35 Johns Ter, Shoreditch, London, England View Record Harriett Parker abt 1872 Shoreditch, Middlesex, England Daughter 35 Johns Ter, Shoreditch, London, England View Record James Parker abt 1837 Shoreditch, Middlesex, England Head 35 Johns Ter, Shoreditch, London, England View Record John Parker abt 1876 Shoreditch, Middlesex, England Son 35 Johns Ter, Shoreditch, London, England View Record Lavinia Parker abt 1841 Shoreditch, Middlesex, England Wife 35 Johns Ter, Shoreditch, London, England View Record Lavinia Parker abt 1860 Shoreditch, Middlesex, England Daughter 35 Johns Ter, Shoreditch, London, England View Record Sophia Parker abt 1869 Shoreditch, Middlesex, England Daughter 35 Johns Ter, Shoreditch, London, England Jim *** ABOVE INFO FROM 1881 census

In which case, this might well be him in 1851 with mother and 2 brothers View Record James Parker abt 1838 Hoxton, Middlesex, England Son Shoreditch Middlesex View Record Mary Parker abt 1817 Hoxton, Middlesex, England Head Shoreditch Middlesex View Record Richard Parker abt 1837 Hoxton, Middlesex, England Son Shoreditch Middlesex View Record William Parker abt 1840 Newlyn, Middlesex, England Son Shoreditch Middlesex Jim

Kerry, From Jim's two posts you can see that not only were people vague about ages, but also fluid about where they were born!! It can be really helpful to find out a bit about the place where they said they were born in order to match it up with a different place mentioned on a different census. Hoxton and Shoreditch are under a mile apart! I don't suppose Jim searched with either Hoxton or Shoreditch in the Parish of Birth box.....just that with knowledge of the area, seeing Hoxton on the results list, he would know that was nearby............ Merry

Agreed Merry. A little local geography - or just a good map can be a great help. Also some history. For example, most of what we call London today north of the Thames was in Middlesex in most of the 19th century. So searching under Middlesex rather than London will help. JIm

hi jim yes that is him and family i have that thankyou and the other information i dont have is i hope its him thankyou jim for your tips and merry as well for yours you have been a great help to me kind regards kerry sudenxx

You might be unlucky as there are plenty of errors and omissions. Don't put any more information into the search fields than necessary. It depends on how common the names are but I will often start with just the surname. Never use an exact date, I always start with +/- 2 years but will open that up to a wider range. Use wildcards because place names and surnames can be mis-spelt as well as mis-transcribed. So if I do not find BRISCOE I will try BRISC*. Use the county first before the town. If you are not finding anything than try just the town name to check whether there are entries with that spelling. Don't forget many towns consisted of smaller villages so someone born in present day Bolton might give their place of birth as Halliwell, Sharples etc. Often I will search on just the first name and year of birth an perhaps county of birth. If too many matches then try to narrow down but often the only way is to look through the results. I have found many people from just the first name. Have a look through the family and choose the most unusual first name to search on. A child's date of birth is more likely to be correct whilst an elderly person can easily be up to 10 years out. Don't restrict your search to where you think they are living, often they can be in a competely unexpected part of the country. Look where the children were born as that will gives clues to where they were living. Sorry if these are obvious but I have found found that people think that if the search form has 10 fields then they have to complete all 10! MB

OK - from the top. 1. On ancestry - search UK Census collection (not restricting years) for first name=James, seond name=Parker, sex = Male year of birth = 1837 This gives you pages of output - but just scrolling down about 2 screens shows one born Shoreditch. It's an 1881 entry. Double click on the 1881 will bring up another screen, and on that screen you can select 'view other family members'. That will give you the info I posted first. You can also select to view the original census page, and can print that if you wish. continues.

If you are happy that you have the right one, you can now go back to the original search and add more parameters. I added born in Middlesex and place Shoreditch. Then resubmit the search. At this point, since you were looking for info about parents and other family, I would normally select the earliest available census after he was born from the list on the left. In this case, that is 1851. This gives a much shorter list - in an easier format. It does not show anyone born in Shoreditch, but it does show one born Hoxton and living in Shoreditch. That was the one I selected (same method as before) which gives mother and brothers. Incidentally, looking at the original page often gives more info. In this caser, it says that Mary is a widow, so Dad has died. And assuming he was around when the eldest son was conceived, but died before the census date (ususally end of March or early April), then it narrows down the dates if you want to find his death. The census page also gives an address, or clue to an address, so it might help you locate a church for marriages or christenings. Comments welcome form others on these methods. continues.

What I did next - this is new for this thread - was to look for a wedding and I found this one. IGI Individual Record FamilySearch™ International Genealogical Index v5.0 British Isles Search Results | Download | Pedigree -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WILLIAM PARKER Male Family -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marriages: Spouse: MARIA HOOPER Family Marriage: 19 SEP 1837 Saint Leonards, Shoreditch, London, England -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Comments - date is about right. Age at marriage for Mary abt 20. First son born 1837/8 Area - reasonable. Name - well Mary and Maria are similar - variations like this are quite normal. I found this using Hugh Wallis's list of parish references as a quick way into the IGI site. Both are free, and there are threads on the GR site to help on these. I chose to look at Shoreditch churches, and the Census page for 1851 says St Leonards parish. Still with me?

Additional comment on above - Christian names are often handed down, so if one of the sons is a William, it is certainly possible that father was William. Even more likely if father died before William was born. So was there a William died about this time. I tried FreeBMD looking for a death of William Parker between March 1839 and Dec 1841. Bingo !! Surname First name(s) Age District Vol Page -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Deaths Mar 1839 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Barrett Joseph Shoreditch 2 268 Bartraim Sarah Elizabeth Shoreditch 2 268 Foulser John Shoreditch 2 268 Mitchell Emma Shoreditch 2 268 ====> PARKER William Shoreditch 2 268 ROSS William Shoreditch 2 268 Shrewsbury John Charles Shoreditch 2 268 VASEY Jane Margaret Shoreditch 2 268 WILLCOX Eliza Elizabeth Shoreditch 2 268 Yernorth William Shoreditch 2 268 Yernorth William Shoreditch 2 268 Here we have a William Parker's death in Shoreditch. One other comment. Places of registration or residence tend to be regular areas. But places of birth can be a much smaller area. Hoxton is probably part of the Shoreditch area. Also, when people are still living locally, they tend to be more specific. If they are far from home, they will show their birthplace as somewhere that the enumerator will understand - so it often more vague, and may only be a county.

hi jim thankyou so much for all your help i just tryed out what you said on ancestry and it worked!!thankyou for all your other help as well will copy out what you have said and use them you have been a great help kerry suden x