Genealogy Chat

When i was still very new to all of this i found that i could get onto the message boards on Ancestry without having to subscribe. While trawling through the posts on a certain board i came across a lady who was descbibing my gt gran. Excitedly i posted a message and printed a copy for my records. I decided to give it a few days and then check back. In the mean time i found this place and completely forgot about the boards on Ancestry. A week later i remembered about my post so decided to go back and see if i'd had a reply.... i sat for hours trawling through the boards on THIS SITE (not knowing how to view just my threads). I then of course panicked thinking someone had deleted my thread. It took me 3 weeks to realise that i was on the wrong website! Still haven't managed to contact her tho, so if you're out there Jennie Moss - HELP, We're related! c x

Not a good idea to tell one's family that your grandfather had a mistress and other children on the go. Wondered why the phone stopped ringing! Also should have thought about researching the details of my father's 1st wife. I have a very angry niece telling me it is none of my business cannot repeat what the e-mail contained. well that's family for you

My Grandmother's marriage has eluded me for many years, and I have made careful notes of all possible combinations on scraps of paper each time I have gone to the Family Record Centre. Not once, not twice but three times I have been back to the FRC, made the same list and come up with the same person and sent for, yes you've guessed it, the same certificate! I am now the proud owner of 3 of these certificates. Each time I have been so sure I have the right one, shouted 'Got it' and so sure of my facts I have never used the check list at the back to save myself money. I wonder how many more I will have to buy before I get the message! I then started to use a notebook, instead of scraps of paper, except that each time I go to the FRC I can't seem to find the notebook I was using previously so I now have 10 notebooks so far and can't find the list! Janet

Hiya Kate Do you by any chance work in a records office lol :-O Vikki xx

I once spent a fantastic day at Colindale going through old copies of Manchester United Programmes looking for references to my gt grandad. Found tons and had copies made of them all Man in the library suggested I look at a couple of sporting papers from the era - and these were on microfilms and he'd bring me the reels out to th eroom at the back wherethe readers were. Spent several further hours scrolling through the films and about five minutes before closing WHOOPPEEE I found a photo of him (on his own not the team shot I already had) Just as I was trying to write down the publication date they came and told me I had to pack up 'Fine,' I thought. 'I have more than I came for anyway'. Packed away the films back into their boxes and went out to th e desk to order an image of the page with his photo. Look at notebook - I havent written down which newspaper I was looking at just the date and page. I'm stood there with ten reels of film and not a clue as to which one I was looking at. So, I now have to go back to Colindale at some point and find the man who chose what papers I was looking at so he can give me the names again and I can look through all the reels to get my photo. And I *have* to get this picture as gt Grandad Oscar looked REALLY dapper and a right charmer (just like my brother) in it

No apologies for nudging this today.

thanks Heather

O.K. heres mine. When I first started this I found my Grandfathers birth quite quickly. I got the certificate and found his mother's name to be Selina Jane Shackleton. The next time I was at the family record centre I looked for her on the 1881 (This was in the days before it was online) I could not find her but I found a C J Shackleton born 1864 in Kent living in Islington with a widowed mother several sisters and brother in law. "This must be her" I thought. It wasn't until earlier this year, while looking for Shackleton marriages that I spotted one for Clara Jane Shackleton in Islington. I'd been jumping to conclusions for three and a half years. Doesn't help though, I now have Selin'a birth certificate, (Southampton 1856) location on 1871, 1891 and her new name and child I knew nothing about on 1901 (after her second husband had died) but I still can't find her on 1881, her death or either of her two "marriages".

Years ago I went to West Malling in Kent to search the Parish Registers. The vicar of St Mary's sat me in the Vestry with them and I extracted all the information I could re my Family names. When I got home I worked out the families, whose child this was, who married who. Including my 4th g gmother who had the lovely name of Elizabeth Mallion Dowsett. I have spent some time looking for her ancestry without much success, and then, a couple of weeks ago I was looking at the 1851 Census and realised that she wasn't mine at all. My 4th g gran was actually Elizabeth Havens from another village. Another time, when I was on a Genealogical holiday in the North, I drove to a village called Whorlton, near Barnard Castle. On the locked Church door was a note saying the Churchwarden lived opposite at No (whatever). So I knocked on his door and explained my hunt for my Weatherall Ancestors. He said he had the Registers indoors for safe keeping, invited me in, sat me in "The Comfy Chair" in front of the fire, handed me the Registers and went to make tea & crumpets. As I went through the Book I felt a feeling of familiarity. And when I found the burial of Grace Weatherall I realised that a copy of these Registers was in Birmingham Ref library and I had been through it a year earlier. I showed him what info I had and he suggested that I try Worton in Wensleydale. The Parish Registers being kept at Northallerton. I thanked him and went on my way. Next day I got back 250 years. That man's name was Major L. M. Kenyon-Fuller. I learnt later that he was a distinguished genealogist himself. Jim

Spent a couple of hours (and a small fortune!) looking for 2 deaths on 1837 online. I wrote down the details and put it to one side until I was ready to order the certs. When I looked at it again, I realised I hadn't written the ages at death down, did a quick check back and couldn't find the record - yes, I'd been looking through births, not deaths!

Valerie, I dont use that method to find a name on a page. If you go to "Edit" at the top of your page and click on it you will see an item "Find on this page" Click on that and a little box comes up for you to enter word/words in and then click to find it on the page you are viewing. Yes, it is really handy - saves scrolling through pages to find that the combined name doesnt actually exist but the puter has picked up the names separated or something.

Helen how does control+ F work thanks

Spending some YEARS searching for a wife's maiden name - then realising it would be on their children's birth certificates.... Wondering why my 2 x Grandfather had been buried without a death certificate - then realising that's not the same thing as a death registration.

I had the same problem as Helen and used the same solution, but in a soft backed book, which got thrown on the bonfire with some newspapers DOH Peter

I had a king sized whinge last week about certificates taking 15 days to come from GRO when other people were saying they were getting them in 4 days. I shouted, stamped my feet and had a sulk my 2 year old would have been proud of...till Helen very kindly pointed out that I wasn't putting the GRO reference number on the request form and that's why it was taking so long. Didn't I feel an idiot! Ali

Searching heavy GRO index books for children of great uncle. Whoopie I find them - with the right mother's maiden name, right district. I carefully copy them down, remembering to note district number and page number. Then when I get home and go to enter my new found family I realise I've not made a note of what years and quarters I found them in. Aaaaargh!

My cardinal sin is not to log the sources/searches I've tried that DIDN'T wotk. Invariably, I end up forgetting I've already searched them and waste time repeating them later. Jonathan

I've certainly had to repeat searches because I wrote the results down on a scrap of paper and lost it. Now everything is in a hardback notebook. I also wish I had known when I started that when you are looking online at a list of names you can do control + F and type in the one you are looking for! nell

Searched back in time for a birth in the GRO registers. Found our man - right name, right district, right date. Sent for the certificate. It gave a different father's name but had reasons to think he might have lied. Later it was pointed out to us by a very helpful Family History Soc. that there were two baby boys of that name born in the same district in the same year. We should have looked one quarter back!!! (It is a very uncommon name) We knew we had the wrong one when we found the first one on the 1881 aged 42 and still single!!!! We could have saved ourselves £7 but fortunately, because the first one had no kids, we realised our mistake. We could easily have continued along the wrong branch. Anne

To start the ball rolling, here are a few of mine: Latest, and most heinous, I think that because I have opened a message in my inbox I must have replied to it immediately. I have turned up on a rector’s doorstep, unannounced at seven o’clock at night and expected him to give up his evening, unlock the church and let me look at the registers. When I lost my purse, I dumped a heavy bag on top of a fragile register and proceeded to scatter its contents all over the place. Playing a family history game, I wrote on one of the game cards in biro. This isn’t the end of the list, but I’m sure you won’t speak to me anymore if I add too many! Head hung in shame, Brenda