General Chat

We have access to Censuses dating from 1841 to 1901. All of them are becoming freely available online. I hear people enthusing about them and the information they are finding. Unfortunately I WANT MORE!!! Although my Tree passes through this period I am only finding reference to a very few of my Ancestors. Those who were born between say 1750 and 1900. A period of approx 150 years or 5 generations. They also only cover years which are already well supplied with info through the BMD. It is the earlier years I need information on. Is anyone in authority listening?

Grampa What exactly are you asking for? nell

Simply pointing out that the Censuses are not the panacea for all a Genealogist's ills.

I agree G J. I have been looking for a birth of one of my ancestors who is proved to have meen born in 1855/56 as he was 22 on his marriage in 1877....can I find it? Seems he is nowhere to be found on freebmd or Latter day Saints. Anybody got any ideas ?

Hi Anne, Have you tried 1837online - or the parish records for a baptism? People did not always give their right ages on marriage so check a few years either side. Gwynne

Have tried 1837 online...the only thing I can find is him, his wife and first born in 1881 census. The birth is nowhere to be found. Like Grampa says ....some don't happen to be on them.

I agree Grampa Jim i have been looking for the last year for my great great grandfather who was born in 1818 in Gibralta but was a british subject ,nowbody seems to have any information.I would like to know how people go back to 1600/1700 ,i have so far managed 1823 on my other side. Still i shall not give up . Val

Think they must walk round the graveyards to get the info... don't fancy that do you?

Grampa You're old enough, surely, to know there are poor law records, manorial records, wills, deeds, etc ad nauseam. I agree that the Victorians did go in for form filling big time, but the wonderful Norfolk rectors in the 1700s gave more information on their burials than you get on a modern death certificate. My despicable Tudor ancestors washed all their dirty linen in public, so I know how their houses were furnished, who got accused of rape, where they married (in the parlour) and what they said about each other. Censuses seem rather dry in comparison. B

Think the most interesting thing I found up to now is an uncle I hated when he was alive...finding he never had a father on his birth cert....I always called him "one" but never guessed he was "one".!!!

Always I want more!! I is greedy! However - some people were not registered, therefore a baptism has to be searched for if possible - records offices have to be visited / family history societies have to be joined: in order to seek for settlement certificates for instance, and people researching the same family - asking online OPCs (online parish clerks) for help with baptism, marriage or burial details - subscribing (free) to rootsweb mailing lists / message boards for surnames / counties / countries - studying cyndislist and gneuki - visiting graveyards armed with paper, pen and camera etc etc etc!! Wot an addictive occupation is this!! :) Joy

Valley, I did! I started my Tree in the 1960s when you actually could go to Somerset House. Jim

I managed to find a census dated 1819! Its called the Pole Lane Census for Darwen in Lancs, and it was taken by the church elders, because they were thinking oif building a new Chapel. This census listed all the families who attended the Chapel, where they lived, when they had been born and married and the names and bapts of their children - family groups in fact. Better still, it lists things like "John, bap 12. July 1799, his child by Maud Thingy" and all those fatherless children got a list of suspects! Further back, I knew, or thought I knew, that one ancestor was a Blacksmith. A bit of a search on A2A threw up a Blacksmith of the same name, same place but 250 years earlier! From that information, I found out the first blacksmith and his wife and two sons, all named, were bound over to keep the peace to their neighbours, who were similarly bound over - they had been throwing rubbish at each other (!!!!). In the same year the Blacksmith's wife was fined for non-attendance at Church.Then the lease on the Smithy was renewed, for three lifetimes, as was the custom then, so I had Blacksmith, son and Grandson. 77 years later, the grandson died and his son, also a Blacksmith, took on another three lifetimes lease, naming two more generations. All this from a poke round on A2a.