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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: br2az04 on Thursday 02 March 06 17:13 GMT (UK)
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I am searching for the marriage index of a
George William SMITH
and
Minnie Louisa BROWN
They married after 1901 and they had a child in 1914 so i presume before this date. They have to be two of the most commonest surnames and when you put them together it is almost impossible!!!
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On the plus side, you are searching GRO indexes which tend to be far better than census for presentation. At least the GRO indexes are alphabetical.
Nothing for it but hard slog; http://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/rectype/vital/freebmd/bmd.aspx
Images seem to be still free to view at the moment. Start with Minnie, and check the ones in the 'right' area first for a matching spouse.
Pauline
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I have been searching for a new line - try Googling for the name BOX!!
You get everybody's PO Box numbers!!
::) :P ;D ;D
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My father's family name is a doosey - Doe. It comes up with everything containing "does" that you can imaging. To make it worse dad's christian name is John, which was a family name. Fancy me having to search for "John Doe"!
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I have been searching for a new line - try Googling for the name BOX!!
You get everybody's PO Box numbers!!
::) :P ;D ;D
You should see what my MATES line comes up with ;D ;D ;D
My worst of course is a Margaret Jones marrying a Robert Jones in Merionethshire, Margaret's parents were also Margaret Jones and Robert Jones and then it all goes
patronymic :( and we're into aps
Also got Roberts, Hughes, Evans and Griffiths and hubby has a Smith, Evans and Brown :'(
We'll get there in the end :)
Gadget
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On the other hand, uncommon surnames mean that no other so-and-so is searching for it, and you're on your own!
meles
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On the other hand, uncommon surnames mean that no other so-and-so is searching for it, and you're on your own!
meles
..........and the bally things are almost always mis-spelled or mis-transcribed ???
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Mine is Bann - not that difficult you might think, but mispelt more times than I care to mention and don't even start me on Google! Just pages and pages about the place in Northern Ireland, a publishing company which aren't too bad as you can exclude them, but the real pain is all the family history sites it brings up because of marriage by Banns!
Carra
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Try googling for Blogg, Bradd and Blanks then :(
Weblogging, Brad Pitt and 'filling in the blanks' have a lot to answer for.
Helen
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Its a pain isn't it? I get quite jealous when I read messages on here saying 'I googled .... and got all this information! I'm sure there's lots of info out there we'd just have to search through millions of hits to find it!
Carra
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I have been searching for a new line - try Googling for the name BOX!!
You get everybody's PO Box numbers!!
I'm searching for two branches of STREET 'S not connected, so imagine what that is like, nearly as bad as all those PO Box numbers.
jericho ;D
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You should try searching for Jones, Owen, Griffiths, Williams and Thomas among others in North Wales and Anglesey and then go across to Northumberland and Scotland and look for Burns and Turnbull
Oh such fun !!
Why couldn't we be Schwartz in Anglesey or something like that - so much easier to find!
But I suppose less of a challenge and not worth the excitement when you do fins them lol
Carol
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I know Carol. I've got Prices on both sides of the family who married other Prices, usually John's and Jane's.
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Here's my best one though
My Grandmother was Mary Elma Williams, daughter of Catherine Thomas who was the daughter of William Thomas.
Mary's husband was Hughie Thomas, son of William Richard Thomas who was the son of William Thomas.
Both William Thomas' were born within a few years of each other and both born in the same area.
Family names for BOTH sides were William, Hugh, Elizaneth, Mary, Jane, Margaret
Try searching for them and not getting a few headaches lol
Carol
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How's the snow?
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Luckily we don't get much here in Blackpool because of the sea. Thank goodness - never did like snow that much
Carol
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I was talking to the rellies in South Wales last night. It's been pretty bad down there. Here, we're having an absolute deluge! Yippee!
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My husband has gg and ggg grandfathers called David White. When I discovered this I thought immediately that this was going to be a dead end - how much more common could you get. But gee - this has proven to be one of the most easy lines to research both here in NSW and where they came from in Devon.
(Hmm - I haven't looked at that line for a while but I might now go and see if I can push this back even further.) :)
Kath
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When i was at school there was a teacher called Mr B*stard. Glad i'm not searching that surname, don't think there would be many message boards where you could post it on. :-\
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Well here is a pain in the but...BOARD! Even if I type in BOARD family history all I get is message board.
Atm I am searching for Margaret RYAN from Tipperary lol. I think half the population was Margaret Ryan!
Oh and I'm not even going to try googling my Hoare and Hooker lines!
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One of mine lived at "White House".... Hants
Try googling that one ;D
Other problem is William Smith - son of John Smith
Certainly challenging!
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I thought the surname Northeast would be easy - I never thought about all those sites that talk about events in the Northeast of the country!
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Some of my ancestors lived at 'No Place' in Co Durham and googling was decidedly unhelpful. I also have a late 1700s bunch of Francewars. Is that an anglicised version of Francois? Who knows. The line disappears with Julian Francewar who had two daughters (thankfully). Googling that tends to rreceive the question 'Are you searching for French Military Victories?' which still returns the message that there was nothing found, did you want to search for French military defeats.
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In this computer age my Ggpa's surname of HACKING (a fine old Lancashire surname) is a doozey!
JAP
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Googling the name "Court" also gives the problems of all things legal and all those addresses!!
There is even an old people's complex called "Ellen Court" (my maiden name)
My husband's family is McConnell and although not that common, they are all called Robert and come from Co Donegal so there is the Irish problem!
Have been helping my sister in law with her family and discovered that her g-grandmother was a Cusack from a line that can be traced back to the 13th C. No help with busband's family though as she is his half-sister and those rellies are her father's!! Quite exciting though. - My granddaughter did say this morning that she thought Auntie *** thinks she's posh and I hadn't even told her of my discovery - breeding??
Ellen
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Googling the name "Court" also gives the problems of all things legal and all those addresses!!
As does "Grant". I've come to think of my Scottish forebears as just pests. Googling on Grant is a no-no - every financial or land grant ever made comes up. And to make matters worse my gggrandfather's name was "John".
Kath :P
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I had to search for a John Smith born Leeds 1818 (although it turned out he was actually from Huddersfield so I managed to find him).
I'm also trying to find a William White born somewhere in Ireland around 1814 ::)
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The surnames are bad enough, mine are Evans,Hughes &Roberts from Wales!!! But, why o why did they all call their children by the same christian name ? i seem to have a million Elizabeths,Johns & Hughs!!! Poli.
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I'm looking for ADDY and it would have been a lot easier if folks hadn't shortened ADDRESS down to ADDY - there are so many email addy's and website addy's around these days :-\
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I stopped when I got to my GG Grandfather from Ireland - Matthew Good. Apart from having a number of different places of birth on official documents - googling "Good" or even searching for the word on a genealogy forum is somewhat disheartening. :( :( :(
Trish
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My worst name search is Cheshire, the only thing to come up is the county!!! ::)
Fortunately I have now managed to find quite a lot about them, well, to the beginning of the 1800's. :)
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My worst name search is Cheshire, the only thing to come up is the county!!! ::)
Fortunately I have now managed to find quite a lot about them, well, to the beginning of the 1800's. :)
I have the same problem with my Cornwall (changed to Cornwell about 1800) and Bury lines and when using the search facility on this site for my Tuck family I found there are many rootschatters who are stuck . ;)
margaret :)
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Hi Margaret, ;)
Yep! Cornwall does look tricky not to mention Tuck, funny what search results come up.
I now have a few problems with Andrews (lots of St Andrews) and Morgan (I get lots of Glamorgan) but at least amongst the posts there are family names cropping up.
I see you have Quinn as a name interest, me too, mine are John and Amelia Quinn Married Birmingham 1863. I have a post on the Birmingham site probably p2 by now.
Regards Pipkim :)
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I have problems with the name Burns - tend to get how to tend burns and scalds!
Carol
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How about my name Beard - we get Blackbeard Bluebeard and various colours and lengths of beard!
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You want to try and find 'Stables' surname. Get all sorts of riding stables etc., ::) ::)
However one of the worst things is how names were being spelt in the 19c. This can also happen with transcribers who look at a name and misspell it. when searching the census records I have taken to using christian name, birth year plus where born. Even then christian names can be mispelt. ::)
Oh well at least it keeps me out of trouble.
Jean
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Like many of you who have already replied, my worst surname is JONES in Montgomeryshire.
I have several lines (unrelated) all born in the same town, and to make matters worse they all married and died there too. Most Head's of the families were Richard Jones, their wives were Elizabeth and they all had children named after their parents :o
Richard Jones, Elizabeth Jones, Thomas Jones, John Jones.......oh what a headache!!!!
Jan ::)
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BUCKNEY!
No one seems to know anything about it, it is not listed in any of the surname books no one knows where it originated from it is as if it appeared from outer space ;D
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Trying to bring my tree forwards I was dismayed to find that my great grandfathers two sisters - Jane and Fanny Parker had managed to marry two brothers ..............John and James Smith, both in Lancashire! No chance!!! ??? ???
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BUCKNEY!
No one seems to know anything about it, it is not listed in any of the surname books no one knows where it originated from it is as if it appeared from outer space ;D
You never know Lambkin ;) Stranger things have happened at sea so they say
Carol
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To date, it's mostly been surnames which are common words with different meanings - like my own HACKING.
But what about surnames which vary enormously in spelling!! My own "McLaws" (which is how I generalize it) has been found in something like 90 different spellings in official records ...
JAP
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If you Google Cock surname, you only get X rated stuff
Bob
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Hi Stonechat,
What a sad fate for someone with a bird posting name searching for a bird surname! At least (I've just tried) if you Google for
genealogy + cock
the results seem to be more appropriate.
JAP
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If you Google Cock surname, you only get X rated stuff
Bob
That is a problem I would not like ;D
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Pierce: There are squillions of them, and Google brings up some eye-watering X-rated stuff.
Titson: There are virtually no records of them, and Google brings up some eye-watering X-rated stuff.
I don't know which is worse.
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I ve never come across anyone researching Varnden or Spicket
Nt many Dolby researchers either
Bob
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I knew someone called Titball once - haven't tried Googling that!!
Ellen
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Pierce: There are squillions of them, and Google brings up some eye-watering X-rated stuff.
Titson: There are virtually no records of them, and Google brings up some eye-watering X-rated stuff.
I don't know which is worse.
Well about a year ago I was doing some research when I came across the name
Fanny Virgin (I kid you not) can you imagine being lumbered with that?
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HI all, :)
Try " Edwards " south Shropshire, ??? ??? ???,
Pete, :),
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Hi
If someone found James Rooney b1831 somewhere in Ireland I don't think I would be in a fit state to add the information to my tree.
There appear to be more Rooney's in Ireland than Jones in Wales and Patels in the far east.
Regards
Lin
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I thought I was having problems when searching for
"Box" until I tried "Incher"
Jackie.
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My gf was John Smith. His dad was William Smith. Bill's dad was Fred Smith. Fred's dad was Charles Smith. Very first branch of the tree I started to research and the one I still have the least on. Didn't help that ggf stated on all his records he was born and raised in Hampshire, and the b*gger actually lived his whole life in Hackney.
Rare and non-Anglo names are worse, though. My Pithouse's are almost never under that name - from Pittis to Pates to Petties and so on.
And Olislaeger!!! Absolutely impossible. At last count there are over 60 different versions, not including the original D'Olislaeger and the gggg uncle who went by Osligo.
Wilde's in Manchester and Evans' in Birmingham aren't much fun either.
Kez :)
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Googling for the Crotch family brought a blush to my cheeks. Most embarrassing.
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Fortunately googling for HOOKER :o :o :o ;D isn't as bad as you might think, although my husband thought it hilarious and didn't let me forget it for quite a few days. ::) ::) ;D
Pipkim
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Needless to say there are problems googling Cock family or its later version Cocks.
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CRONE is pretty bad, not least in that it's a word you usually only associate with 'the old...' stuck on the front.....
'Crone' in the censuses is almost invariably transcribed as 'Crane', 'Crown' or 'Crow'. Googling Crone gives weird mystic sites (eg 'The third aspect of the Goddess is that of the Crone...') :-\
But probably one of my trickiest is BOYS. When I've tried googling that, I end up with loads of gay sites!! :o
Clare
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Googling for my Weed family gave us some random and probably illegal sites, my worst though has to be William Williams, thats all I know about him!!
Stonechat, are you researching Dolby's?? I have Dolby's in Northants....
Legs
xxxx
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The worst surname? Well, we would all agree - one's own! Everyone else has got it so easy... ;)
meles
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the worst name I have in my tree is Gander, trying to google it is a nightmare, all you get is nursery rhymes and goosey goosey!! ::)
good rooting
Jane
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Gander - nothing. Try googling my cousins the Hookers!
meles
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Hi Meles,
You've got Hookers too!! ;D
Pipkim
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Well, Pipkim, I'm not sure I would have phrased it exactly that way... but if the cap fits...! ;D
meles
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i havn't tried it, but we have a chatter looking for a FANNY PAINE i wonder what that comes up with on google.
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At the end of the day, you rue the common names in your family history (eg Smith anywhere, Davies in Wales).
But the more unusual names like Crone and Boys, you think will be easy-peasy, but of course, these are the names which will be mispelled on the original censuses, or mistranscribed by Ancestry!
Clare (or my new name Clara - mistranscribed by the GRO!)
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Martin, particularly Mary Martin. I have three in my own family alone. There are absolutely zillions out there! But far too many of any Martin name I put in. (At least I don't get rude stuff up, I suppose!! Gotta be grateful for small mercies!)
MarieC
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I think I am the only peson in the world looking for these surnames:
Rockebrandt
Borgwardt
Torborg
(The Full name is: Melsine Wilhelmina Rockebrandt Torborg) Yickes!!!!!!!!!!!!
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My nans real father, who died when she was a baby, was called Thomas Smith - we do not have his wedding certificate and we know nothing about him. Trying to search for a death of Thomas Smith between 1917-1920 in the West Midlands is crazy - we don't know if he died because of the war, because of that flu thing after the war, due to natural causes, nothing, but it's not going to be easy until we get the wedding certificate I guess! I dread tracing his family!
There is also Smith on my fathers side aswell.
My surname is O'Driscoll, my Irish ancestors come from Dublin, Swords and Cork - I'm not sure how hard that is going to be to trace yet...
The furthest ancestors I have are Adams and Burton (I love that combination :D ) and the Scott family from Sutton In Ashfield, apparently there were many Scotts there!
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Mine is ELLESON - yes, not ELLISON - because everyone, including census enumerators, scribes at the GRO - and even present day doctors and dentists - think it's spelt wrong and "correct" it :(
Veron
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My worst name is Stewart, no disrespect to our American cousins but they completetly block the net up with talks about DNA testing - they all want to be related to royalty. It makes it a nightmare to do searches.
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I have to include the surname Calland-Scoble in your list. Soemtimes I'm hunting for Calland, sometimes Scoble, Sometimes Callands, Sometimes well quite frankly anything that looks like Calland-Scoble. It is a nightmare!
Brigcs
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My worst name to search is Yonker. I think I need to learn french in order to ever find this line :( Baggett has proven difficult too
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On the other hand, uncommon surnames mean that no other so-and-so is searching for it, and you're on your own!
meles
..........and the bally things are almost always mis-spelled or mis-transcribed ???
How true - I have even found Wanklyn transcribed as Waukling. No wonder I missed them first time round. It would be nice to find someone else who is researching my family - still at least I get to be the one to tell all to the family the gossip ;D
Sue B
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Hi all,
My worst name has to be Branch , googling gives you every branch of everything from trees to shops to agencies............grrrr
Add George to that and get every branch of the St George bank in Oz (where I am)
Second would have to be Quayle and you get every stupid thing Dan Quayle ever said, I am sooooooo sick of him, (Haven't connected him to our family yet, thank goodness....lol)
Penny
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Good one PennyQ!!
And to think that I thought that Hacking was a bad name!
JAP
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My worst is Harrison, especially in Durham where they came from, Im sure every coal miner in Durham was a Harrison. the problem is who is related to who.
And every Harrison is renamed after another harrison, my ggrandfather and ggrandmother decided to name all their children after her brothers and sisters and that hasnt helped although its nearly sorted now.
Its like the needle got stuck on the record.
Yvonne
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I have 5 Abraham Simpsons and if I try to find anything online about them I only get Homers dad!
Anna x