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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: Stanwix England on Sunday 19 March 17 00:19 GMT (UK)
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I was wondering if anyone else ever finds themselves looking at records and getting sidetracked by people who are nothing to do with you or your research?
Tonight I'm looking at marriage bann records for a so many times removed aunt.
The bann below theirs, 19 May 1903, is for an Arthur Mercer and an Edith Postill. Arthur's father is listed as being (deceased) but Edith's is (dec?)
I'd love to know the story behind that question mark! What happened to Edith's dad and why did they think he was probably dead, but were not certain enough to say for sure?
It's one of those things that are really interesting, but because it's not my family I haven't really got the spare time to look into it.
Anyone else ever find that sort of thing happening to them?
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I was wondering if anyone else ever finds themselves looking at records and getting sidetracked by people who are nothing to do with you or your research?
Tonight I'm looking at marriage bann records for a so many times removed aunt.
The bann below theirs, 19 May 1903, is for an Arthur Mercer and an Edith Postill. Arthur's father is listed as being (deceased) but Edith's is (dec?)
I'd love to know the story behind that question mark! What happened to Edith's dad and why did they think he was probably dead, but were not certain enough to say for sure?
It's one of those things that are really interesting, but because it's not my family I haven't really got the spare time to look into it.
Anyone else ever find that sort of thing happening to them?
Frequently.
Currently spending way too much time trying to link
Charles Pope VC with Charles Alfred Witting Pope (from Dorset), if you look at photos of them you assume they are related. The second one married my Gradfathers cousin. So no real close connection. I stumbled on the VC winner because he served with the nephew of one of great grandads brother in law. Talk about off track. But that then lead to looking at a cousin of grandads second wife, the cousin was another VC winner.
So might say I'm a little off track at the moment.
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I'm frequently distracted by an interesting name. If I spot a Caractactus or an Ermintrude I'll forget my "proper" research for hours!
One relative often had lodgers who were actors or musicians, and I got sidelined in tracing their movements. Another relative was a servant to an Italian artist and a quick googling revealed some of his work.
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I've also done it numerous times, gone off at a tangent that has nothing to do with my research. Have also checked out lodgers on census forms that have interesting or unusual occupations.
No wonder our family trees never reach completion!! ::) ;D ;D ;D
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Sure do :) thats part of the fun :)
I am often way off track, and so deeply involved with whoever or whatever, I totally forget who I am really researching...
::) ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
xin
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Sure do :) thats part of the fun :)
I am often way off track, and so deeply involved with whoever or whatever, I totally forget who I am really researching...
::) ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
xin
Snap.
The worst time is when looking for someone in the newspapers, there are so many interesting snippets to be found, I can waste hours forgetting my own research ;D ;D ;D ;D
Jebber
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Newspapers are the worst for getting sidetracked. There's always some interesting piece that catches your eye and off you go. ;D ;D
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I noticed the other day that the Registrar on a 1909 birth certificate was a woman. Unusual for those days, I thought, and off I went to see what I could find out about her. Seems that her father had been parish clerk/registrar before her; she died a spinster and was buried next to her spinster sister in the village churchyard.
However, someone has her on their tree in Ancestry. According to them, she married two men with the same surname as her own, one old enough to be her father. With the first of these two men she had 10 children - six of whom were born before the woman herself, including one born 112 years before, and the other four before she was 10years old. She was indeed, then, a remarkable woman. ;D
Absolutely nothing to do with my family, but fascinating (to me) nonetheless.
STG
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That is interesting. Followed in her dad's footsteps.
And someone has not done their research thoroughly ;D ;D ;D
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Oh yes, I once ended up trying to construct a family tree of local landowners. All triggered by my daughter having homework where she had to find out why her street was called what it was called ;D.
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And did you solve the mystery??? ;D ;D
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And did you solve the mystery??? ;D ;D
Well kind of they kept marrying their daughters off to each other's sons was very knotty, the tree
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;D ;D ;D
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Newspapers are the worst for getting sidetracked. There's always some interesting piece that catches your eye and off you go. ;D ;D
.........plus all the advertisements. I've also 'wasted' many hours thoroughly enjoying old newspapers.
sami
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.. and sometimes the style of language they use to describe very ordinary events. Some of those old adverts can really make you smile ;D ;D
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.. and sometimes the style of language they use to describe very ordinary events. Some of those old adverts can really make you smile ;D ;D
I read an article from the 1930s that referred to concerns that Hitler's actions could lead to war "preposterous scaremongering". Hindsight eh?
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I read an article from the 1930s that referred to concerns that Hitler's actions could lead to war "preposterous scaremongering". Hindsight eh?
Hindsight is always 20/20
Watched a very interesting movie yesterday about the resistance in Czech during WWII and then OH watched another one today about the Nazi's in Holland, but it was in Dutch so a bit heavy going for me :-\
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I'm always getting sidelined by something I discover, and from very idle curiosity have climbed up and down the trees of only distantly related people, in more detail than I really needed to. But - isn't that just the way we are all wired up? Insatiable curiosity!
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We wouldn't be doing it if we didn't!!
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So true ... just got sidetracked myself by a link to a song-lyric site, and found myself hunting out the lyrics of a song I recall from the 1960s, - quite why i can't think, but ... it's what you do, isn't it?
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It's so true, I have often gotten sidetracked and ended up researching something that has nothing to do with genealogy and then wonder how I got there ::) ;D Must have been a reason for it when I started out, but it often isn't even the first digression, it may be a tangent or two down the line ::) ;D ;D
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I'm always getting sidelined by something I discover, and from very idle curiosity have climbed up and down the trees of only distantly related people, in more detail than I really needed to. But - isn't that just the way we are all wired up? Insatiable curiosity!
Guilty ;D
Problem is they are the ones in my tree who were either very good, ie all lining up to be married, baptised and buried tidily...or...were a bit naughty and ended up first in the magistrates court and then in the papers. ;D ;D
Found one today, cousin umpteen times removed accused of nicking a pair of trousers, a vest, a door mat and a cup and saucer from his sister whom he was lodging with. It might sound funny today but in the 1880's it was a big enough deal for her to have him arrested.
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I noticed in one line of the family a surprising amount of "premature"::) births so of course got sidetracked looking at other branches of it to see how prevalent it was and there were many, right down to the most recent that I can trace. ::) ;D ;D
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I'm always getting sidelined by something I discover, and from very idle curiosity have climbed up and down the trees of only distantly related people, in more detail than I really needed to. But - isn't that just the way we are all wired up? Insatiable curiosity!
Guilty ;D
Problem is they are the ones in my tree who were either very good, ie all lining up to be married, baptised and buried tidily...or...were a bit naughty and ended up first in the magistrates court and then in the papers. ;D ;D
Found one today, cousin umpteen times removed accused of nicking a pair of trousers, a vest, a door mat and a cup and saucer from his sister whom he was lodging with. It might sound funny today but in the 1880's it was a big enough deal for her to have him arrested.
And at one time enough to get him a free cruise to Australia.
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I was wondering if anyone else ever finds themselves looking at records and getting sidetracked by people who are nothing to do with you or your research?
Since I took an Ancestry subscription I have found myself researching collateral branches in more detail than I would on PAYG and occasionally, if the records have been good, taken back the lines of great aunts' spouses a generation or two.
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Also guilty! Spend several hours chasing someone quite unrelated, then wonder what on earth I am doing. The tale I posted in the Common Room yesterday was a case in point, caused by looking at old newspapers.
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I can relate to some of these stories too....especially when looking at the1939 register for relies....I then looked at the neighbours on the same road or street to see whether there were relatives living close by....I ended up looking at census addresses from the 1911 to see who lived there in 1939.
Carol
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Newspapers are always good for a few hours' worth of being sidetracked, but think of it more as researching the events going on in the world where our ancestors lived.
I've come up with some nuggets on the same page as an article mentioning a relative. One such described to effects of the Lancashire Cotton Famine on Wigan. Another reported on floods in the farmland around Croston in 1869 - pretty devastating, but not as bad as Boxing Day 2015.
On a trip to Ireland, I spent a very limited time at the archive which stood the best chance of some records of some of my ancestors, who lived in Castleknock. Very little about them in the surviving stuff, but some excellent details about the children of local lad Arthur Wellesley - the Duke of Wellington.
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Looking through the original admission registers for Radcliffe Infirmary for 1901 and 1902 for my great, great grans admission and seeing an entry for a man who was admitted due to a carcinoma of the leg and noting down the man's details so I can look him up on the 1901 census.
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Someone mentioned newspaper reports which reminded me..... Whenever I'm looking for an obituary, I get distracted my the marvellous adverts of the time!
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I was trawling through an 1804 newspaper for a possible obituary for an ancestor in Norwich and the newspaper gave a modern feel to a time 200 years ago as the papers were in good condition and there was an advert for something that "freshens breath".
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Mention has been made of newspaper articles and adverts as good sidetrackers. In similiar vein, my downfall is Trade Directories - especially all those pages of fascinating adverts!
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I'm terrible for it ,I put it down to natural nosiness :D Why am I always distracted by adverts for corsets ? :D.
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I got sidetracked to this thread when I logged into unread post! ;D ;D ;D
It's very easy to get sidetracked on Rootschat itself!! Pretty good activity when it's 2.11am and one can't go to sleep because perhaps someone has posted something that might refer to one of my families! But I haven't even got any requests going at the moment! ;D ;D
Didn't even get finished scrolling through the Unread Post headings, I got sidetracked and saw this one!
Better go and make a cuppa, and head back to bed!
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One of my biggest sidetracks has been census records from my home town. If I am looking up one particular entry, I end up going up the street and down the other finding my friends great grandparents or some such information not related to my search.
Brent
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Another great sidetrack is while looking up information in old newspapers. I am suddenly amazed by how inexpensive round steak was in 1927 or how badly the home football team was beaten on Saturday. I should probably go back and just read the old news when I have nothing important to do.