RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: TonyMcGartland on Sunday 29 December 19 16:55 GMT (UK)
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When the family tree seems to have hit a 'brick wall' and seven years of research has brought you back to 1779 and one person left standing, where do you go next in finding out more. Years of trying has unearthed little more, do you just give up?
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Follow the collateral lines downwards. You may find other branches who have information that can help you to knock down your brick wall.
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I think that acknowledging that you have come to the end of reliable records for a particular line can be the sign of an honest researcher. In some places the records just aren’t there for ordinary working people beyond a certain date, if they kept out of court, Parish support and did not own or lease property or leave wills, and perhaps moved around.
However I would also wholeheartedly endorse the “go wide” approach suggested by Craclyn. I appreciate you may already be doing this but perhaps go even wider than you have?
Following up siblings and cousins and their children can open up many more doors, including those leading backwards. Evidence which may be weak for your immediate line may look quite different when you have the picture for the wider family.
Part of going wide can include DNA testing. This will confirm ( or otherwise) your paper trail and is also likely to suggest new avenues of research.
Good luck.
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I think admitting defeat is sometimes a thing you have to do with a certain relative. Especially a common surname. Say for instance you descend from a John Smith who wed Mary Hamilton in London in 1752, finding the parents and baptism of John Smith will be virtually impossible as it is pre census and civil reg eras, and London attracted people from all over the UK. If they married on or after 1 Jan 1754, the chance increases if you look at the original register and note the 2 witnesses (sometimes more or even just 1). You may strike lucky if your John Smith wed in a London church in 1756 and the 2 witnesses was Hepzibah Smith and Cornelius Smith. :D
Sadly, non conformity can make finding an ancestor much harder as the survival rate for NC records is quite low I think.
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Have you tried checking what is recorded for each townland your kin were at?
e.g Leitrim 1739 to 1810
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSNX-X9DN-K?i=6&cat=185720
keeping an eye on Column2... the Barony.
Rosclogher would be your Barony. All a matter of luck!!
Keep eyedrops nearby..... ;D
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I think there has to be a cutting off point.
You cannot go trailing over the same old ground for clues / records that you cannot access..
I gave up on my Irish line eventually only to be surprised some years later when that parish records were released.
Still stumped on earlier generations though.
Another branch is hopeless beyond 1782 so given up on that.
Something for those who come after me to discover.
Sometimes the unexpected happens and those for whom you have long searched are revealed.
Happy New Year. To All.
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It does get harder the further you go back. Less survival rates of records, or records stop before a certain date. Useful censuses only go back to 1841, BMD registers back to 1837.
Wills, poor law records, ratebooks and parish registers are 4 big resources for pre 1800 research, and many a time I have found a page missing from a parish register. Failure to find a baptism in parish registers may indicate non conformity or even no baptism/gaps in the PR's.
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Have you tried checking what is recorded for each townland your kin were at?
e.g Leitrim 1739 to 1810
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSNX-X9DN-K?i=6&cat=185720
keeping an eye on Column2... the Barony.
Rosclogher would be your Barony. All a matter of luck!!
Keep eyedrops nearby..... ;D
Completely irrelevant, but have you noticed that if you zoom in on that link, in the heading, the letter “o” in “County” has a little face drawn in it? Very charming I think. :)
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I think there has to be a cutting off point.
You cannot go trailing over the same old ground for clues / records that you cannot access..
I gave up on my Irish line eventually only to be surprised some years later when that parish records were released.
Still stumped on earlier generations though.
Another branch is hopeless beyond 1782 so given up on that.
Something for those who come after me to discover.
Sometimes the unexpected happens and those for whom you have long searched are revealed.
Happy New Year. To All.
Very valid point, I think its time to stay away and let the clues come to me. I have over 1500 people on my tree and it has been a pleasure finding them all.
Happy New Year
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There is more than one branch in a tree and plenty more GGreat Grandparents and their siblings to research.
Fill in the blanks in the siblings and you may just find someone like I did who is my 3rd Cousin and she has physically visited the churches and records archives to research our family and has supplied me with a lot of information that is simply not yet online.
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My father's father was born in southern Ireland of an Irish-born mother, although most of the Tarrs didn't stay there after 1882. My only clue to the Irish line was the surname Curtis given to a great-uncle. Without great effort I found the photo of a gravestone in Dungarvan for both Irish parents, also including the names of three known grandchildren, so 100% certainty. Gravestones can be a useful source of information.
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May be a good idea to concentrate on the ancestors you have found, and maybe their siblings and cousins, many of them must have travelled across the world and emigrated etc. You could look for electoral rolls, poor law records, school records, ratebook, newspapers for any extra info on the ancestors you have found.
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Believe me I have went across every individual on my tree to trace their births, marriage and deaths. I have went top to bottom and sideways and can find no more. Perhaps, a break could renew my energy.
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I am still eagerly awaiting Suffolk, Bucks, Berks and Durham records to come onto Ancestry or FindMyPast, like they have done with Essex, London, Norfolk, Somerset, Dorset etc.
It is a case of waiting for more records to come online for a county of interest, especially if you live hundreds or thousands of miles from the county.
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In an amazing twist, just a few days ago I found living relatives in California state and we are in contact now - this is unbelievable.
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I'm having a break at the moment. Since finding a marriage in 1699, I've not been able to push back my direct blood line beyond that date. It's very frustrating. The only thing I can think of is contacting the TNA about hearth tax redemption certificates to see if they shed any light on my ag lab ancestors. The parish records seem to remain stubbornly silent. :(
On the other hand, I've suddenly found a marriage for my great aunt in Canada in 1930. I know she worked there in the early 1900s, but thought she'd returned to the UK by 1923. So every cloud.... :)
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Often you find an elusive marriage and think you have a whole new line through the bride and her family but find you yet again reach a dead end. That is part and parcel of genealogy though, some lines you cannot get past 1800, others you can get back to Charlemagne.
Or you find a possible grandparent of an ancestor and their tree is quite interesting, but you cannot find the link yet.
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Like most researchers I have come to dead ends. However, I realize not all records of the world have been digitized / are searchable at the moment, and so my stragegy is simply patience.
In the meantime I have filled in my tree with siblings (and their spouses) of direct ancestors, hoping a DNA match or even an Ancestry hint may pop up and get me back on track.
:)
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Just a thought - check that your ancestors knew their own names. I was stuck for about six years because I could not find Fanny Mattley anywhere. I had totally given up on that line, and then one of the brilliant researchers on here (thanks Groom) discovered that the lady in question was not Fanny Mattley, but Frances Mattingley. This opened up a whole new world to me and my FH research because within a fortnight I discovered that my ancestry was - through Fanny's mother - Norwegian. Was v exciting - and probably worth the six years wait for such an amazing discovery.
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When the family tree seems to have hit a 'brick wall' and seven years of research has brought you back to 1779 and one person left standing, where do you go next in finding out more. Years of trying has unearthed little more, do you just give up?
Generally, I used to often refer to the old Hugh Wallis website which indicated what b & m church records were available, unfortunately it's gone the way most good things go.
If I've lost sight of an ancestor and I know his occupation I will look for websites that describe the countryside and its surroundings which might give me a clue that he's moved from elsewhere to carry on his trade. Then I look for a nearby river/canal and/or railway to see if I can glean an idea of whence he came. If he worked on a Duke's farm I surf to see if that Duke had another estate, for example.
I also use the free book website, which I've sometimes found has old books that contain b.m.d's for an area I'm researching.
https://archive.org/details/texts
As a last resort, and as surnames used to be specific to certain areas, I've also surfed for; "find origins and meaning of surname -X-". This has been handy because it suggests alternative spellings that arise when a surname crosses a county border for example.
One thing I do when I find another doing the same research, is I ask them what family stories they have, as the old stories can often unlock the past. e.g. the same research can mean the same surname, but also coming across another surname several times whilst carrying out your own. e.g. I made contact with a researcher whose ancestor moved between the same two towns as my ancester (census gave birth information) - I contacted him, told him I would be sticking to him like a leech even tho' we were following difference surnames, and asked for any family stories. I discovered he was following his family story which involved a group of travelling musicians. Eureka - a female in his group was an aunt to my gt. grandfather.
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Generally, I used to often refer to the old Hugh Wallis website which indicated what b & m church records were available, unfortunately it's gone the way most good things go.
Isn't the info on DustyDocs something like the Hugh Wallis info, with links per parish?
http://dustydocs.com.au/country-show/1/England.html
(top menu has links for Scotland, Ireland etc)
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As they got their land via Landed Estates Court....whose estate were they on?
Are there Estate Records? Leases? etc....
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Have you tried checking what is recorded for each townland your kin were at?
e.g Leitrim 1739 to 1810
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSNX-X9DN-K?i=6&cat=185720
keeping an eye on Column2... the Barony.
Rosclogher would be your Barony. All a matter of luck!!
Keep eyedrops nearby..... ;D
Just doodling on the FS Townlands history for Leitrim, it wouldn't surprise me if these 1727 Cornyn ones in Rossclougher and Dromahaire are Curneen....
Also, if so, have you checked Tithes, Griffiths or Wills for Cornyn ?
Haven't checked the later 1739 to 1810 ones on above Link.