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Family History Beginners Board / Re: Up the Balkans maybe with MATHEITBEL??
« on: Friday 22 September 23 15:59 BST (UK) »I have now found out how not to play a "brick wall" over a very long time period !!! Sometimes the "career" part of a family member is well known but the early years are not. My GG Grandfather JOSEPH DEAKIN born about 1813 ( Census average DOB) was very well documented job wise as a BELLOWS MAKER but little was known about his baptism and who his real DEAKIN parents were . About 15 years ago I put some "weak links" together in my family tree : a sort of "Mr and Mrs Deakin" parents of his , even though I knew that the 2 possibilities I used were not really married.The "Mr" was JOSEPH DEAKIN born 14 Oct 1789 Birmingham . The "Mrs" was a MARY DEAKIN born 1779 Birmingham who was said to have had an illegitimate son Joseph Deakin .Really they were just 2 possibilities that could be put together as one pair because of the illegitimacy. Temporarily I thought , she could be paired up with this "Mr Joseph Deakin" . I labelled them both as weak links but 15 years later I had forgotten about my documentation of this aspect .And so they had stayed in the tree with their weakness as possibilities forgotten as the size and complexity of the tree increased . And GED files do not know the difference between strong and weak links !!! The documentation about the weakness was hidden away and forgotten about and the size of the tree increased using these weak links . Mistakes were made including:-
1) This "father" from 1789 made a "fine uncle" for another Bellows maker - John Onions Deakin , Bellows Maker born 21 Jan 1836 Birmingham . I thought that Bellows Making was such an unusual occupation that their had to be a real link between my GG Grandfather Joseph Deakin and this John Onions Deakin also Bellows Maker . And so I assumed a close connection as they were both Deakins who were Bellow Making .Putting this "dad" in my tree opened up the possibility of a link the really important Onions Bellow making family.
2) And the tree was also extended in other ways as WILLIAM DEAKIN born 1811 Handsworth was also deemed by me to be a relative . This opened up the possibility of my Deakin side being linked to the New Zealand "whaling"DAKENS ( the surname had altered a bit by then ) and to the Deakin Mormons of Utah . It was all very interesting but the DNA evidence did not seem to bear it out and I began to do some digging .I found that if I removed this 1789 Joseph Deakin then all links to the Onions , the Dakens of NZ and the Deakins who were Mormons in Utah were also excised . So my tree has been "cut down to size" . I have realized once again that this Brick Wall is probably here to stay!