When finding someone seems impossible did you carry on?

[Ruskie]

It's almost understandable to get "stuck" pre 1837 or when you need to rely on PR's which only give the father's name in a birth register.

It's more frustrating when you get stuck in the 1860's when there should be records to be found and trails to be followed. I'm stuck with my partner's great grandfather bc1860. I return to this now and again but seem to be going around in circles.

[KathMc]

I have been trying to track down my gg grandfather for 17 years now. First definite "sighting" is him being baptized 4 days before he got married in New Jersey. I have him on the 1880 and 1900 census in New Jersey. His wife died in 1905 and is buried in Orange, NJ. Death cert says she is married. And that's that. He says in his baptismal and marriage records that he was born in Princeton, NJ. My cousin paid for a three-county search of birth records with no luck. He is not buried with his wife, so we have no idea what happened to him. My mother, who spent the first 18 years of her life with her grandfather never even heard this man's name spoken.

But I keep searching. Give up? NEVER!!!

Kath

[kooky]

I have spent years trying to find the birth, marriage or death of Samuel Clulo. He was in the 1861 census aged 10 in Birmingham, with his parents Samuel and Ann nee Bryan.

see  :- England (Counties as in 1851-1901) / Warwickshire / Re: Samuel Clulo - where did he go?

I had lots of help, especially from Valda. Still no sign of him!

[Sarndra]

I'm interested in hearing your stories for some much needed motivation or advice from what I've typed below.

After months or constant searching for an ancestor and with help from a couple of people on here I haven't found him.[snip]

Only months of trying?  :-) Some i've still found very little after 30 years.... but still i search because one day the last piece will fall in to place like a jigsaw as it has on my other lines :-)  [helps having a website... i've had people contact me via that who are directly related]

Cheers and happy hunting!

Sarndra
www.sarndra.com

[aghadowey]

Who am I stuck on?
-Grandfather's grandfather who appears from nowhere, gets married (a year or so before records start), does not appear in valuation records (although I know where he was living), and then dies with obituary in paper before date on death certificate.
-man listed in 1930 U.S. census as my great-grandfather's son- no living relatives had ever heard of him, can't find birth certificate, name of mother, etc.
-Judith Gilmore who lived in U.S. and used to send parcels at Easter and Christmas to 2 orphaned relatives in Ireland. Don't know if she was aunt, half-sister, cousin, etc. One of the boys is still alive, named his daughter Judith after her and it would be wonderful to finally be able to tell him something about Judith.
-the identity of a man called 'Timaru' by relatives in Ireland because he lived there in N.Z. (I haven't even tried to look for him as I am not sure of surname).

The list is endless. Like many others if I get stuck I turn to another branch of the family to research but keep an eye out for other information.

[MarieC]

Keep going, jillynetter!  Never, never give up!

I have found information about ancestors in Ireland - very hard to search for from Australia - through the kindness of Rootschatters.  Just today, I have a message that has given me the year of death of my gggrandmother in Ireland!  I've been looking for that for a long time.  Distant cousins have found my webpage and given me more information about family lines.  A woman in England who is no relation at all, but is interested in researching one of my surnames, has been unbelievably helpful with that line, and even another!  I have horrible brick walls that I may never breach, but at least I have recently found, in an online source, the reason for the disaster that befell one of these families in the 1850s.  Like others, I go away and do other research and come back to the difficult ones from time to time. 

Keep putting your names on any website you can find, keep googling them, and one day something will happen.  You may never crack all your brick walls, but you WILL make progress!

MarieC

[Subaru]

15 years, and haven't given up

My grandfather told my mam and uncle that he was in the Coldstream Guards, and received the MM and DCM, even signing his name with the initials.  They believed him of course.

Only when I started searching for info on him, did I come to the conclusion that he either changed his name, or made it all up.  He definitely received an army pension, and was injured in the war, even died through his injuried years later.  But there are no records on Ancestry pensions, Coldstream Guards, or any other regiment who might fit him.

Also there is no record of him and my grandmother being married, I've checked everywhere.  Making me think that he was probably already married.  My uncle wasn't baptised until he was 5, just before he started school.

Maybe one day I'll get to the bottom of it.  His medals have conveniently disappeared as well.  My mam remembers him getting them through the post, after a nurse sent them on to him, but they had been in the post for years, finally finding him.

Don't give up, one of these days, I'm hoping something will turn up

Rosemary

[celia]

Quote Jilly
After months or constant searching for an ancestor

As you can see Jilly some of us have been searching a lot longer than that.The earliest one of my tree's goes back to is the late 1700.The others all got stuck there ,but as it only a hobby for me I don't bother after after a couple of years looking for them.I know they are out there somewhere.My problem for about five years was working back down my tree.After 1901,very hard,no records or mention anywhere.Then recently a rootschatter found all my lost ones,in places i never thought to look.So working up or down don't give up,just give it rest if you cant find someone.I found if you concentrate to much on one person you actually loose the consentration.Weird

Celia

[lizdb]

No - never give up! Maybe take a rest or just try approaching it from different angles. I havent read your thread yet, will do, and see if I can come up with any ideas.
but based on,  hmmmmm,  must be over 20 years of researching, you just never know where the breakthrough will pop up from, so it is worth trying every lead possible! And then it will still probably take you by surprise when you are looking for someone else!