When finding someone seems impossible did you carry on?

[EEK]

Never give up! For 3 months I've been continuously looking for my gt gt grandfather's family which disappeared after the 1851 census. Then, on Ancestry, whilst scrolling through 100s of pages of their surname, I came across a census 1861 entry with just the surname. The original entry had both sides missing, but his father's surname and place of birth with a granddaughter unknown to me solved the puzzle. I was able to find that her mother had died aged 44 when she was 2, followed by her father when she was 6. She had been taken in by her grandfather and her 2 brothers 6 and 8 were sent to boarding school. I've sent for death certs. which should complete the story - albeit a very sad one.
Eileen

[lesleyhannah]

Eileen, that's just the sort of find that makes all the searching worthwhile! Good luck with the rest of the research.

[Subaru]

Hi

I've just noticed my post on here going back to August 07, when I was still looking for a trace of my grandfather after 15 years.  Well nearly a year ago, I found him

He wasn't where he was supposed to have been, and I still haven't told my mam about it - it's a long story.

To cut a long story short - My mam thinks he was born in Ireland, was in the Coldstream guards, and married her mam. 

What actually happened was - He was born in Warwickshire, with Irish parents and family.  He married, had three children, joined up for WW1, walking out on his first family.  He was in the hospital with shell-shock, met my grandmother (didn't marry her) and had my mam and uncle.  He was actually in the Coldstream guards, then the Yorks and Lancs regt.  His Boer war records survived, which is where I found out family info.

This all came about because my uncle gave me an old book that my grandfather had given him.  It was signed by him, and gave his army number and regt.  He did actually receive the MM, but not the DCM.

It was all a bit of a shock, I even have a photo of him now.  So never give up hope.

Rosemary

[Comosus]

I spent ages trying to find my GGG Grandfather William Scholey who was on the 1871 census. He married in 1866 and died in 1879 so this was all I had to go on. His wife's father's name on the marriage was wrong so I wasn't sure if his father's was too. He said he was born in Leeds on the 1841.

I asked for help a few times here and people did their best, but couldn't find him. Then out of the blue after asking again (I just searched for the thread but sadly I think it must have been deleted as I can't find it), a Rootschat member found him: It turned out he was illegitimate and was born in Wakefield. On the 1861 census his mother has adopted her boyfriend's surname (claims to have married but there's no record) and William is listed under this surname. His father's first name and occupation match up with those given on his marriage certificate. Going further back, the family is listed under various spellings - Schorey, Scorey, Schorah, Scorah etc.

Don't give up hope.

What kept me going was KNOWING that the answers ARE out there. They WERE alive, and there ARE almost certainly records on them that would solve the riddle. The problem (and challenge) is to find them. I also think it's these brick walls that keep us going because we want to know more and you feel amazing after finally solving something that has puzzled you for years.

Andrew