Psychic Genealogy

[Rena]

I'm sorry, I really can't imagine any of my long-gone rellies, including the ones interested in spiritualism / feeling they themselves were mediums, are really waiting to send me messages, if only I will go and shell out money to a medium! They, if anyone, should be able to get through on their own power .... if there was anything in it.

I know what you mean, I haven't needed to visit a medium for several years because I just get these feelings when I see the right records.   

[cassie18]

Hi, well I got hooked on this thread because I have a little story as well. Many years ago I'd been working on a great uncle who my father said had been "stabbed by a native". I have a photo of his overseas grave. I can't remember who told me but I was told to write to a lady, not give any information as such but just a general chat. She sent me a reply in which she said quite a few things which were correct but she couldn't have known. Then she said that a gentleman had drawn close and said "I wasn't killed, it merely happened." I knew straight away who she meant but I had no proof. Years later I found his son and I told him what my father said. He told me that was wrong and said his father dies of natural causes.

[Beeonthebay]

What an interesting thread 

[Rena]

What an interesting thread 

When I received the email notification that there was a response to the thread - I read the thread again and agree that it really is interesting.

I contributed to #112 and when I read it, I realised that I'd missed the relevance of the word "Pals", which I took to mean "Mates/chums", and had thus missed a clue about the place and era. 

 "His Pals called him Harry but he preferred his real name Henry .....died in the war"

Did any reader spot the clue?

Okay so Henry had been killed in a war but then, as I was a newbie to genealogy, I had no idea as to which generation he belonged and what war (Crimean, Napoleonic, Boer War, WWI, WWII).

At the time it was a daunting task trying to choose which Henry was "mine" out of a list of umpteen Henry's with his surname, when in actual fact if I'd known every town in WWI had a PALS battalion then I only had to choose from a list of three Henrys. 

The Pals battalions of World War I were specially constituted battalions of the British Army comprising men who had enlisted together in local recruiting drives, with the promise that they would be able to serve alongside their friends, neighbours and colleagues

[Rachatfalcon]

Reading this thread has made me smile!

Where would I start if I wanted to ask for help? I have a specific problem that I am unable to solve (don't we all lol...) and that is of my pesky ancestors (they really were pesky, I'm not exaggerating!) evading my search!

On 2nd January 1861, my GG Grandad was born Alfred Cresswell SELWYN, in Hawley/Blackwater, Hampshire. His parents were Alfred John SELWYN and Emily SELWYN nee RAWLINS.

3 months later in April, they are nowhere on the 1861 census.

The following year, 20th September 1862, his sister was born Isabella Mary SELWYN, in Hoxton Middlesex (address 4 Haberdashers Place) to parents Alfred SELWYN and Emily SELWYN nee RAWLINGS.

The address from Isabella's birth was occupied by another family in the 1861 census so they must have arrived there between the census in April 1861 and September 1862.

I just want to know what happened, where were they and what made them move. They had 2 children between January 1861 and September 1862, and moved a considerable distance.

What sort of Psychic Genealogy options might there be for me to explore?

Thank you,
Regards
Rachel

[HughC]

I'm worried that a medium (or someone who claims to be psychic) would tell me what he or she thinks I want to hear, rather than what I really want to know.

However, I keep hoping I can turn round and find a ghostly ancestor sitting on the sofa, who will tell me the true story.  After all, we can find out quite a lot from birth registrations, baptismal records, censuses, and so on, but are they always the true biological relationships?  There have been extra-marital affairs throughout the ages.  It would certainly be very useful to be able to talk to the dead.

[coombs]

I'm worried that a medium (or someone who claims to be psychic) would tell me what he or she thinks I want to hear, rather than what I really want to know.

However, I keep hoping I can turn round and find a ghostly ancestor sitting on the sofa, who will tell me the true story.  After all, we can find out quite a lot from birth registrations, baptismal records, censuses, and so on, but are they always the true biological relationships?  There have been extra-marital affairs throughout the ages.  It would certainly be very useful to be able to talk to the dead.

I now feel though, that genealogy/family history is much much more than just genetics. It is also who raised whom. A "not parent expected" in a DNA result does not alter the fact that man or woman is still part of your family history and did all the hard work in raising your ancestor, and sharing the same surname.

For instance if a James Bloggs and Ellen Smith had a relationship in a small Suffolk village, and he got her pregnant in January 1864, then took fright at upcoming fatherhood and emigrated to Australia. A local man, Joe Soap, who knew Ellen then stepped in and married Ellen while she was about 6 months pregnant, in July 1864, and the baby was born in October 1864, and was registered as the son/daughter of the new husband Joe Soap, and took his name and was then raised by Joe, then Joe Soap was the father in every way but biology.

[Rena]

I certainly did not believe in mediums/clairvoyants when my daughter arranged for us to visit one.  I took a tape recorder to make sure that I didn't feed her any information, which would be indicated on the recording.

My daughter received a recommendation about the medium that we visited and that's what I would stipulate.  Either get a recommendation from a friend or go along with a tape recorder to make sure you don't give out information that can be used.

The person we went to belonged to the then local Spiritualist church.  Anyone can attend the church and apparently messages are received during the meetings.

I was very fortunate with that medium but she eventually stopped doing readings,  When I first visited I was instructed not to say a word, so I didn't react when I recognised her mentioning Manchester United (Just 3 weeks before he died my late OH and I had watched MU in the local watering hole & we'd laughed when I kept mentioning I wouldn't put X onto the field - X scored a hat trick) and again I didn't react when she mentioned a "Pilot Case" (I'd given one to my late OH as a present one year.)  That lady gave names and a clue to the name, except there was no name when she said "Apple blossom".  My late mother was always singing "I'll be seeing you in Apple Blossom time".    Daughter and I then visited a nearby town to see a woman who shuffled playing cards and read them.  I didn't get much genealogy  information that I didn't already know from her.  For instance.  she told me that she was receiving the information about a land belonging to Old Monks.  In olden days monks did own large tracts of land but my ancestors did actually live in "Old Monkland".  During her readings I looked down and saw I had doodled a wheel on a tripod, which I laughingly remarked on to the card reader.  Your ancestor worked on the steam engines in a coal mine was her response. Correct:   My ancestors worked for the Clyde Ironworks, which was next to a coal field.  Unfortunately I wasn't given parents names which I still need to know and confirm. 

[HughC]

Whatever coombs may say, I maintain that genealogy is about genes.
We can record adoptive parents (and adopted children) if we want,
but we should make it clear that that's what they are,
even if it was a secret at the time.  But how do we know?: that's the problem.