Keep researching those side lines!

[Sara2212]

I agree that a trip down a side line can reveal some interesting information and help plump up the family history.

I met my father's second cousin recently and she said her father had been brought up with a foster brother.  I decided to see if I could find out anything about this boy's family and from the surname found that the vicar of the village in which my father's great grandfather had lived had the same surname.  From there I found that my g. g. grandmother's sister was the second wife of the vicar and that the story goes that one of the vicar's grandchildren had had an illegitimate son who was then fostered into the wide family. 

It's wonderful the stories that come to light through this research of sidelines and I feel it helps build a bigger picture than just names on a tree.

[coombs]

I once found a sister of an ancestor by just researching his daughter from his first marriage. She was staying with a lady in Bermondsey who turned out to her her aunt.

[IgorStrav]

Oh doesn't that make you so PLEASED when you join up the strands like that!   

[bullet]

Oh yes, I just so agree.

Only yesterday, I had a bit of a 'lull' in my tree, just wasn't getting anywhere, so I decided to look into my g.g.grandmother's brother.  Found lot's of lovely war records, etc. and, found he was a widower by 1911. 

To cut a very long story short, I came across  a tree on Ancestry with lots of lovely old photos from his wife's side.  Imagine my utter disbelief when I saw the exact same photo which I have in my collection, the only one that I haven't been able to identify.  It's been sitting there for as long as I can remember with no name on the back.  Turned out to be his sister in law and her children.

[IgorStrav]

Following the discoveries I made which led me to start this thread, I've been following up the siblings of my gx4 grandmother, and their children.

I'm trying to do this really well, not only attaching the sources to my tree, but looking closely at each census page and noting down salient points about exactly where they lived and their occupation (mostly Ag Lab  although I must investigate the difference between that and farm servant).

It's really reinforcing for me the fact that the siblings lived so close together (although they didn't all stay in the same village) and it must have been a very close knit family - various members turn up close to others.

I'm now seeing that I need a separate chart to log each member in each census and their various locations.

This is all in a small area of Kent, which I had literally never even visited till recently, and I cannot tell you how weird it is to feel such a connection to a place which I'd never known before.

[coombs]

I dont feel the bond with side lines as I do with direct rellies but will still research them if needed.

[sarenid]

The usefulness of researching side lines was reinforced today when I received from a 2/3rd cousin two pictures of 2 different weddings within my family.  One of the weddings concerned my paternal grandmother, the other her brother and my gr uncle.   Both concerned people who were close the former obviously but the latter also because the grandmother lived for some 20 years with her brother, as born out by censuses, and his wife prior to her own marriage.   

However, I had no idea how linked the two families were untill my relative pointed out.  1) Mother of the Groom in picture 1 was the aunt of the bride in picture 2 and the bride's sister in picture 1 married the brother of the bride in pciture 2.

I had actually researched the side lines to some extent but had missed this connection because the children concerned ie the bride in picture 2 was the daughter of a 2nd marriage and I had not found that 2nd marriage or even looked for it until the cousin pointed it out.

Maybe I would eventually have found it but if I had just researched my direct ancestors the links would not have been apparent and yet according to my cousin the relationship between the two families was very strong - such that during the WW2 the agricultural branch kept a pig for the town branch and after slaughtering would send the carcass to the family on a midland red bus!

sarenid

[jane l]

sarenid i quite agree i often spend hrs way of the beaten track and have found some amazing links +have been intouch with many people all over the world who have passed on some great info and pic's of very close relies-research -all is my motto
jane

[IgorStrav]

Great story Sarenid.  I really like the pig travelling on the bus!