Hi Mike C from Down Under
This is Karen from down under.
It is very difficult to establish parentage from this time. I have a Henry Winterbottom (Clothier), who was born in Saddleworth c1794 according to census. His first two children were called Robert and Mary. Consequently, a number of people on Ancestry gave him the parents Robert Winterbottom (Clothier) from Strines in Saddleworth & Mary Bottomley.
It seemed to fit well. But it is wrong. The Henry, son of Robert Winterbottom and Mary Bottomley died in Strines 1845 and left a will. So It couldn't be my Henry as he died in 1868 in Huddersfield.
I collected every bit of information about Henry that I could. But I must say I was lucky as he had electoral records at Wool Road. He didn't live at Wool Road, he was leasing the property. So I searched the lessee's name. He was a clothier.
His son, Robert, lived in Huddersfield. On the 1861 a Sarah Hewkin, born in Saddleworth, was living with Robert. She was entered as a cousin. So I searched for all possible births for her than looked at all the possible marriages from those births.
I found a possible mother - Sarah Winterbottom enter as from Wool Road on her marriage register.
I then looked for other Winterbottoms at Wool Road and found 6. Their father's name was Robert (Clothier) and their mother's name was Hannah and they died at Wool Road. So I was able to track down a will for Robert Winterbottom (clothier) of Wool Road.
Their was Henry, Robert's eldest son.
Sorry if this is long winded, but it was the only way to demonstrate how it is done.
Look for all the possibles then go about the process of proving that they are not the right ones. Like I did with the Henry from Strines. Make lists, add the dates, names, places and occupations, until you find connections.
Look at witnesses on marriage registers as they can be relatives, often a sister's husband.
Find records for everyone on census records who are entered as a visitors. They can often be relatives. Look backwards and forwards through the census documents and baptism documents because you might find relatives living close by and births for other family member that are not indexed by Ancestry.
Google the name and you may find your person on somebodies online tree. I did this and I found a book. You also need old maps that show places that no longer exist. It is surprising how much people moved around in those days. Learn about the area they lived in.
Don't trust a record if it is only the transcription. I order films from LDS and find lots of mistakes made by Ancestry.com and find entries for my family that aren't indexed by them.
It takes a long time and organization to do this and in the end you may never be able to establish, with confidence, who that person's parents are.
I have many people on my tree whose lines end about 1800 and that's okay.
Last bit of advice, beware of using information from other people's trees. Don't trust that little waving leaf. It can lead to rubbish.
I still don't have a birth for Henry. Many records from this time are lost so we have that to contend with also.
Good Luck
Karen
