How can you prove/disprove theories & assumptions?

[CuriousKat]

How do you know she was born at Gresham? The dates you give hint at the 1841, which only confirms the county. On the 1861/71 census she lists Gresham as her place of birth.

If you have a cross-reference, Ancestry show a birth and naming of a Mary Lynes at Runton 20 Jun 1795, daughter of Thomas & Sarah. Runton is less than 4 miles from Gresham.  I shall have a look at this, thank you.

Remember that Mary could easily have been in service far away from her birthplace when she married.

I was recently looking at a family from that general area, and as agricultural labourers they moved around from parish to parish. They were in 8 different parishes within a 6 mile radius of Cley Next The Sea - and there's only a semicircle of land involved.

[Josephine]

Hi, CuriousKat:

There are other ways to try to make that connection. Sometimes it helps to go really broad in your searches. These are all long shots but, if you're lucky, they might pay off.

These strategies have worked for me at various times:

- Check for wills of people with the same surname in the same general area, in case she was named in any of them.

- Search the Internet Archive and Google Books for information that might have been published about families of the same (or similar) surname.

- Search digitized newspapers for obits that might name relatives; also search for birth and marriage notices, plus other articles that might provide family information.

- Contact local family history societies to ask about family histories they might have on file, plus local BMD indexes and cemetery transcripts.

- Contact local libraries re. the same.

Good luck in your search!

Regards,
Josephine