Genealogy frustrations.

[coombs]

Record offices where the microfilm has not been rewound, or is upside down, or the microfilm machine is virtually kanckered and it is the only one available as others are in use. I guess we all have come across these types of machines before. Hence why when waiting for a free decent machine you look through the printed transcripts on the shelves of the county parish registers.

[jbml]

Mr Ashby 's lad was probably known as Nebby-never-late-for-a-date.

JM

Just as well he wasn't a young blood in the 19th century though ... by the time he'd finished writing his name on a young lady's dance card, he'd probably have missed the dance!

[coombs]

Common names are a pain but actually the spelling can be much more straightforward than rarer surnames which can have many variants. Smurthwaite, Bracegirdle etc.

[pharmaT]

I have found what is possibly the baptism record of one of the people i am researching.  It is just a lost of the names of the people baptised and their dates of baptism.  No parents, not even the father, no indication of where they lived in the parish nothing, no clues. Argh!

[pinefamily]

Common names are a pain but actually the spelling can be much more straightforward than rarer surnames which can have many variants. Smurthwaite, Bracegirdle etc.

Totally agree. And with rarer surnames not only do you have to contend with the spellings in the records, but also transcriber interpretations on Ancestry and FindMyPast. While I understand that transcribers should write they see, it does not explain some of the interpretations! 

[Guy Etchells]

My genealogy frustrations are in the main limited to modern records and the concept of “privacy” of public records. Records which by Act of Parliament are accessible to the public but due to office policy are not accessible because you needs to know the very details you are trying to discover to access the records.
I also get frustrated when trying to access records such as the 1921 census because MPs were lied to when deciding to instil a 100 year closure period and why on earth was the 1921 census included in such a closure when the public were given the option of a separate private enumeration?

I am just glad most of my research is in the 15th, 16th & 17th centuries.
Cheers
Guy

[mrcakey]

One that's happened to me before but cropped up again this week: ordering a will in the hope that it will give you some good information and then finding it's just "I leave everything to wife. The End."

Four wills from the same branch of my family, all arrived at once, and all of them as dull as a dull thing.

[sugarbakers]

SP's inability to acknowledge that there are a few of us who search regularly for occupations. We don't know the names to search for until we've found them   I can't browse the 1911 census, or the parish records, using their pay-per-view system. I'm not asking for a full subscription, just the limited type (day/week/month) as used by Essex RO.

[coombs]

Oh yes, wills that are very short and sweet, and only mention wife and children and not nephews, nieces or cousins, or parents or aunts/uncles. Or people who seemed to have property and money yet you cannot find any trace of a will. Maybe they did come to some private arrangement or they left a will but it was never proved.