Census' exhausted where to next?

[Malcolm33]

You don't have to just go back.... I was intrigued by my GG-grandmother's siblings, parents and their siblings, to answer the question "Where did they all go? Where did they all end up?"  I assumed they'd all have stayed in the village, but they went all over the place.  Some to villages 10 miles away, some to Canada/Australia - and some just "disappeared", which are more jaunts through the census records to try to find them.

Newspapers are where I've had the most interesting stuff.  OK, so I knew somebody was born in 18xx, married in 18xx, widowed in 18xx, died in 18xx ....but what was more interesting was discovering she'd been in prison and why - and then seeing her physical description on her sheet!

Stalk those ancestors you've discovered....see what they got up to.  I had one who was in court for "buying a soldiers pants"!    Or the one who married a man who died in the loony bin, then remarried and then she died - and as they were laying out her body they discovered a huge cache of hidden gold!

They can be hilarious

   So very true and you just don't know what may turn up next.    When searching a John Grant Forsyth it soon became evident that he had been quite a bad boy, but we didn't get a full insight into his character until we read the whole account of his being extradited from Sydney in 1886 and then playing cards with the notorious murderers Caffrey and Penn who were later hanged in Auckland, while humming, "Hear Me Gentle Maritana".
   I would also recommend looking for old sketches of the places where ancestors lived.   These can really take you back and show you the world they used to live in.    Look too for old occupations, like Tyneside Keel Men - some of these not only show one how they lived and dressed but often have a funny side which only comes out when you see a sketch from that period.

[JenB]

how easy is it access this information online?

  

In an earlier thread you said you lived only 20 minutes from Northumberland Archives at Woodhorn - why not pay them a visit as advised by Christine? 

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=721526.msg5653872#msg5653872

[MaryThorn]

Some fantastic suggestions, thank you all.  Jen I really wanted to go up there a few weeks back and had it all planned but now have quite a sick relative to look after so don't have the time to go up and spend a good few hours rooting around.  Actually it was my relative becoming sick that kind of reawakened my interest in finding out about the past as very little was known about his side of the family, and i've dug up some really interesting facts on the family, thanks to his side being quite prominent farmers there's lots out there in newspaper archives.  My side there's less to find out about as they were all mining stock, but it's interesting to see how far afield they
migrated in working in the mines. Also having Straughans in the family has made it slightly more complicated.

Loving how I can lose myself online with the family search and how supportive and knowledgable everyone here is.

[JenB]

now have quite a sick relative to look after so don't have the time to go up and spend a good few hours rooting around. 

Sorry about that     but you've been given plenty of links to earlier records to keep you going 

Durham Bishops Transcripts are here https://familysearch.org/search/image/index#uri=https://familysearch.org/recapi/sord/collection/1309819/waypoints but please note a) not all parishes are covered b) not all dates are covered c) they are not searchable - you must browse through page by page. However there are a lot of treasures to be found there if you have the stamina and patience 

[c-side]

 [/quote]
Durham Bishops Transcripts are here https://familysearch.org/search/image/index#uri=https://familysearch.org/recapi/sord/collection/1309819/waypoints but please note a) not all parishes are covered b) not all dates are covered c) they are not searchable - you must browse through page by page. However there are a lot of treasures to be found there if you have the stamina and patience 
[/quote]

Browsing through them is also good practice for what it's like working through microfilms of parish records when you do make it to Woodhorn 

Christine

[MadaboutRoses1883]

OPC (online Parish Clerk) sites can be very useful; a variety of free information.  Here's the link to the Dorset one but if you scroll to the end there is a list of the others:

http://www.opcdorset.org/


Nanny Jan

Cheers for the link, I just found my gr gr grandparents and my gr grandmother on there.