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Hi everyone,

I've had a huge brick wall that has been quite frustrating for me for quite some time now, regarding my 4th great grandparents, Alexander Bell and Janet Findlay/McKinlay.
Alexander was born in 1805, Sorn and Janet was born in 1800, Kilmarnock, both according to the census records.
They married in late 1831 and went on to have seven children (that I know of) between 1833 and 1850.
I have the birth record of their third born child, also my third great grandfather, Alexander Bell and it states that Janet's maiden name was McKinlay as it also states on the marriage record, however, here's where it becomes ridiculously confusing ;
On the 1851 census, it shows that a nephew is living with the family, his name is James Findlay and his parents were Alexander Findlay and Elizabeth Gebbie, on the death record for Janet, it shows her as being called Janet Findlay and father is unknown Findlay, mother Janet Templeton.
I have several marriage and death records of the children of Alexander and Janet and there appears to be much confusion (?) over her birth name, it changes from Findlay to McKinlay and the occupation of Alexander Sr is always correct on each one.
Alexander Jr was always consistent in his stating that Janet was a Findlay, so you can probably understand my utter bewilderment about the whole thing!

My other issue is with Alexander Sr, upon his death, it states that his parents were John Bell and Margaret Wilson, after I'd put these details into my tree on ancestry, it threw up a hint for a couple of those names who married in about 1789 in Cumbria.
I know that many people have been jumping to and fro across the border for aeons, but I'm still in two minds about this and then there's the baffling issue about there being no birth records for both Alexander and Janet.
I know from both death records that John Bell was a farmer and the mystery Findlay, a shoemaker, but obviously without any birth records, I'm stuck in an extremely confusing place.
Would there be any reason for the absence of these records?

If anyone can help me in anyway, I would be eternally grateful!

Many thanks in advance,

Alex.

Hi everyone,

I have here a scan of a very old copy of a photo of my great grandmother, this was one of the ones I mentioned previously that were terribly grainy due to the originals going missing some time ago.

There were some really lovely restorations done by some of you and I'd be ever so appreciative if you could please work your magic on this one, as well.

This would probably have been taken in the 1900s, possibly 1910-15 and would have been somewhere in London, maybe Shoreditch.

Many thanks in advance,

Alex.

Hi,

I've been trying to post several images, some of them are too large and I'm having issues trying to shrink them down, without them looking terrible - some of them are copies of photos which were copied in 1992, so the scans are grainy and even worse when I have tried altering the size.
I also tried to post an image just now that is about 2.24MB, that's not too large, is it?

I'm good with most computer related issues, but when it comes to photos, I'm awful!

Any help would be very appreciated

Hi everyone,

My 3rd great grandmother was Mary Ann Symons, I know that her birth range was roughly about 1811 - 1817, I have had a lot of problems pinning her down since the start of my research.
In 1835, she married my 3rd great grandfather, John Richard Foot, in Mylor.
Between 1836 and 1842, they had four children, Richard Marshall Foot, John Henry Foot, and Mary and Elizabeth. There was a tradition in the family to name (usually) the firstborn after both grandfathers, paternal, then maternal in that order, in this case, Richard was the oldest, but named after an uncle of John R Foot and John Henry Foot took the grandfather's names, should my suspicions here be correct.

Sometime between 1842 and 1849, John sr has disappeared, possibly a sea death, but I've never found anything at all in regards to his disappearance/death.
Mary Ann then married (presumably) William Brooks and had two further sons, the youngest of whom, was born in Essex.

The problems I have had with Mary Ann is on the census records, the information given is as follows;

1841, living in Mylor, Cornwall, b.of this county, aged 25.
1851, now living in Brightlingsea, Essex, b.Falmouth, aged 38.
1861, Brightlingsea, b.Flushing, aged 49.
1871, Brightlingsea, b.Flushing, aged 56.
1881, Brightlingsea, b.Crediton, Devon!!, aged 65.

She died in Brightlingsea in 1890, the age given on the parish record I have from the Seax website is 77.

As you can see, there are quite a few inconsistencies here and has made any searches very problematic indeed.

If anyone can help me solving this, I would be ever so grateful,

Many thanks in advance,

Alex.

Hi all,
For ages now I have bene trying to locate my 4th great grandmother, Eleanor Dimmock, I have 6 marriage records from 1816 in St Marylebone when she married my 4th great grandfather, Isaac Seggins.
Isaac was from Ringland, Norfolk but they had their family in Weston Underwood, it has been suggested that Eleanor was from Buckinghamshire.

The problem I have had, is that Eleanor, I believe died before 1841 and I can't find any records for her whatsoever.
No birth records that stand out, no death records at all, just these marriage records that saay she and Isaac are both of the parish of Marylebone.
There is another marriage record for an Isaac Seggins in Norfolk, but I believe this is for another Isaac Seggins, born several years before my Isaac, in 1791.
So I'm stuck with this and I'm going nowhere, fast.

Any help would be greatly received.
Many thanks in advance,

Alex.