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Five lines going...and all have ground to a halt as it is much less easy to 'document' entries the further back I go.  Family names do help somewhat but when the names I am looking for are, in the main, all 'common' (I hate to think how many Taylors there are in this world... ).

During lockdowns, when life came to a standstill, I did manage to 'tidy up' the trees/lines a lot and then I tackled the 'Shoebox'.  Thirty-seven pages has become 6 - I am very proud of myself!  I am now starting on the 'Hints' tab and find myself very daunted.  Five lines with a total of 1001 pages, 372 in one line alone.  Where do I start? Any ideas?  I have noticed that people are 'repeated', should I make a note and do one person at a time or should I just start at the beginning (some 12 years ago now!) and work my way back to the present day.  Has anyone else gone through this exercise?

Actually, it's the dating of the subjects of the photos. 

These are pictures of 2 portraits painted, we believe, sometime in the 1940s by a family member (an exhibited artist).  When I was sent these photos, I was told that they were of my great-grandparents, but they do not match their photos, wherein my great-grandfather is shown to have an abundance of wavy, silver hair (and my mother can remember him that way shortly before he died).  I am now wondering if, in fact, these are my great-great grandparents.  They died in 1887 and 1888 respectively; is this possible - going by the dress?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.  (I should have said these were also painted from photos).

 

The first we know for sure of Daniel Riddiford French comes from the marriage records, when he wed Maria Stephens (b. 1807 Stonehouse) on 24 April, 1828, in Stonehouse, Glos.  He signs his name as above.  They go on to have 4 children named as follows:
29 Mar, 1829, Emily Riddiford French
4 Jul, 1830, Henry Riddiford French
5 Feb, 1832, Ellen Riddiford French
11 Aug, 1833, Thomas Riddiford French
On all of these baptismal records, the father is Daniel Riddiford French, and the mother is Maria French.  Then, for some reason, the name ‘French’ is discarded and their next 4 children are simply:
19 Apr, 1835, Lydia Riddiford
26 Feb 1837, Isabella Riddiford
3 Jun, 1839, Oliver Riddiford
1841, probably late April, Albert Riddiford (6 weeks old at the time of the census).
The first two of these records show “father: Daniel; mother, Maria f. (?formerly) Stephens”.  The third (Oliver) shows “father: Daniel Riddiford; mother Maria f. Stephens.
With Albert, Daniel is presumed dead and there doesn’t appear to be a baptism for him, just the BMD ‘Albert Riddiford’ (he died aged 3).
Daniel is not on the 1841 or subsequent censuses. 
So, what happened between August 1833 and April 1835 to cause Daniel to drop ‘French’ from his name and from his subsequent children’s names, and for Maria to revert from Maria French to Maria f. Stephens? A scandal too far, perhaps?  And why cannot we find a birth or a death for Daniel?  We have an 1841 census for the family (minus Daniel) with a Hester Riddiford, aged 50 (thus born 1786-1791).  This would be too young to be Daniel’s mother, perhaps she is Daniel’s sister.  We have a single baptismal record for a “Hester Riddiford, aged 19” (which would tie in with the 1841 census Hester), no parents’ or sponsors’ names.  Why so late? Was she about to be married? – we have no marriage record for her.
Things we know for sure: ‘our’ Daniel is not the Daniel b. 1787-8 in Uley, son of Daniel Riddiford and Esther Hopkins (he was deported to Australia as a convict), nor is he the son of William R. and Elizabeth Hopkins. ‘Our’ Daniel and family lived all their lives in Stonehouse, where Daniel was a ‘cloth worker’.  Speculation of one of us is that Daniel may have been the illegitimate son of a Mr. Riddiford and a Ms. French and maybe one, or both, had died in the 1833-35 period so he could be who he wanted to be.  However, it doesn't matter what theory is put forward, we are still no closer.  So, Chatters, if you fancy a quiz other than 'Only Connect', this is it.  Any solutions anyone can put forward would be appreciated so much!

Thank you
lydiaann

I have finally decided to try and finish sorting out the Gunns, Sinclairs, Sutherlands, Hendersons, etc.  Like many people's history, these families have run riot through the 1840s-1890s in Himself's line.  One thing I would like to find, and seems to be very short in information, is the history of the Castle and, more importantly, the estate.  There seems to be little or no gen on the latter and only basic information on the former.  This is more a matter of interest in the context of the family lines than trying to prove Himself as being 'heir to the castle'. 

The families seem to consist mainly of fishermen with a couple of Ag Labs thrown into the mix according to the 1871 census.  I've followed one part of it down to the present day, through Catherine Sutherland (1839-1911) who seems to have moved away from Caithness to Midlothian as a youngish woman and married George McKinlay.  She was the third of 15 children; did the family just get too big for her (although it looks as though 2 or 3 died young as others of the same name followed)?  Did she move for a job?  Was it impossible for the workers on the estate, as their families grew (and boy, did they grow!) to look after their children properly - I would imagine that the estate could not possibly employ all of the eventual crowd that ended up there.  Because of the 'population explosion' on the estate itself, did it finally buckle under the strain?  Was it sold on and the new owner refuse to take all the workforce?  So many questions/possible variables.  It's such a shame that there doesn't seem to be too much information.

BTW, I do have fairly extensive research on the family coming down the line, so I don't want to waste people's time in thinking I need information on them, thank you.

Suddenly, over the past week, we are receiving no e-mails from people on our Contacts list - except for two contacts - and we can't think why these 2 people should be different.  It appears that all e-mails are going out and people are replying but they are not coming through.  Has anyone any experience of this phenomenon and is there anything we can do about it?  (Himself has 'scrubbed' the computer and got rid of all the browising history, cookies, etc - annoying, as it means I have to sign in to every site now! )  As it's the main way of contacting our world-wide friends (don't do any of the social media outlets), it's very frustrating.  Any ideas?