Author Topic: Your brick wall and how you solved it!  (Read 4545 times)

Offline AKJonesy

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Re: Your brick wall and how you solved it!
« Reply #27 on: Wednesday 17 January 18 21:20 GMT (UK) »
I was working and working my grandfather's birth record back to Ireland with no results, mostly using the Ancestry website.  I had many documents, including census', Naturalization, and even his death record, but I could not pin down where he was born.  On top of it, of the documents I had, he listed different birth dates with an 8 year span.  Without the birth record, that meant I could not get back to my great-grandparents information.  Frustrating.

I learned that the LDS had family research centers all over the country.  I figured there would not be one in Alaska, but I looked them up anyway, and found one in the next town over.  I called them, and they told me everything was free to use for research.  Well, they had a subscription to the FindMyPast website.  With ONE search on that website, I found the critical document that gave me everything I needed.  In addition, when I saw that signature, I knew it was my grandfather...he had a very unique signature.  I got back to his birth record, his siblings (which NO ONE knew he had), and his parents.  WOOHOO!  I guess I was just a newbie at the time, and didn't know about all of the LDS research centers around the world.  Since then, I've learned to use a number of resources and databases.  Yes, it takes time, but it may land you a treasure that blows open your research.   
Keeffe, O'Keeffe, O'Keefe, Templeglantine, Co. Limerick
Horgan, Horrigan, Templeglantine/Tournafulla? Co. Limerick
Brennan, Fallon, Morgan, Keogh, Kelly, Co. Roscommon

Offline Lady Di

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Re: Your brick wall and how you solved it!
« Reply #28 on: Thursday 18 January 18 00:20 GMT (UK) »
Hi AKJonesy - welcome to RootsChat.

You'll find many willing helpers here if you need further assistance with your research.

My "brick wall" was demolished by RootsChatters.
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=380900.0

I thank my lucky stars and RootsChatters generally that I found this site. You are THE BEST  :-*
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Offline barryd

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Re: Your brick wall and how you solved it!
« Reply #29 on: Thursday 18 January 18 04:54 GMT (UK) »
I have found that ancestors emigrating from one country to another, multiple times, is a hard search. One example was a man born in London, England, emigrated to South Africa and then emigrated to Australia. And why did he go to Australia as an older man……  because his daughter had married an Australian Royal Navy Officer and he returned to Australia with the father-in-law in tow. The South African research was difficult for me but I learnt enough from the South African Roots Chatters that I now feel more confident researching there myself.

The sun never sets on Roots Chatters.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Offline brigidmac

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Re: Your brick wall and how you solved it!
« Reply #30 on: Thursday 18 January 18 12:01 GMT (UK) »
I knew my grandmother s birth mothers name
Her middle name was A surname which gave a clue to her birth father. There were two possible candidates

A suggestion led me to look for a paternity case
I would not have been able to find this record myself but paid for help from Cheshire records office ....they found a 1900 affiliation order which proved which of the candidates was the father

Further years of research ...and it turned out that the other gentleman with that surname in the area was actually her grandfather ....DNA has now linked me to his descendants in USA
Roberts,Fellman.Macdermid smith jones,Bloch,Irvine,Hallis Stevenson


Offline pharmaT

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Re: Your brick wall and how you solved it!
« Reply #31 on: Thursday 18 January 18 13:40 GMT (UK) »
My Grt grt grandfather David Woodburn Campbell was born c 1856 according to his death certificate, marriage certificate, 1881, 1861 cenuses.  I could not find him in 1871 and could not find his birth.  As a new researcher I just put it down to his birth being around the time civil registration began in Scotland and assumed (before I knew better) that his birth hadn't been registered.  His marriage and death certificates gave his parents as Jessie Macpherson and John Campbell.

I found a marriage of Jessie Macpherson to John Campbell, her remarriage as a widow in 1860, followed her through to death but had not found a death for John nor a birth for David and it annoyed me. 

Years later I decided to revisit it and sat at an SP Centre and worked through all the John Campbell deaths until I found the correct one in September 1855.  I was more experienced at research by now and started wondering if David had been in fact illegitimate and not John's son at all if born in late 1856.  So I first searched under JEssie's second husband's name in case he was the father but nothing.  Then sure enough David Macpherson born end of October 1856 just over 13 mon after John had died.  What is even better on his baptism their was a not re his father David Woodburn.  So explained the middle name running right down the family that seemed to have appeared from nowhere.

Then there's the 1911 census for one of my daughter's ancestors where the information is garbled re marriage length, whose children and whose etc.  This involved her rellie moving in with a widow (on census under first married name) and having more children.  I used the GRO index with MMN to cross reference the names of the older children.  ie I searched for the oldest and noted all the MMN for entries in the correct time period, then searched for the name of the second child and crossed off possibles for first child if there was no matching MMN until I ended up with one option.  THis gave me a name combination to try out for her first marriage, establish when she was widowed and found the births of daughter's rellie's children with her registered under her maiden name.
Campbell, Dunn, Dickson, Fell, Forest, Norie, Pratt, Somerville, Thompson, Tyler among others