my clarkes

[Finley 1]

I have been doing more work on the Clarkes that lived on the borders of Leicestershire and Warwickshire, that is why I have chosen This board to post in.

This particularly family, has become so interesting to work.. 

YOU HAVE  to know them to know which ones you are working with and not get the Johns mixed up.. names ages p.o.b's all so similar or even the same.

It is for me what makes this so interesting.  I feel quiet accomplished at times, when I realise that I beat the transcriber yet again -  simply by having closer or better knowledge of the extreme family.

For instance one census return stated  a particular child was the grandaughter of the head, which she was... but then it named the Son on that same sheet as her father - which he wasnt, (cos that was my g.g.grandfather )  and I knew he got married late in life .. and I knew her father was HIS brother... something a transcriber, could NOT know cos it aint writ down... its here in my head and from my Nans notes.... ##
Anyhow .. I know full well how hard the transcribers work, so not putting them down..

There were many pointers, that without insider knowledge the facts are not written in any record.

It was so so sad though on the 1911 of one of the offspring to find they had 9 children and only 2 survived.  This couple were married very young she was just 16  .. so maybe totally inept parents - or some kind of dreadful..... genetic.... problem.

It has held me all night and I still have a couple more to sort...  to complete them..

Each search, has to be entered twice, in Leicestershire, and then in Warwickshire... as they actually changed the borders  in 1871 (was it?)  I have census returns scrubbed out by the writer saying now in Warwickshire etc...   such fun   

Then the family with the loss of so many babies his name changes and his surname changes  ...o...wow.. worn out...

Tomorrow or the next day I will do the second child of my original...family...
and hopefully enjoy that one the same.   It is so good to find so much now out there on various sites... Just have to interpret it the right way.

I love the Wills .. they just add... Yeaaa. got it ..  and the marriage s ... that have a brother as a witness... yeaaaa ...

brilliant.. .just sharing a days thoughts..

xin

[andrewalston]

It's great when you work out proper relationships like this. It's a bit like a logic puzzle - "that can't be him because of facts A, B and C" and so on. Eventually you work out the one combination which works. It's made quite a bit harder when they change their name, or just plain lie.

I am dismayed by Ancestry and the like showing relationships which can not be worked out from the records in front of them. For example they confidently state how a person the 1939 Register is related to another in the same household, when they merely have the same surname.

In your census, the only quoted relationship of the child was with the grandparent. What right have they to declare her unmarried uncle to be her father?

Anyway, congratulations on sorting out the branch to your satisfaction!