Author Topic: Genealogy frustrations.  (Read 8863 times)

Offline coombs

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Genealogy frustrations.
« on: Monday 22 June 20 17:03 BST (UK) »
We can become quite embroiled in genealogy and become passionate about it, the way people can be about football, fishing, and other hobbies. I think we have to accept that we will not always find out everything we want to. But what are your main genealogy frustrations?

I think a big frustration for many of us is the lack of records once you get back past the mid to late 1700s, unless they were more prosperous, or even were in receipt of parish poor relief, or stayed locally and had rare names. You hit very muddy waters. Many pre 1813 parish registers only give fathers name on baptisms, and burials can be just a name and date, and marriages be just names and a date and whether by banns or license. Common surnames and the fact many witnesses to marriages were regular ones can make things very tricky. If people were more prosperous, wills are a godsend, and are probably more reliable than heraldic visitations which can have many errors.

More frustrations are:-

Primary sources that give conflicting info on the same person or family. Then again people wrote down what they were told.

Gaps in parish registers, or the fact that some parish registers only go back to the mid 1700s due to earlier ones being lost or destroyed. Bishops transcripts can help but even then the survival rate can be patchy.

Census dodgers.

Immigration records giving just a name, or even just a title and surname such as "Mr Smith" and date of arrival and not enough to properly identify a person.
Researching:

LONDON, Coombs, Roberts, Auber, Helsdon, Fradine, Morin, Goodacre
DORSET Coombs, Munday
NORFOLK Helsdon, Riches, Harbord, Budery
KENT Roberts, Goodacre
SUSSEX Walder, Boniface, Dinnage, Standen, Lee, Botten, Wickham, Jupp
SUFFOLK Titshall, Frost, Fairweather, Mayhew, Archer, Eade, Scarfe
DURHAM Stewart, Musgrave, Wilson, Forster
SCOTLAND Stewart in Selkirk
USA Musgrave, Saix
ESSEX Cornwell, Stock, Quilter, Lawrence, Whale, Clift
OXON Edgington, Smith, Inkpen, Snell, Batten, Brain

Offline panda40

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Re: Genealogy frustrations.
« Reply #1 on: Monday 22 June 20 17:17 BST (UK) »
My frustrations are on birth certificates with mothers maiden name different from the one she married with. Out of 7 children the first 5 have alternating maiden names eg, Smith, Brown, Smith, Brown and Smith. No other marriages or reasons for this so I’m stuck in finding out who is telling the truth.
Regards
Panda
Chapman. Kent/Liverpool 1900+
Linnett.Kent/liverpool 1900+
Button. Kent
Sawyer. Kent
Swain. Kent
Austin/en. Kent
Ellen. Kent
Harman. Kent/ norfolk

Offline M_ONeill

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Re: Genealogy frustrations.
« Reply #2 on: Monday 22 June 20 17:33 BST (UK) »
Honestly, most of my frustrations, such as they are, are with the three quarters of my tree that are Irish - the destruction of records that you just *know* would have got you further back, and quite easily too.

That being said, I find myself being generally much less frustrated about genealogy these days.

The records themselves; what was kept and what was lost, what was destroyed and what was saved, it all forms part of the story. I try and look at it positively and be thankful for every link I find and try not to dwell on what links may have been lost. That's just the nature of history.

In fact, on my Irish side, the lack of records has really pushed me to be a better genealogist, prompting me to get comfortable with other types of records, such as the Griffiths valuations.

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Re: Genealogy frustrations.
« Reply #3 on: Monday 22 June 20 17:48 BST (UK) »
My frustrations are DNA related, why take a test and not build a tree?


Offline coombs

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Re: Genealogy frustrations.
« Reply #4 on: Monday 22 June 20 18:37 BST (UK) »
I feel for those with Irish ancestors, and how most of the time, the father's name on the Irish immigrant's marriage cert in the UK is probably the furthest back you will get, especially if they just put "Ireland" as birthplace on censuses and not even a county, and they were called Patrick Murphy.

Another frustration is how you find a namesake baptism in a parish or surrounding area 20 or so years before your ancestor's marriage but cannot prove it is the same person.

Or ones who put "not born in county of residence" in 1841 but the Grim Reaper claimed them before 30th March 1851, which was the night the first really useful census was taken. I have such a person, and his surname is, wait for it - Smith.
Researching:

LONDON, Coombs, Roberts, Auber, Helsdon, Fradine, Morin, Goodacre
DORSET Coombs, Munday
NORFOLK Helsdon, Riches, Harbord, Budery
KENT Roberts, Goodacre
SUSSEX Walder, Boniface, Dinnage, Standen, Lee, Botten, Wickham, Jupp
SUFFOLK Titshall, Frost, Fairweather, Mayhew, Archer, Eade, Scarfe
DURHAM Stewart, Musgrave, Wilson, Forster
SCOTLAND Stewart in Selkirk
USA Musgrave, Saix
ESSEX Cornwell, Stock, Quilter, Lawrence, Whale, Clift
OXON Edgington, Smith, Inkpen, Snell, Batten, Brain

Offline Kiltpin

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Re: Genealogy frustrations.
« Reply #5 on: Monday 22 June 20 19:54 BST (UK) »
I get frustrated and a little bit peeved by people who take photographs and don't identify them.   

Newly-weds, the whole wedding party from a different wedding, a group of early teens (boys and girls) dressed in their best but no shoes or socks, formal family groups (umpteen), six men in working clothes carrying a coffin draped with the Union Flag at shoulder height, a schoolboy in uniform bandage on one knee standing behind rows and rows of polished boots. 

The list goes on and on - hundreds of photographs - all useless. 

Regards 

Chas
Whannell - Eaton - Jackson
India - Scotland - Australia

Offline weste

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Re: Genealogy frustrations.
« Reply #6 on: Tuesday 23 June 20 08:39 BST (UK) »
Dna , women using a married name instead of  maiden name , especially when no tree and ones which don't use a proper name but some can be identified!

Offline coombs

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Re: Genealogy frustrations.
« Reply #7 on: Tuesday 23 June 20 14:08 BST (UK) »
When you find a rare surname in your tree and any records of earlier members of the surname are 2 or 3 generations back, and in the same area, meaning you are not sure how they connect to later members of the family. Such as you find your ancestor was Deliverance Bloggs married 1670 in Weymouth Dorset, so born circa 1650, but cannot find any other earlier people of the surname in Dorset until 1570 when a Deliverance Bloggs died in Weymouth, and her husband's family were landed gentry, and you cannot link the 1650 born one to the one who died 80 years earlier. Meaning you have to find the 2 or 3 generations in between to link them up. And that may not be possible.

I have a Roger Coggeshall born c1550 in the Fornham area of Suffolk near Bury St Edmunds. A Roger Coggeshall died in 1541 there, but cannot directly link him to the one born c1550, as I cannot find his baptism and parents.
Researching:

LONDON, Coombs, Roberts, Auber, Helsdon, Fradine, Morin, Goodacre
DORSET Coombs, Munday
NORFOLK Helsdon, Riches, Harbord, Budery
KENT Roberts, Goodacre
SUSSEX Walder, Boniface, Dinnage, Standen, Lee, Botten, Wickham, Jupp
SUFFOLK Titshall, Frost, Fairweather, Mayhew, Archer, Eade, Scarfe
DURHAM Stewart, Musgrave, Wilson, Forster
SCOTLAND Stewart in Selkirk
USA Musgrave, Saix
ESSEX Cornwell, Stock, Quilter, Lawrence, Whale, Clift
OXON Edgington, Smith, Inkpen, Snell, Batten, Brain

Offline frostyknight

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Re: Genealogy frustrations.
« Reply #8 on: Tuesday 23 June 20 14:36 BST (UK) »
DNA - only two other people on my paternal side appear to have tested, one of them a 1st cousin, the other a  3rd cousin with no tree, although I know where she fits in. As opposed to the 200+ matches on my maternal side.

On the same line, my great, great grandfather was born 1815 or earlier, while parish registers for the area (Westmeath) only started c1820, so I don't know if/how many siblings he had, and only know his father's name from his marriage certificate in the 1870's. (2nd marriage). I hoped DNA might give me a clue to this line. But not so far.