Genealogy Chat

Any ideas how I proceed to put flesh on the bones so to speak? I have bare details from census's / certificates and I don't know what to do next.... I'm guessing parish records is next to see others not on the census.... Are these just available at the records office for the ancestors area? Any ideas what else to look out for? I know my ancestors were very poor so no wills. They will have rented accomodation though and I know roughly which factories they worked in.... Any advice most appreciated. Julie

I googled for information about the villages they lived in. Helps get a better feel for where & how they might have lived. And you can turn up all sorts if you look. My gt grandfather was born in Cramlington in Feb 1865. By the 1871 census they had another 2 kids both born in different places & miles away, north of Morpeth. The family were coalminers. It turned out there was a major strike at the Cramlington pit later that year and a lot of the miners were evicted. They would be blacklisted so wouldn't be able to get work in the area. I think my gt gt grandfather must have been one of the families evicted, hence the move. When you've lived through the miners strike of the 1980's it makes it a lot more real.

Well, I google like made to find photos and pics of the areas, find out what the places they worked at were like, so on and so on. Looking at the parish records wont actually put flesh on the names you already have, just take you further backwards. Were any of them in the military? You could look for their medal records or their naval records, etc. (I even got a photo of my Grandad from his WW1 identity card!) My uncles naval record (downloadable) gives his physical description, which ships he served on, his ability, his character (which said excellent, but there was also a note he spent 5 days in cells!), his colouring, everything.

I have 3 fairly unusual surnames, so I started looking for all my second & third cousins... this is a bit easier if you can get back before 1810-ish because they didn't tend to move about as much. In my attempts to sort out some of the families, I've tried to work out all their marriages and offspring, and this lead me to the conclusion that in at least one village in Northumberland, all the families must have been marrying their cousins! Fortunately these people were tenant farmers who DID leave wills, (which have been fascinating in themselves but that's a whole new subject...) when you realise their neighbour is also their cousin, you also realise what sheltered lives and narrow circles these people had.

Thanks, I'll try googling. I've not been able to get the link to the LDS to work. Been trying to get onto their site for about 10 days now and no luck. Very strange. Julie

My grandad was in the military and I have his number from his marriage certificate. Do you know what I do with that number? Sorry, I bet this is obvious! Actually I do have a branch in Padiham that were in farming way back before the 1850's, maybe a will there. I have kind of ruled out wills because of there being nothing much to pass on physically.

Actually - there's a family story of a big punch up just after they came back from the 1st world war - proper Irish fued, family fighting in the street, brought home by police etc. Would I be able to find record of that or would it have to have made it into the paper / a conviction? Is this too recent?

Possibly you may find something about the fight, but to be frank street fighting was pretty common back then - my Grandad was always at it and the police would probably just hold them a while and let them go without charge unless it was a really serious injury or damage. Worth having a go though, anything is worth doing. So was he in the British Army? If so, go to National Archives site and see if you can find his medal card to download for £3.50. Also try family history sites in the area they lived. And archives for books on local history. I got a book on local history and low and behold, 2 full photos of my Gran as a fire officer in WW2 and a whole double page1930 photo of the road where my dad was born and as a bonus, everyone in the photo a rellie of mine. Just keep searching.

Have you tried ancestral villages it is a free site and you can add your relatives names to the villages where they lived in case anyone else is researching their neighbours. Family search.org has the 1881 census free and it is possible to find neighbours and friends by pressing next household. My grandfather owned a shop so I have visited the village web site and asked if anyone can remember him or his wife who was the village school mistress. The man who has set up the site was very pleased to get a couple of old photos.

Thank you, I'll try the national archives for the ww1 men - I didn't know that you could do it online. You don't happen to know how you would define next of kin for the second ww? My grandad had 3 children, can it be any of them or does it have to be all that give permission? I am going to look up ancestral village now too. Not heard of that. Not been able to get family search to load up in ages. Very odd! Thanks for the tips! Julie

Im sure any of his children would be ok to apply.