Genealogy Chat

John from beacon said he was going to do some specific research in the GUildhall LIbrary and that is what he hasn't done yet.

Thanks Woody and Wizzie - wise words! I'm not going to give up and since this post Susan and Michael - members of GR have been trying to help which is amazing! People can be so kind! I almost feel I want to write a book about htis search -especially if I do eventually find the old sod as he is now officially known.

Hi Jennifer,

I have been in the same position where I could not find anything and could only get back as far as 1840.

I handed over to a "professional researcher" to tackle, I will be happy if he gets me back to the mid 1700's as that is where I am with most of the other branches.

This handover only happened last week and I may have to wait 8 weeks for a report....... the waiting will kill me, but I can now search when I feel like it and not do those all night searches being unproductive and frustrating and turning me inside out.

I was a little bit sneaky when I engaged the Pro.
I made him aware that I had given his contact to two other GR MEMBERS .......One had already asked for a quote so he would have been aware that I was not lying about it.

So....... unwritten words....

If you do a good job you will get a good recomendations

If you do a bad job or try to ripe me off, you will get a - bad-recomendation and that is a loss of future business for him.

So think about your next approach with the Pro.

If the Pro has confessed that he has only done half the work- ask for a refund so you can go to someone else - he may get moving on the research if he thinks he has to refund the balance on your account.

OR

You could let it be known that you have contacts asking about researchers but feel you JUST CAN NOT recomend him as he has not completed the research to your satifaction.

It's all about business, and in business a bad reputation effects your income ($$$$).


Wish you all the best in your search and the Pro-researcher...........Lois.

Jennifer, try Highland Family History Society. I think the subscription is £10 but they do do research for non-members though they may make a small charge.
It's possible they may be able to help as they may have details of the family of Munro of Fowlis Ferry.
They certainly have the MI details for most of the area so it's possible that there is a headstone.

The other way is to check the NAS (National Archives of Scotland) but for that you are better to search in person. I belong to a site where this can be done by one of the admin or mods but as copies are 50p each it can be very expensive. If you look at it yourself then you can decide if you want the page or not - a researcher, paid or unpaid, can't make that decision.

As regards the "professional" - he was unwise to accept your money but as they charge upwards of £20 per hour plus expenses, perhaps he did do £60 worth!
I would hazard a guess that the reason he has not delivered "the rest" is because there is no "rest" to find.
As the person you are looking for is unlikely to be on any of the Statutory post 1855 records (unless he was 115 when he died!) you need to rely on the OPRs.
In Scotland, these mostly show Church of Scotland events; not everything was recorded and not all of the books survived!

Thank you all for your very good advice. In one way you've given me some hope that I may eventually find the old sod (I'm beginning to hate him) and in another way it is true that I should perhaps be happy with what I've got. The only problem is that , in my family there is an old story that we should have inherited a baronial title through Hugh and I can't for the life of me see why! He was an officer in the Royal navy so must have come from a fairly good family but he remains illusive in spite of professional researcher, searching up and down all side lines, back to front and front to back. His name is not uncommon in Scotland so , even though I've found Hugh Munro on IGI at the right time in the right place, it very helpfully says his mother was Mrs John Munro and father John Munro (if it is him). The Munro's have a lot of history written about them as they were barons and baronets with a castle, Fowlis near Inverness but I can't prove that Hugh was one of them. Perhaps I am asking too much! Thanks again all!

Hi Jennifer, from another Jennifer. I think you should stop torturing yourself! I have been doing this for 10 yrs and decided long ago that geting back to the late 1700's was good enough. I don't know about you but I come from a long line of Ag Labs so am pleased to have got so far. What keeps me fascinated now is tracing down siblings, aunts, uncles etc and I have unearthed all sorts of life stories, including bigamy, illegetimacy, emigration, and heroics in WW1 and others.

Having looked extensively at Parish Records in Rutland (not for myself but others) I know how limited the information is on them for ordinary people. Baptism entries for instance rarely give the mother's maiden name or marriages the parent's of the couple untill well into the 1800's. They are all hand written, and sometimes the vicar has crammed the last few into a very small space so as not to waste paper.

Be happy with what you have got, Jennifer

Is Munroe a Scottish name? There seem to be several submitted entries for him on the IGI.

Have you tried working sideways and looking into any siblings he may have had.

Selena

Whilst I agree it was very unprofessional of John to treat you like that, he should have made it clear what he was going to look at, depending on what information you had. As Sam says, Hugh could have been from anywhere, and it's not that easy. £60 seems a very small amount to charge, unless he had a fairly firm idea of where to look.

There may come a point when you have to call it a day and give up on a particular line.

For 1740 you are talking parish records and therefore should be looking for a baptism. Do you know where Hugh Munro actually came from? If not, it is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Also, he may not have been baptised, it wasn't compulsary. He could also have been non-conformist, have you (or the researcher) checked Catholic records or Methodists, Baptists etc?

Sam x

I have searched and searched till I'm blue in the face but cannot find anything out about where my Hugh Munro circa 1740 came from. What do you do? At which point do you give up and stop torturing yourself? I've even tried hiring a 'professional' . He took £60 off me and delivered ,on his own admission, £30 worth of research. In spite of lots of reminders and very polite requests he just doesn't do the rest. The company to avoid is called 'Beacon', run by a very polite man called John who has many very polite excuses for not getting on with the work!