Genealogy Chat

Hi Paul have you tried the newspapers ?

One g g grandfather was employed as a woodsman by the Moxhull Hall Estate, now the site of the Belfry Golf Course. The family ran into financial difficulties and sold off almost an entire hamlet in 1886. G g granddad was named as tenant of one of the cottages.

It was on a plot of nearly 3 acres, which he kept "in good order". As he was born in 1801, he must have been amazingly fit and active. His one disability listed in the 1891 census was that he was deaf.

Sue has just got me thinking there with her description about the way I wrote about my family - one thing you could try is a sort of cross-reference comparison way of doing it, contrasting the past with the relative present. For instance, using a couple of my ancestors . . .

"The first surviving census record - from 1841 - finds John Hurst (an ag. lab) and his wife Susannah living on Prescot Road, Aughton with their three small children - George (probably named after Susannah's father), Margerey and Joseph (who shared names with their father's parents). This record rounded names to the nearest five years but christening records suggest that John was baptised in 1814 and Susannah (or Susan) was two years older and they were cousins once removed.

Comparing census records with baptism records shows that Susannah must have been heavily pregnant on the nights of both the 1841 and 1851 censuses - she gave birth to a daughter (Martha) late in July 1841 and twins William and Elizabeth just two weeks after the 1851 census. By then the family seem to have moved up in the world as they had a new home in Melling where John farmed five acres of land. The teenage children were not out at work but probably helped out on the land etc. By now, the family had expanded with the addition of John (aged 5) and Ellen (aged 3), although two other children had been born and died young in between."

It is possible to put “meat” on the bones just by elaborating some of the facts taken from census info, for example…..

“In 1851 Richard is found living in the village of Upton (sometimes it is possible to name the address too). Richard, his wife and 5 children are living in a 3 roomed house. (Check old OS maps etc – if you know where the house was you might find they had a large garden or plot of land, where they would have grown their own produce and maybe kept chickens and a pig). He was an Agricultural Labourer and probably worked on one of the nearby farms, his wife Betty was a glover, as were their 2 eldest daughters aged 9 and 11. Their 2 eldest son, aged 15 is also an Ag Lab and maybe works alongside his father. Another son, aged 8 is a farm boy. The youngest daughter, aged 5 attends the local school.”

Search out for information on your ancestor’s occupations – my mother’s side were mostly Ag Labs and I have a wonderful book describing Victoria farm life, the different jobs involved and the hours they worked. My father’s side were all mill workers in Yorkshire towns and it has been fascinating to learn about that work.

I also find eBay quite good for picking up books, papers and postcards etc relating to the villages I am researching and have added most of the village names, and some surnames, to my favourite search, so get notified when anything new is listed. Quite often the books on villages are full of interesting old photos of houses and people, quite a few of which are named.

As Heather has suggested, the WWI army records can tell quite a lot too, including a physical description, next of kin, wounds received, where they served, if they were nawty, etc

Sue

Yes, just names and dates are meaningless arent they. Its finding out the nitty gritty - Wills, court cases, service records and so on where you actually get a description of your people and hear their words ...............Have you also looked for any WW1 records on ancestry?

I agree with all above, and you are right it's the personal bits that make the family tree more interesting. I have all sorts of photos and stories on mine, pictures of Textile mills, Barges etc. One man was a Butler, and we found the house he worked in , took photos and were even invited in to look around. To be honest it's adding all those bits to my tree that keeps me fascinated.

Re your grandad - have a look at the wonderful PortCities site, which shows the work people did in the dock yards and has some fab photos. Google Newcastle and his job, to see if anything comes up like photos or employers.

Its a case of thinking around the subject - what about the street he lived in, can you find if thats still standing and get a photo of his house. The church he married in - ditto and so on so that you get a better idea of the person.

Definitely Google.

I was trying to trace Carters, Googled one of the ones I had lost track of (the family had moved to Liverpool) and found him on a War Memorial for the Appledore Fallen - okay, he was born Appledore, Devon and not Appledore, Kent so strictly he shouldn't have been there but when I checked the other details given on the website the name of his wife and the area they were living all tallied with my information.

Turned out he was on the crew of a merchant ship bringing nitrates from Nicaragua when it was sunk by a U boat in World War 1.

Its amazing what you can find!!

Don't forget to google surnames linked to both those areas. Suprising what you can turn up in weird places but google is a good start. My step-grandfather had a very common surname (Davies) & I did know he ran a coach (or omnibus) company. Imagine my suprise, while at the local archives waiting for a document to be retrieved I started leafing through a book about the history of local bus services. Who should be mentioned but my grandfather!
I had not dreamed of even trying to look for him with such a common surname ....
Good luck!

I've done a fair bit of factual BMD kind of research on tree. Where do I start to look for more "meat on the bones" of family history?? How can I find out why my gr grand father moved from Govan in Glasgow to Wallsend, Newcastle after 1901? He was a "horizontal machinist" - probably a plater in shipyards - but where can I find out info about that sort of thing??