Genealogy Chat

I'm talking about the first time you find that census with the person you're looking for & hey presto a list of family members.
That wonderful feeling of exploring the unknown, all new names, places & occupations. Going back a generation, finding a marriage , a maiden name & another branch of the tree to delve into.
I wish I could experience it again!!.
Now , all I feel is frustration most of the time!! (brickwall after brickwall & little documentation to find).
How about you?

They do say you remember your first time - but mine was so long ago! I share your frustration - mine married in the April of a census year and then spontaneously combusted before the next - and their deaths were never registered.
If I had any hair I'd pull it out.
B

Have you asked on the boards to see if anyone can find them Bernie?

I love it when you have an ancestor with an unusual name and they are easy to find and you get on a roll, going backwards or forwards, generation after generation!!

I have often gone to my computer just to check one name to add to my notes and come away with 20-30 sheets printed off the computer - brilliant!

Then, as you say, there is the frustration of the brickwalls - I have one which I am desparate to break down and I have posted it on here but with no luck.

One day, when I least expect it...........all will be revealed. That's the plan, anyway!!

One of my first census records was from 1841 and yes it was exciting, but
One day you will find it when you least expect it.........
For over 4yrs I searched for one last remaining child from this family.

I have all the info on all her siblings, right through to (almost) present day, but this relative simply vanished from Glasgow in 1861 aged 22yrs.
I looked everywhere for her,!
She did not marry in Scotland, I could find no death .... nothing... not in the UK, US, Canada, New Zealand or Australia.
Where did she go?

LAST WEEK, yes last week, ! looking at the BDMS in New Zealand for someone else entirely, and in a completely different time period when.......,I spotted her marriage!
I was gob-smacked. She was 72years of age!!!
She died in NZ 12yrs later aged 84yrs

I had always filtered my searches and never thought to expand the timeline
I have since worked back through NZ electoral rolls and found she had been living as a "married woman" under her husband's name for at least 20yrs, possibly longer, but women did not have a vote and did not appear on the ER before then.

My Brick Wall finally came down....just like that, but was just as exciting as that first document.

Hi Jax,

No, I haven't asked = I have so many of the beggars who seemed to do that, and before the emigration records were kept too.
I can lose whole families!
B

Anne, your story really cheered me up & I know if I find the 2 marriages I'm looking for I will be ecstatic!! (even if I do sound like a miserable mare!!)

But at the mo with no new leads or documents it's like an itch I can't scratch!! :-( :-( :-

I recently found the borth of a familymember which had eluded me almost since I started on this family history lark years ago. Turned out the entire family was living just doors away from the rest of the family that I already knew about.

Andy

I think the best ones for me was when the 1911 census came out and there was my mum aged 16months and my dad in the same area aged 3plus.
His father was away at sea and there was the family with Nan not knowing that a few months later she would be a widow ,grandfather was lost at sea June 1911.

Both entries gave me an "oh my bless em" pang both parents passed away some time ago