Genealogy Chat

Hi

Today I found a family member with an unusual surname. I added her but also searched for the name in my tree. It came up again, father and two daughters also born in the same county. With some 5,500 people on my tree, how can I easily search for the unusual name and how they fit into my tree?

KR

Lindsey

Am I understanding this? You have found a familiar name and you're trying to fit her into your tree? I don't think that's the proper way to do genealogy research. The best way is to work backwards from facts that you know to be correct.

I have just found a relative with an unusual surname. The surname rang a bell in my mind and I searched for the same surname in my tree. I did have the unusual surname in my tree - a father and two children, but with over 5,000 people in my tree, I can't recall how they fit in ...

Am I not explaining myself clearly? I have today added a surname to my tree ... but ... the unusual name sounded familiar. I searched on my tree and found the same unusual name, in the same county on my tree. How do I find out how the original people fitted into my tree?

I'm sorry, Lindsey, but I'm really not understanding. How can you have someone in your tree but you don't know how they fit into your tree?

Do you mean that the unusual surname belonged to a person who married someone who was in your tree?

The unusual surnames could belong to quite unrelated people.

How do you normally keep track of how people are related in your tree?

Do you mean that you have some people with surname XXX in your tree and now you have found another individual with the same surname and want to know how he/she ties in with the first group of people?

Maybe as patchem says, it's just a coincidence and there's no connection.

Lindsey I think I know what you mean but I can't help you. I have had the same problem. I have relatives in my Mitchell/Jeffrey line which are direct descendants. On one of the census's Miriam Mitchell and her son are staying with Charles and Fanny Jeffrey. Try as I might, and have done so for several years, I cannot tie Charles Jeffrey into my line although I know he must fit in there somewhere.

Wendy

Why not give us some names & dates, Lindsey? Perhaps we can help that way.

Thanks all.

BeverleyW, you've hit the nail on the head. William Pratt born 1821 in Maldon, Essex was married to a Sarah Unknown and they had two children in the 1851 census. On the 1861 census, Sarah Unknown is lodging with her (now) three children with her mother Sarah Livermore and is a widow. I've not yet looked for the death of William Pratt but thought Livermore a fairly unusual name and it rang a bell with me. I searched on my tree and found that I already had a William Livermore born 1840 in South Benfleet, Essex and he had two children Charlotte born 1876 and Mercy born 1879

I wondered how I find out where William and his two children fit into my tree.

I've also had the same problem if someone from GR has contacted me asking for information on someone who I have on my tree and they ask how they're related to me. Unless it's someone in my direct line, I can't easily work out how I found them. The little green tree with the red box gives a rough indication but it's still difficult to follow.

The name Livermore is not particularly unusual in Essex. If you do a search on freeBMD you can see that there are a few births every year in Essex with that surname.

In fact there was a Livermore in my class at school sixty years ago in South Essex.

It sounds as if you need to explore the family of Sarah Pratt nee Livermore, AND her currently unknown Livermore father.

You'd have to do the same for the William Livermore 1840 and see if they have mutal relatives.

If you only have your tree on here, you might have to do it on paper before 'joining up the dots'. Off line tree programmes have the facility to record unrelated individuals. You can also have any number of seperate trees on Ancestry, or if you find a relevant record, use it to start a 'new person' then eventually link HIS family to the main tree.

When some one asks how someone is related to you, you could always say that you like to explore the relationships between famiies in a given geographical area, and that your research should be used as a guide as you are (unlikley) to purchased all relevant substantiating BMD.

I was asking a generic question. I was asked for names which I gave - Livermore - it could easily have been another name.

Thanks to those who tried to get on the same wavelength as myself.

'Generically' the same suggestion applies ;-)

On some programs it will tell you how anyone in the tree is related to you (if they are).

Surely, if you have found the unusual names that you put in your tree originally then you will see from that branch how they are related to others.

Do not really see the problem.

On the 61 census it doesn't say that Sarah Livermore is Sarah Pratt's mother. Sarah Pratt and children are just listed as lodgers.

Edit: Although it does look like she was Sarah Livermore:

Marriages Dec 1846 (>99%)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Livermore Sarah Maldon 12 320
Pratt William Maldon 12 320

Thank you.