Genealogy Chat

Please can an expert offer some advice?! I have hit a major brick wall and after months of trying to find a way past it am resigned to the fact that I need help from you guys. James Peace, born abt 1804 in Wortley, Leeds. I know quite a lot about him from the censuses and his children's birth/wedding certificates. But, I just haven't been able to find his birth/christening details on any of the parish registers in and around Leeds. I would love to be able to confirm his date of birth and then hopefully his parents/siblings. Any suggestions please of where I look etc? I know he was a miner as were his children so it is highly likely that his father was also a miner. Thanks, Andy

Daft question but you have checked he was born in county on all census records haven't you? Not trying to teach granny to suck eggs, just know I've done it myself! xx

I have, only possible confusion with birth place is mention of both Wortley and Farnley but they are only a couple of miles apart and all churches around about have nothing.

Have you been able to check non-conformist records as well as C of E ones?? Merry

Have you tried the IGI Batch Numbers for British Isles site - just looked - it has over 30 batch churches for Leeds area alone with hundreds of records on each one. There are also 2 batches for Wortley near Leeds and 2 for Wortley near Penistone. Good luck Dorothy

Any clues from his marriage certificate or parish register entry? I suppose he got married before 1837, did he? Kate.

All non-conformist records (that I've been able to locate) have been checked. He married twice and the post 1837 certificate doesn't help. I don't know what the IGI batch things are, can you explain more about them please?

If you google 'igi batch numbers' you can link to the igi database. Select country,then county then you can search by surname all transcribed records for a parish (if they are on the database). If the records you want are transcribed then with the info you have already you may well find birth/baptism dates etc They aren't 100% gauranteed to be correct but can be very useful Glen

Glen, I know this is stupid question but I can never see how doing the igi batch thingy is better than just searching the IGI on familysearch. Im guessing it must be otherwise peeps wouldnt bother - so what is the advantage please?

Hi Heather Maybe it's just the name i'm mainly researching but if i just enter the surname via the normal search i get very few results,but if i go in via batch numbers i can get far more results. I don't know if it's how the names are transcribed or the search engine or what,but it always seems to produce more,and i lose all the mis-spelt variations (Elmer coming up as Haylmer/Ailmen and Hay comes up as every possible soundex variant,but with exact spelling i think i get so few it's not worth the effort,and they are totally the wrong area anyhow) Glen

Thanks Glen, I have just spent a couple of hours looking through various batches. I didn't find James' birth/christening records but I did find 2 more children I never knew he had!! Thanks for the advice, I'm still desperate to get through my brick wall though!! Andy

When you say that his post-1837 marriage certificate doesn't help, do you mean that there are no details of his father on there? Kate.

'fraid not Kate, the bride's father is there but not the grooms! Andy

Right, well, if the bride's father's details are filled in but not the groom's father, it most likely means that he (the groom) was illegitimate, so you are looking for a James Peace with just a mother's name given on his baptism record. Kate.

Oh, and it just occurred to me that all my mining rellies (from Worksop, Notts), became miners after the early censuses that are available, before that the men were all labourers or suchlike, and although I haven't actually checked into this I am assuming that there were not many mines in the early decades of the nineteenth century, so going back to your original message, your man's father (if you do manage to find out who he was) may well not have been a miner himself. Kate.

Brilliant Kate, some good points you've raised there. Thanks Andy