Genealogy Chat

I have a question that I will ask and then follow by example... Some of the detective work that I have carried out whilst trying to track my family has resulted in an 'educated guess'. Obviously if my guess is wrong it could have disastreous knock on effects to the rest of my research. My question is this... Is there a way of confirming my research without the enormous expense of purchasing 'key' certificates that would link everything together. Can I view the certificates if I visited the FRC or some other research centre without having to pay all the time. (See next thread below for example).

My mother knows very little of her mothers side of the family, inlcuding the date of birth of her mother (although I am assuming C.1910). I was given the name of Ivy Grace Goldsmith although can not find this anywhere. Ivy's parents Were an Edward Goldsmith and Edith Ellen Mills (my mothers memory) and we 'think' they were from Essex. I can find a marriage of 'Edgar' Goldsmith to Edith Ellen Mills Sep 1901 in Tendring, Essex which fits in nicely except for the name of Edward. In the 1901 census I can find an Edward Goldsmith born and living in St Osyth, Essex (which is the district of Tendring, Essex) and from here the rocket is launched and I can track members of the family all over the place. To confirm these are the family members I am looking for, I would need to (a) see the birth certificate of Ivy to confirm her parents were Edward and Edith and then (b) See the marraige certificate of Edward and Edith to see if it is the same as I have already found and then (c) see the birth certificates of Edward and Edith. This would then allow me to safely assume the info I have from all the other census' is mostly correct. Hope this makes sense to someone and they could maybe shed some light onto what I am doing right or wrong before it gets too expensive! Regards Jon

Parish records. If you can go to where your's are archived and look at the original stuff.

Hi Jon, I always send for key certificates of direct ancestors I would hate to find I'd been chasing the wrong family. I also view films of parish records at my local LDS centre to pick up the siblings' christenings, marriages etc. I also view films at the LDS (or ancestry) of original census records. So many transciptions are wrong and the IGI has many mistakes for my families. It's the only way to be sure. Gwynne

Okay, that is £28. You don't have to buy all the certificates at once. You can pace yourself according to your pocket. If you find information on the internet that is not a digitised image of an original, you still want to look at that original. If someone does a lookup for you, again you should look at the original. A trip to a record office will probably cost more than £28 if it isn't on the doorstep. A chain is only as strong as the weakest link. This is a hobby, it doesn't matter if you pursue the wrong line, but if you don't check out the theories in as many ways as possible, then you can be spending your time, and your money, on a completely spurious tree. Brenda

Thanks for the reply guys ... I'll be taking a trip to Colchester soon then! and a new piggy bank has been created with it's first £2 inserted. thanks again, Jon

You can't view certificates at the FRC, only the indexes of births, marriages and deaths. If you want to look at the details you have to cough up the £7 to buy the certificate. I think that if you wait a little while before paying out you might get some clues which could eliminate some of the "possibles". For births, have you tried checking the same name in the same area for a few years afterwards to see if any of them died as infants or young children? That sometimes leaves you with only one "possible".

Hi, I do know how you feel, my budget is creaking a bit at the mo, but your research has to be confirmed otherwise you will always doubt it. I think your Edgar probably is your mum's Edward - lets face it everyone probably just called him Ed. But to satisfy yourself it is worth the extra mile!

Angela & Heather, Thanks very much for your input, it's really appreciated. I've invested in my first 2 certificates last night (probably the first of many) and you're right, if I don't get it confirmed from source, I'll always be wondering! Rgds Jon

Jon I always get certs, because they help with other info. But you are right, you do have do do some educated guessing. An example: my great-grandmother Ruth married my great-grandfather John. They are on the census in a small village in Norfolk. John's birthplace is a nearby village, Ruth's also appears to be a nearby village - LANGLEY. But I couldn't find a Ruth in the baptism register for the right date. I couldn't order a certificate because I didn't know her maiden name. But I did find one of her sons had the middle name BARNES and I wondered if this could be her maiden name - I didn't want to order the son's birth cert as he wasn't a direct relative and my grandfather's birth wasn't on FreeBMD. I looked on FreeBMD for a Ruth Barnes marriage and found one to a man with the same name as my gt grandad. So I ordered it - and found they had married in LANGHAM, in north Norfolk. I looked for a baptism there and found my Ruth - and also discovered she was illegitimate, but that's another mystery! nell