Genealogy Chat

Christine Thank you very much. You have given me three very good ideas, I'm most greatful. Nell Thank you for your reply. Mary

My first instinct is to rush out and buy shares in Kleenex! ;-) I'm doing an ancestral chart, so I have come to accept that some of the lines will just stop as I work my way back into history, and I just have to pursue the other lines. Something might suddenly turn up but there's no realistic way to search. Sometimes there's evidence of the parentage, sometimes there isn't. In one case, I can't even follow the mother back: when my gtx3-grandfather was baptised in Tingewick, the register recorded simply: "This child is said to have been born in this Parish about three years ago. Mother's present residence unknown." and that the mother was a "servant". Presumably she "got into trouble", had the child somewhere away from her normal surroundings, and left him for the parish to look after. I reckon that's the ultimate "brick wall". Children are often given the father's name as a second name; at some stages there were bastardy bonds (an early version of CSA-type pursuit of child-support). Just as now, there are some occasions when the father's name just wasn't available for whatever reason. DNA-testing is a extremely recent option in the time-scales of genealogy. Christine

Mary It would help if you said WHOSE father you were trying to trace, plus WHERE and WHEN. NELL

Received my eagerly awaited certs today, would you just believe it no father's name. Mother's name Mary Gibson. Looked on the IGI and there's hundreds. Please tell me what I can try now, or is it the nearest corner and cry!!!! Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.Thank you Mary