Genealogy Chat

If it is one thing I have learned since I began this reaearch lark over six years ago now, it is that you do not always find your ancestors where you expect to find them. In my own case ,the Swaffields with their origins in Dorset/Somerset have migrated outwards to many other counties and the greater London area. And many have emigrated. When you can't find the next step back, take a leap of faith and widen the search. Ask yourself "If I were them where would I go for work" It is usually a greater city. Like wise in reverse, if you are researching family in the London area and get stuck think of country districts your ancestors may have come from. Where else in the country does the name occur.Are there family stories or old photographs which may give you a clue.

Rosemary So true. It's difficult to keep an open mind when you have fixed ideas about where people came from. I've always thought of my father's grandparents on his mother's side as Londoners, but was surprised when I found out that gt grandma was from Cambridge [transcribed on 1881 census as Camligger, which puzzled me for quite a bit!] and that gt grandpa was from Whichford in Warwickshire, a village I had never heard of. I only found that out because luckily his father was called Emmets and was the only one on FreeBMD. When tracing my Norfolk gt grandfather's death, I was v. puzzled that I couldn't find a death cert. He lived and died in and around a little village called Limpenhoe, as far as I knew. He was buried in the graveyard as I had seen his memorial stone. As he was called John Gray you can imagine there were a lot of deaths for the year he was supposed to have died, but though I checked two years either way I still couldn't find one in the "right" registration district. I contacted the Norfolk Record Office who checked the burial register and informed me that he had died in Finchley, North London! Sure enough, I found the cert - he had died at the house of his youngest son. So now I want to know how long he was there, did he go there to live in his old age, or since he was ill, and how in 1917 did they get his coffin from N. London to Limpenhoe in the Norfolk Broads? Another instance of making assumptions came from my Cornish relatives. I knew my gt grandma came from cornwall, and when I got her wedding cert it gave her address as The Homestead, Marshgate. I found a Marshgate in Cornwall, but she wasn't there in the previous census. It was actually Marshgate estate, in Richmond, surrey, where she was married. Helen

Helen, Thankyou for your very interesting reply, I enjoyed reading it. I did reply first thing this morning, but I lost the link. Tell me where do lost e-mails go? They just suddenly disappear. I had an experience of needing to widen the search in the early days of research. Because my mother's family came from Bath Someset and her father had worked for his grandfather I made the assumption that I could go back further in the Bath archives, but soon discovered that I could get no further back. I could not find my gt,gt,grandfather's birth. It was then suggested by a distant cousin in Peterborough, with whom I share a tree before 1800, that I look in Crewkerne. 'Why Crewkerne?'I thought we don't have any connection there. Well when I did as I was told I found that I could take the family back and back through all the little Dorset towns and villages. All of the Swaffields in London and Bedford and NZ,AUS,Canada, USA ETC, ARE ALL LINKED. HOW ABOUT THAT Thanks for your e-mail. Rose

Rose There you go! Incidentally I was at school with a girl called Angela SWAFFIELD. I can't remember much about her, but she would have lived within bus journey distance of our school in Old Coulsdon. I have a vague idea she wanted to be a journalist. Helen

Hi Rosemary, I find this thread interesting, as my relatives were also "all over the place" and not where they said they were ! I don't know if you are actually looking for info. but you mentioned Dorset, so just for fun, I entered "swaffield" in the Dorset OPC site (Search box: "OPC") and found 51 entries (marriages, baptisms, census returns, bishop's transcripts, photos, and directories). Any of them yours ?? I am constantly amazed by the wealth of info. on this OPC site. Good Hunting !

My families seemed to move all the time. My g.mother was born in leyton, her parents came from Suffolk although my ggrandfathers parents married in london. Another family were silk weavers in Canterbury Kent, then they moved to London then on to Ashford then back to London again. I also have two ancestors (from different sides) born in France, one of whoms father was born in Scotland.His wife was born in Preston and her mother was born in Anglesey. Their daughter was born Southampton and their son in London.Who ever said you were born, married and died in the same place during Victorian times needs shooting!

Well actually my family seem to have followed the trends in Victorian England of migrating to London from the countryside in search of work. My gt gt grandparents all seem to have stayed at home though, it was the gt grandparents that migrated. Only one set of gt gt grandparents stayed in the same village though, the others liked to move around in a small locality. And they are all from south of the Wash.