Genealogy Chat

Thanks to everyone for their kind and sage advice. I think I will follow up some of your suggestions. It's so difficult to know whether you just want something to be right so you convince yourself it is.

Hi, If you cannot find a baptism for him in the parish where he married (and he was otp on his marriage) it would be worth looking to see if he was granted a settlement there. Settlement papers form part of the parish chest papers and are found in county record offices. If he was granted a settlement the papers will include his original parish. There are more records not on the IGI than there are on it so it should only ever be used as a guide. Especially as there are a lot of transcription errors. Hope this helps, Gwynne

Hi Jenny Your no doubt aware that IGI's are useful as a pointer and are prone to be not spot on due to human error etc. I would strongly suggest trawling through parish records if you can for the area you think they were born in. FRC or LDS centre will be able to order in the parish counties you require. Although I will say trust your GUT feelings. I'm stuck in 1690 with an ancestor who is thought to have orginated from Kent according to his marriage entry - I have yet to find him - some distant family members claim he may well have been left on a hospital doorstep with a name tag ( this is just herestay - no proof to back it up lol) Sometimes it's good to just leave these ancestors on a back burner and concentrate on another branch or twig too. Wish you well & much happiness Debi

Who are you looking for in Coventry Jenny?

Hi, If you go to www.rootsweb.com you will find a site for different town and you can e-mail historians for the town you want, and they will try and help you, I know its very difficult when you get passed 1837, Happy hunting. Kindest regards Patricia

Jenny I know what you are going through with the IGI stuff. Have you done a parent search on the name for cross reference? That sometimes helps. Then use that batch number to do a further search. If you do this through generations - it will usually show any abnormalities and can confirm that you have the correct info. Hope this helps. Gaynor

I would really value the input of more experienced family historians. I have traced my family back to someone born in the 1750s in Coventry but can't get back any further. My family name is rather unusual and pretty much disappears in the Coventry records after this point but there are lots of instances of it in earlier periods around Reading and North Hants. I was looking on IGI and found someone of the right name born within 5 years of my person. I should add I got his birth date by counting back from his alleged date of death on the National Burial Index. I personally didn't feel this was a problem as birth dates do seem to be a bit flexible. The person on IGI lived near Reading. I looked at the names of his parents and these fit in perfectly with my ancestors own children's names if traditional naming patterns were observed. I decided to see if anyone on GC/GR was looking at his mother's family name and was surprised to see loads of them in Warwickshire. I wondered if perhaps this was my chap and that his family had moved to Warwickshire, and Coventry particularly, because his mother's family lived there. I should say all this was done at about 10pm last night when it is easy to jump to great big conclusions. Would appreciate being shot down in flames (kindly) or any ideas on how to check out these facts and see if my guesswork has any validity. As it's all pre 1837 I feel very ill-equipped to deal with it. Thanks Jenny