Thanks for this!Originally Posted by Tuerto
Just a quick post to offer my praise to Cyclops who researched the paternal side of my family. The amount of detail is astounding, from news clippings from years gone by and Photos of late family members. 77 pages long, the information in the report is astounding and some of the things that he found out for me are funny, incredible and haunting! How he collates all of the information and puts it together is brilliant. A huge endorsement from Mr Widgery!
It was a tortuous and distressing journey, as you know. I was in tears at the thought of what happened to your greatx2 grandmother - ane the report eneded with a suicide.
On one side, there was a name change which was a challenge to untangle. Your direct family completely disappeared from view before 1871. I initially wondereed if they were travellers (as they adopted a known traveller's name and went into a common traveller's business). Then there was a guy with the same name, born about the same time in the same place who followed the same career path from Bristol to Cardiff - a red herring. Only by loads of lateral thinking over several days was the truth uncovered. New reports hint at three possible reasons for the name change, but we are still waiting on a will which may explain all.
@Blue Matt - perhaps you equate researching family history with names and dates, then you're missing out on something. That's like train spotting. The 'back story' behind the certificates and the censuses is what makes family history so addictive. Tuerto may confirm that one of his lines was a continuous tale of brutality, avarice and even with a whiff of incest. I defy anyone reading it not to be intrigued by the actions of one ancestor which incensed local women so much that twice they travelled five miles from their village to give him a good beating - particularly if the person was a direct forefather.
I only want to add that there are many pitfalls in the path of those researching their families who are inexperienced. There are a huge number of family trees on the internet which are either completely wrong or very incomplete. Only yesterday I read of a family who it was claimed went to Kingston, Pensylvania, USA - when in fact it was Kingston-upon-Thames, Surry.
One client's family had a published family tree which included an unusual name. The person married in Cardiff and there are at least six well-intentioned trees which are hang on that marriage. In fact, there were TWO marriages of people of this unique name in Cardiff within a few years of each other - and the second one (the marriage cert provides the names of the fathers) is the correct line to follow. This means that all the trees that depend on the incorrect marriage couple are totally wrong from that time back.
Would you trust an amateur plasterer to plaster your living room?
Reply With Quote