What's in your past?

[lovelace]

1 hour ago, Bellatrix said:

Last night I discovered two sisters, my great aunts, who died as babies in the 1920s.  I only came across them as I was on the Sheffield Indexers site trying to track down a grave of a great aunt who died aged 19.  The burial plot was shared with two others of the same name - the father's name was recorded - and the address was that given for the family in the 1921 census.

I go on the Indexers site quite a lot,   it's tragic when you see how many children they lost,   or how young people were when they died.

[blackhill]

Thanks for that Lovelace

[sadbrewer]

Just a word.....for anyone who relied on hints from Ancestry or copied/pasted other people's tree information....it's often wrong,  double check everything.

[Bellatrix]

2 hours ago, lovelace said:

I go on the Indexers site quite a lot,   it's tragic when you see how many children they lost,   or how young people were when they died.

It is.  I ordered their death certificates (the GRO provides digital images as well as paper copies).  Both toddlers died of bronchopneumonia, exacerbated in one case by whooping cough.  The nineteen year old died of bronchopneumonia exacerbated by influenza.

 

The family lived in Attercliffe, in a house in one of the courts that were dotted amongst the steel works and cutlery works.  The air must have been terrible, and the cramped living conditions a ripe breeding ground for bacterial and viral infections.

[Bellatrix]

On 16/07/2024 at 16:14, sadbrewer said:

Just a word.....for anyone who relied on hints from Ancestry or copied/pasted other people's tree information....it's often wrong,  double check everything.

I haven't been investigating long, but I've run into many errors, most of which are transcription errors (presumably OCR), but also in the original written documentation.  Of course all that percolates through the Ancestry family trees, especially when people are recording those on the peripheries of their families, and so don't want/need to double check and confirm the details.

 

There's the Ann I mentioned above, who was born Ann but apparently went by Annie.  She's recorded in a census return as 'Ann E', suggesting that someone unfamiliar with the family filled in the form, and heard 'Ann E' instead of 'Annie' and interpreted that as a middle name beginning with E.  In fact, her middle name was something else entirely.

 

Annie's daughter died age 4 of typhus.  The poor little bugger's buried in the General Cemetery, though her father's name is recorded incorrectly.

 

Being able to order and instantly view birth and death certificates is very useful indeed.  Not only does it give the actual dates down to the day (they're frequently recorded as a random month from a given quarter, as recorded in the GRO catalogues), but you find out the cause of death and the last recorded address.

 

A common factor to the families I've looked at so far is that their homes - or the sites on or adjacent to where their homes were - are now student accommodation.  There's progress for you: from poor, employed in heavy industry and likely semi-literate, to those with education, prospects and advantages those ancestors couldn't have imagined.

[lobster]

2 hours ago, Bellatrix said:

I haven't been investigating long, but I've run into many errors, most of which are transcription errors (presumably OCR), but also in the original written documentation.  Of course all that percolates through the Ancestry family trees, especially when people are recording those on the peripheries of their families, and so don't want/need to double check and confirm the details.

 

There's the Ann I mentioned above, who was born Ann but apparently went by Annie.  She's recorded in a census return as 'Ann E', suggesting that someone unfamiliar with the family filled in the form, and heard 'Ann E' instead of 'Annie' and interpreted that as a middle name beginning with E.  In fact, her middle name was something else entirely.

 

Annie's daughter died age 4 of typhus.  The poor little bugger's buried in the General Cemetery, though her father's name is recorded incorrectly.

 

Being able to order and instantly view birth and death certificates is very useful indeed.  Not only does it give the actual dates down to the day (they're frequently recorded as a random month from a given quarter, as recorded in the GRO catalogues), but you find out the cause of death and the last recorded address.

 

A common factor to the families I've looked at so far is that their homes - or the sites on or adjacent to where their homes were - are now student accommodation.  There's progress for you: from poor, employed in heavy industry and likely semi-literate, to those with education, prospects and advantages those ancestors couldn't have imagined.

Ancestry use convict labour to transcribe their records so have no interest in getting the name correct just quantity . I have corrected countless records of theirs . Also Prior to the 1911 Census records were filled in by an enumerator not the individuals so they put down what they thought was correct . Look at Machin , Machen & Machon same name different spelling .

Professions is probably the  best way of tracking a family . Once  had a Davies from a small town in Wales would have been a nightmare except they were the town Blacksmiths 

[cuttsie]

3 hours ago, Bellatrix said:

I haven't been investigating long, but I've run into many errors, most of which are transcription errors (presumably OCR), but also in the original written documentation.  Of course all that percolates through the Ancestry family trees, especially when people are recording those on the peripheries of their families, and so don't want/need to double check and confirm the details.

 

There's the Ann I mentioned above, who was born Ann but apparently went by Annie.  She's recorded in a census return as 'Ann E', suggesting that someone unfamiliar with the family filled in the form, and heard 'Ann E' instead of 'Annie' and interpreted that as a middle name beginning with E.  In fact, her middle name was something else entirely.

 

Annie's daughter died age 4 of typhus.  The poor little bugger's buried in the General Cemetery, though her father's name is recorded incorrectly.

 

Being able to order and instantly view birth and death certificates is very useful indeed.  Not only does it give the actual dates down to the day (they're frequently recorded as a random month from a given quarter, as recorded in the GRO catalogues), but you find out the cause of death and the last recorded address.

 

A common factor to the families I've looked at so far is that their homes - or the sites on or adjacent to where their homes were - are now student accommodation.  There's progress for you: from poor, employed in heavy industry and likely semi-literate, to those with education, prospects and advantages those ancestors couldn't have imagined.

As said on a early post I have found a brother through the My Heritage DNA  Test kit (£35)    100% match , I have looked into his eyes and seen my self . Loads of cousins . nieces , nephews . Messages arriving from all over the World, I am only 40% English the ancestors came from Iceland, Norway and Sweden , some still in those Country's.

[lovelace]

3 hours ago, lobster said:

Ancestry use convict labour to transcribe their records so have no interest in getting the name correct just quantity . I have corrected countless records of theirs . Also Prior to the 1911 Census records were filled in by an enumerator not the individuals so they put down what they thought was correct . Look at Machin , Machen & Machon same name different spelling .

Professions is probably the  best way of tracking a family . Once  had a Davies from a small town in Wales would have been a nightmare except they were the town Blacksmiths 

Convict labour !!  How do you know that ?     Although I can think of worse ways to pass the time in jail.      It's true that in those days the enumerators wrote down what they heard,   and the people weren't literate enough to correct them.   Somehow it works.

[lovelace]

2 hours ago, cuttsie said:

As said on a early post I have found a brother through the My Heritage DNA  Test kit (£35)    100% match , I have looked into his eyes and seen my self . Loads of cousins . nieces , nephews . Messages arriving from all over the World, I am only 40% English the ancestors came from Iceland, Norway and Sweden , some still in those Country's.

I've had similar with a large percentage of Dutch & Danish ancestors.       It's a bit exotic innit  ?

[lovelace]

6 hours ago, Bellatrix said:

I haven't been investigating long, but I've run into many errors, most of which are transcription errors (presumably OCR), but also in the original written documentation.  Of course all that percolates through the Ancestry family trees, especially when people are recording those on the peripheries of their families, and so don't want/need to double check and confirm the details.

 

There's the Ann I mentioned above, who was born Ann but apparently went by Annie.  She's recorded in a census return as 'Ann E', suggesting that someone unfamiliar with the family filled in the form, and heard 'Ann E' instead of 'Annie' and interpreted that as a middle name beginning with E.  In fact, her middle name was something else entirely.

 

Annie's daughter died age 4 of typhus.  The poor little bugger's buried in the General Cemetery, though her father's name is recorded incorrectly.

 

Being able to order and instantly view birth and death certificates is very useful indeed.  Not only does it give the actual dates down to the day (they're frequently recorded as a random month from a given quarter, as recorded in the GRO catalogues), but you find out the cause of death and the last recorded address.

 

A common factor to the families I've looked at so far is that their homes - or the sites on or adjacent to where their homes were - are now student accommodation.  There's progress for you: from poor, employed in heavy industry and likely semi-literate, to those with education, prospects and advantages those ancestors couldn't have imagined.

I haven't sent for a certificate for years,   how do you get them instantly online  ?       I wouldn't mind doing that.