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Top tip - using the Genes Reunited community

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using credits frugally

ProfilePosted byOptionsPost Date

brigid

brigid Report 19 May 2016 00:00


I try and save money on initial searches by changing parameters on the free searches before pay to view

for example looking for deaths in one parish i gave g.uncles exact first name surname with variants in one parish within a 5 year range there were only 2 but i could expand the dates from 1903 to 1968 + get 25 results with same first name only using 1 credit

this turned out to include the death of this mans gfather cousins and son

i can see details of death date + age + work out which may be worth spending 5 more credits on to view the certificate

Good hunting evryone

heres a thread about using scotlands people searches as cheaply as possible


http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=748619.msg5962713#new

brigid

brigid Report 19 May 2016 02:58

Another tip :

Scots death certificates lead to an earlier generation because list names of both parents

If you then want to find them it's better to look for the mother in search boxes because you can put her maiden name add married name as other name narrows down the field ....

ArgyllGran

ArgyllGran Report 19 May 2016 10:44

But remember that you can only enter mother's maiden name as a search term for births before 1855 on SP.

Births after that aren't so easy to narrow down, because you only have the child's own surname to search with.

brigid

brigid Report 20 May 2016 19:50

I got an initial search down to one page of old parish deaths from 1640 to 1781

With our name and variant s. In all regions

And 2 pages our name in our Lanarkshire n from 1780 to 1835

I don't know which are ours yet but thought it may come in useful

Another great thing about the site is access to all my previous searches and it doesn't let you accidentally repeat a search once paid it comes up as free

SylviaInCanada

SylviaInCanada Report 20 May 2016 21:47

easy to do if your names are relatively uncommon

very or extremely hard if the name is Smith, Brown, or even just locally very common

For example, I wouldn't try it with my maiden surname in certain counties in the UK ............ there are so many or them, and they all used the same forenames (ie initials) as everyone else.

All the people with that surname in one particular county probably have the same man born ca 1740 as their common ancestor .............. but it can be impossible to sort out who belongs to which of his 5 sons on the simple search you are using.

brigid

brigid Report 20 May 2016 22:05

well I used name variants as well as exact spelling

I expect even with common names if you reduced search to a parish or two
and a 10 yr time span you wouldnt get too many results
shall i try with Black or Robertson or a name you have in your family

brigid

brigid Report 20 May 2016 22:35

I was right

Robertson

Old parish deaths + burials

in the district of AYR

between 1800 and 1816 there are 23 results on one page

http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/Search/results.aspx

between 1800- 1830 there are 76 mathces which is only 3 pages

and I tried my 5 fave parishes in lanarkshire and there weren't any Robertsons





heres the link but I will delete it if not allowed

brigid

brigid Report 20 May 2016 23:03

but to get a manegable amount i used an initial

result in the search for death + burial in England on the search funtion of GR

by searching Robertson year of birth 1790 +/- 10 years

there are only 12 results for A Robertson so 1 page to look at

2 pages for J Robertson seems like James is the most popular robertson named shared by my g uncle and his son

If you don't put initials and narrow the years
theres only about ten pages
Only a dozen pages

SylviaInCanada

SylviaInCanada Report 21 May 2016 00:32

brigid

the family I discussed lived in 3 small villages within a 10 mile radius in the same county. Each village had one CofE church, and no other.

Yes, one could do a single parish search for each village .......... but then you have to sort out the John who married Elizabeth and stayed in village A from the one who moved to Village B and married Elizabeth, or who moved from Village C after wife Elizabeth to Village A to marry Eliza. I'm not kidding ........... many of the families are like that!

and every family had at least 6 or 7 kids, often more.

OH has a very similar ancestral family, with the same forenames being commonly used, and a liking for wives with the same or similar forename, but who moved from one place in Lancashire to another in Yorkshire or in Westmorland.


I'm not saying you are wrong ............. I AM trying to say that you cannot do it with all surnames in all places!

brigid

brigid Report 21 May 2016 16:07

thanks for that example ..i hadn't taken your comment as a critisism

I agree common first names are a nightmare especially with large families where all the firstborn cousins take their grandparents first names .


am just pleased that there are ways to narrow fields ...for common names

off to look into some Roberts now